Well Pressure Tank Install Questions

[kf4zht]

There was a thread on here where a guy answered tons of well related questions, but I can't find it... If anyone has a link it would be appreciated.

The pressure tank for my well is dead, you can watch the pressure go up and down at the faucet, the pump has to run on and off constantly and when I checked the pressure water came out of the valve. Pretty sure it's ruptured. It is probably from when the house was built in 2003-2004 so it got decent life

Went ahead and bought a new one, should be here next week. Planning out the replacement to minimize waterless time but do it right. The biggest question I have is placement. Currently it is in the corner of my basement and I don't plan on moving it at all, but would like to move it higher up.

Water enters through the wall about 4' from the floor (still 18" underground on that side) drops down to the floor where the existing tank sits on 2 2x6s, then back up to a sediment filter and up from there to the ceiling where it runs all over the house.

Ideally I want to build a platform under the tank to reduce the lines running everywhere, make it easier to check pressure/switch and give me storage under it for filters, wrench and other ****. I wasn't sure if this would be an issue. Logic says no, but if there is a guideline that the tank should be below all of the faucets/spigots it would be an issue.

Anyone know?

 

[Bill Bowman]

You should be able to place the tank anywhere you want.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Only thing you want to be sure of is that your shelf/rack/tank-holder-upper can support the weight of the tank full of water. So that would be the tank's actual weight plus the number of gallons times 8. And before you go out thinking me and say that a bladder tank only holds a portion of the gallons it's rated at, well when the bladder dies, like the OP's just did, then it holds the full load.

 

[Slowgsr]

You should treat yourself and install a stop cycle valve

 

[kbs2244]

Your symptoms are of a water logged tank.
If you don't mind the idea of some useless rubber flapping around in the tank you can just re-charge the air bubble.
Turn off your well power.
Shut the tank off from the house.
Drain the tank.
When it is empty, turn the well back on.
The incoming water will compress the air.
When the well stops you have your pressure again.
Open the valve going to the house and you are up and going again.

The bladder type tank is a relatively new thing.
There are millions of well systems out there with just plain steel pressure tanks.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Refilling the air bubble only works for a short time without the float valve, etc that was part of the old bladderless systems. The water under pressure absorbs the air bubble and lacking the float valve to intake more air, it becomes waterlogged again, without relatively frequent recharging.

 

[kf4zht]

I know the stand will need to be a little beefy, but I've built for a lot more weight than the tank even full of water. It's only a 26 gal to match what was there.

That valve thing looks interesting but the price shocked me. I'm sure if I have to haul the pump up a couple hundred feet of pipe it will seem cheap. I'll hold off for now but look at it when I plan my replumbing project (cpvc to pex)
I thought about just trying to repressurize the old tank but given how things have been for workload recently I would rather not add something with maintenance. I did consider rigging up a valve system with both tanks so I could shut one off and drain at a time, letting me service one without turning off all the water. It would give me more emergency capacity also.

Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk

 

[kbs2244]

With a 26 gal tank and heavy usage you may have an air being absorbed issue.
But it is rarely a problem with a submerged pump.

Since you already have a new tank I would think about putting it in series with the old.
That will give you extra storage..
More tank volume will let the water sit for a while and any entrained air will float out.
It will also let your pump run fewer, longer times, which is a good thing.

 

[larry_g]

Went ahead and bought a new one, should be here next week.

Anyone know?

In the mean time I would recharge the air into the tank and it will be fine for a time, weeks, until the new one gets installed. I ran bladderless tanks at the old house for 30 years and only had to recharge them 2-3 times per year.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[kf4zht]

An update on this-

Did the job this past weekend. The old system was pretty bad off. I removed the plugs to drain it and very little came out. Cut the lines and it sprayed everywhere. The T connector coming out of the tank was so clogged up you could barely fit a pencil through it. All of that was replaced with copper and additional valving so I can drain and adjust the tank without draining the entire system. It is also plumbed to add a second tank later if I want.

After the job and flushing the lines everything is 100x better. Pressure is steady, flow is much higher (can run 4 faucets at the same time) and the pump is running a lot less.