Pressure tanks in well house filled with water?

[Larry Caldwell]

Nope. Just a 1-1/4" white PVC plug in the top.

Replace it with an air fitting so you can charge the tank with a compressor. The most efficient use of the tank is to pressurize it to 2 psi below the pump cut-in pressure. That gives you the most tidal volume per pump cycle.

With no tank bladder, it's hard to overdo. Any excess air will just bubble out through the plumbing.

 

[jinman]

My system has the air volume valve on the side of the tank and the "snifter".
The snifter is simply a schrader valve so that when the pump shuts off it acts as an air check valve, as the water column falls back down the pipe it draws air in through the snifter/schrader to push a new slug of air into the tank with each cycle. Excess air is released by the float valve on the side of the tank.

Skyco and Willl, that is exactly how my well works. That column of air supplied by the snifter inside the well pipe gets pushed into the tank at each pump cycle. When the air at the top of the tank exceeds the set level, the float valve drains it off so that water always fills to the same level. If I'm watering the yard and using a lot of water, but not enough to keep the pump from cycling, that snifter and the bleed valve get a workout. I try to run four sprinklers at once so the pressure never goes above 45 psi and the pump never shuts off.

Turnkey4099, my snifter and bleed valve have never failed in the 11 years my well has been in use. I would say this is a very reliable setup. What I did have fail was the pressure gage that sits on top of the air bleed valve. it's inlet tube filled up with crud. I recently had to take the float fitting out and clean the pinhole plus replace the pressure gage. That's the only failure I've ever had with this system.

 

[LBrown59]

Tanks that don't have bladders need to be pressurized periodically.

Good info here.

I had 2 wells and 2 tanks here for years and occasionally had to put air in the them when they became water logged.

 

[TheGoose]

Your tanks are waterlogged, but you already knew that. Well service people make more money on water logged tanks than you can imagine. Waterlogged results in lots of burned up pumps, switches, etc.

Since you went ten plus years with no trouble I would just check it every 3-4 months and make sure there is still a good head of air. No need for anything fancy yet.

 

[dcyrilc]

Your tanks are waterlogged, but you already knew that. Well service people make more money on water logged tanks than you can imagine. Waterlogged results in lots of burned up pumps, switches, etc.

Since you went ten plus years with no trouble I would just check it every 3-4 months and make sure there is still a good head of air. No need for anything fancy yet.

Yep. Like everything...there's a learning curve.

For those who are interested, here are a couple of pix of the tanks.

 

[Redgoatea]

I guess this is my reminder to winterize my pump house. Come to think of it I assumed my tank was a bladder since all my previous ones were. Guess I should go check that out too. 7

 

[ayelvington]

I use non-bladder tanks without a problem. I recommend that you replace the PVC plugs on top with a tapped plug that will let you install a Schraeder valve. Pressurize the tanks to 15 PSI before you start the pump and you'll have an honest pressure reserve in the tank. I'm sure you'll have to bleed the tank now and then, but putting the 15 PSI in first really helps keep that to a minimum.

 

[jimoq]

This was once a common problem, before bladders. As another poster said, just drain the tank periodically unless you want to spend a buncha bucks just for the fun of it.

 

[TheGoose]

Are you sure they aren't bladder tanks? Those *look* like bladder tanks.

 

[Skyco]

my snifter and bleed valve have never failed in the 11 years my well has been in use. I would say this is a very reliable setup. .

I'm not so fortunate..my bleed valve fails every two years or so...I have very acidic water and it just eats them up. The little core in the valve starts leaking from corrosion. Nope it isn't a "normal replacement" part I can find anywhere..about $25 and I'm good for 2 more years. I do have an acid neutralizer tank after the storage tank..in hindsight maybe it should have gone before the storage tank. But then I couldn't tap off water to 2 of the 3 outsaide faucets without treating it ($$). One faucet is treated at the driveway for car washing etc.

BTW the acid neutralizing system is supposed to use a mineral thats about $100 for a cubic foot...through some reearch I found crushed marble works just about as well for about 10% of the cost.