Pressure tanks in well house filled with water?

[dcyrilc]

Lately when I've been at the farm and working near the well house, I've noticed that the booster pump was kicking on for 1-2 seconds every minute or so. We have a couple of faucets which drip.

I dug into it today to figure out and fix the problem before the pump burns out and found that all three 100 gallon pressure tanks were filled to the top with water. I'm guessing that there was only a 1-2 inch air pocket which means that I've basically been running straight off the pump rather than from the tanks.

I shut down the system and drained the tanks back to empty again and restarted everything. Took about 15 minutes to repressurize the system. Everything seems to be working normally now.

Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this? This setup has been running for about 10 years now and has never leaked a drop of water in the well house. At least not since I first plumbed it and took care of the initial leaks when I built it. It definately has me scratching my head.

 

[whistlepig]

Lately when I've been at the farm and working near the well house, I've noticed that the booster pump was kicking on for 1-2 seconds every minute or so. We have a couple of faucets which drip.

I dug into it today to figure out and fix the problem before the pump burns out and found that all three 100 gallon pressure tanks were filled to the top with water. I'm guessing that there was only a 1-2 inch air pocket which means that I've basically been running straight off the pump rather than from the tanks.

I shut down the system and drained the tanks back to empty again and restarted everything. Took about 15 minutes to repressurize the system. Everything seems to be working normally now.

Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this? This setup has been running for about 10 years now and has never leaked a drop of water in the well house. At least not since I first plumbed it and took care of the initial leaks when I built it. It definately has me scratching my head.

Your air bladders need air. The tanks are water logged.

 

[dcyrilc]

Your air bladders need air. The tanks are water logged.

These aren't bladder tanks. Double walled steel tanks which can be used as pressure tanks or for saturation time as thru tanks. 100 gallon verticle tanks with a port on top and bottom. For saturation tanks you plumb in the bottom and out the top or for pressure tanks you plug the top and feed in and out at the bottom.

 

[dex3361]

Its possible you have a small air leak in the system and it water logged over a long period of time. I also thought on this type of system that you had to periodically had to add air to the tanks as the air was carried out a small amount at a time with the water. Does it have an air compressor that will add add air if the water gets to high in the tanks?

 

[arrabil]

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

Good info here.

 

[dcyrilc]

Its possible you have a small air leak in the system and it water logged over a long period of time. I also thought on this type of system that you had to periodically had to add air to the tanks as the air was carried out a small amount at a time with the water. Does it have an air compressor that will add add air if the water gets to high in the tanks?

No air fitting. I might have to consider adding that. I was thinking the same as you about a very slight leak (100 gallons in 10 years?), but I found the explaination with a short google search. Here is a short section of the article I found which explains what happened.

A pressure tank can be as simple as a big metal chamber with one hole in the bottom for water to flow into. As the pump pushes water in, the air in the tank is compressed. At some point, called the cut-out pressure, a switch interrupts the power to the pump and no more water enters the tank. Since there is compressed air above the water, there is enough force acting on the liquid to push it out of the tank, through the pipes, and all the way upstairs (possibly several flights of stairs) to the faucet.

But... there is a flaw with this simple design. Air can be dissolved in water, believe it or not. Eventually a simple tank with compressed air above the water will experience a loss of this compressed air. So the air space above the water gets smaller day by day. What you notice is that the pump will run for very short periods, perhaps 5 or 10 seconds, and do this frequently whenever water is being drawn.

I was unaware of this phenominum. The article goes on to explain why bladder tanks are better than a Steel tank as the air is kept seperate from the water by the rubber bladder so that this cannot happen.

 

[Willl]

Sounds like the same setup I had before going to a bladder.

Does the tank have a strange looking valve like this ?

 

[dex3361]

No air fitting. I might have to consider adding that. I was thinking the same as you about a very slight leak (100 gallons in 10 years?), but I found the explaination with a short google search. Here is a short section of the article I found which explains what happened.

A pressure tank can be as simple as a big metal chamber with one hole in the bottom for water to flow into. As the pump pushes water in, the air in the tank is compressed. At some point, called the cut-out pressure, a switch interrupts the power to the pump and no more water enters the tank. Since there is compressed air above the water, there is enough force acting on the liquid to push it out of the tank, through the pipes, and all the way upstairs (possibly several flights of stairs) to the faucet.

But... there is a flaw with this simple design. Air can be dissolved in water, believe it or not. Eventually a simple tank with compressed air above the water will experience a loss of this compressed air. So the air space above the water gets smaller day by day. What you notice is that the pump will run for very short periods, perhaps 5 or 10 seconds, and do this frequently whenever water is being drawn.

I was unaware of this phenominum. The article goes on to explain why bladder tanks are better than a Steel tank as the air is kept seperate from the water by the rubber bladder so that this cannot happen.

If you could put a site glass on them that would work well to monitor the water level.

 

[Jimbrown]

All non bladder type tanks will lose their air buffer over time the simple fix is to just to drain them every six on months or so and this will automatically refill the buffer.

 

[dcyrilc]

Sounds like the same setup I had before going to a bladder.

Does the tank have a strange looking valve like this ?

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