Well Pressure Tank Question....Not boiler related!

[bpirger]

A qucik question. I notice my well pressure tank is starting to short cycle like never before. I assume this is telling me that the tank isn't happy. It has the expanding "bag" inside. Air pressure in the tank appears to be the same as it has been set originally, 30PSI.

Short cycling my pump 175' down is a concern....and it seems to be getting worse.

Is it time to replace the tank? It's 10 years old....I think of that as new....but I've never replaced one before.

Thanks!

 

[Jim K in PA]

Where are you measuring the tank pressure? If at the gage on the front, that does not reflect the pre-charge above the bladder. There is a schrader valve on top that allows you to check the pre-charge air pressure. I bet you get water out of it. The bladder is toast, so time for a new tank.

IMO - get the largest one you can fit in the space you have. Taller/wider/both. More capacity reduces pump cycles, which extends pump life.

 

[ewdudley]

A qucik question. I notice my well pressure tank is starting to short cycle like never before. I assume this is telling me that the tank isn't happy. It has the expanding "bag" inside. Air pressure in the tank appears to be the same as it has been set originally, 30PSI.

Short cycling my pump 175' down is a concern....and it seems to be getting worse.

Is it time to replace the tank? It's 10 years old....I think of that as new....but I've never replaced one before.

Just went through the same thing with my 17-year-old tank. It was short-cycling and it was a little confusing because the system had captured some air below the bladder.

Check the instruction sheet that came with the tank of course, but here are some things you can check:

Remove the Schrader valve guts and see if any water has migrated into the bladder.

Then isolate the tank from the supply and drain off all pressure. Charge the tank to a pressure a little below the pump cut-in pressure. Soap the Schrader valve to see if it leaks. Wait a few hours with outlet open to see if any air pressure bleeds across the bladder to the water side.

If water had not come into the bladder and if air does not exit the bladder, then you're good to go for a few more years.

[Also for deep well water columns maybe look into the new ECM constant-pressure variable-speed pumps. They start gradually and don't attempt to accelerate the mass of the entire column of water all at once.]

--ewd

 

[bpirger]

Thanks guys. I'm talking about the pressure on the schrader valve....not the water pressure "in front of" the tank. Now that it is very humid, if the tank was filled with water, I'd think the whole tank would be rather cool and condensing....not just the bottom section (when the water runs consistently enough, it will get wet). But I can remove the valve entirely and see what I see. Yeah, when I built the house I used what was recommended to me, but I wish I had a bigger tank.

 

[ewdudley]

Thanks guys. I'm talking about the pressure on the schrader valve....not the water pressure "in front of" the tank.

I don't think you can see the pre-charge pressure until the pump is turned-off or isolated from the tank and then the pressure is dumped from the water side.

 

[cheapsx]

I believe that with zero water pressure in the tank(drained) the bladder air pressure (at the Schroeder valve) should be set 2-3 psi below your low pressure cut in setting.If you run a 20 - 40 switch then the bladder is set to 18 psi for example. Chances are either the bladder is shot or all the air leaked out of the bladder side. The pump short cycles because there is no air cushion to fill. Mine was. Also I replaced with a bigger one but my first one was minimum size for the well.

 

[bpirger]

Thanks to all....I will have to look at this again with some new thoguhts. The pump doesn't run when I'm not drawing water, so I know the line itself is all OK. I didn't remove all the pressure when I looked at the schrader valve pressure....I watched it cycle through the pump on/off cycle...but yeah, duh, seems like I need to shut off the pump and drain some water to remove the pressure...then measure what the air pressure is. Thanks again to all!

 

[flyingcow]

Good advice these guys gave you. I'll also chime in if you need to replace the expansion tank, put a bigger one in thee, if possible. I did, works very well. My well is 180ft deep also.

 

[Medman]

I also had this problem, but in my case it ended up that the pressure switch was faulty. I replaced switch, pump (49 yrs old) and tank at the same time and I have had no problem since.

 

[bpirger]

As a follow up....hopefully I'm not posting too soon....the air in the tank was gone. I drained the water, measured the air pressure on the schrader valve, nothing there! So I put it back to 30PSI, pump cuts on about 32-33, and it seems fine now. Of course, where did the air go? Watching the water pressure guage, it stays put when it should. If I have a leak in the bladder I'd think it would drop until the bladder was filled with water. Obviously I will keep an eye on it.

I wasn't able to get the schrader valve out....doesn't seem to want to fit a socket. 5/8 is too big an 9/16 is too small. 19/32? Maybe....but I don't have one.

Thanks for all your help! Will keep an eye on things. Now that I have the woodshed filled, about 11 "big" cords (22-24" long) are drying nicely, I can look at working on the house again. Plan to fell and skid in some more logs as the mood hits and weather permits. My woodshed is filled (16x16 stacked to about 8') but I think the Garn will likely eat nearly 3/4 of that this year. Need another woodshed.

THANKS!