Topic: Is my pressure tank bad?

Can someone verify that my tank is bad with these symptoms:

1. Noticed significant loss in water pressure in my house. I have a submersible jet pump water well at around 110 ft. My pressure tank is a 30 gallon Well mate.

2. I went down to pressure tank and noticed that water from pump shuts off at 50 lbs which it is set at. However, when a faucet is opened, it immediately drops close to 30 lbs pressure within seconds of opening that faucet. It will continue to lose pressure and go to zero until water is no longer needed. It will then fill back up to 50 lbs and shut off.

3. I hit side of fiberglass tank and noticed it sounds full of water clear to very top of tank. In other words. appears to be water logged. I assumed this meant the bladder was most likely ruptured.

4. Is this a correct assumption or am I way off base as I have no experience in this field of water well and pressure tank problems?

5. One last question. Is it possible to put a filter at the very incoming water line coming into house to catch all debris or will this create more problems than what it is worth? I currently have a softener and iron filter hooked up to water line after pressure tank.

6. The pressure tank in question was put in a new install with new well when house was built about 18  years ago. I would think this has outlived its life expectancy by leaps and bounds. Any recommendations on new brand of tank to put in with iron as main problem?

Thanks in advance and will get back to you all on recommendations for new pump as I expect pump to go out any time and want to be ready to replace myself with size recommendations and best type possible. Will let all know what is in there currently when I find out.

Thanks again and appreciate any comments to helping me learn more about these issues.

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

Speedbump,

thank you so much for responding back as this is new territory for me that I have never messed with but am now since I am retired have much more time and truly appreciate all your knowledge and expertise in helping me with these questions as I have never done any of this before.

Installed new pressure tank last night and was not happy with what this water in tank looked like. Disgusting, dirty, muddy, much sediment. I bet most, if not all of this tank water was like this.

I put new tank in with old switch, as I ordered a new switch and it didn't come in yet. 40-60. Have to readjust pressure tank as old switch I am using now is 30-50 and I messed with it on the settings. Now its really screwed up but I got water.

when I replace new switch, does tank have to be emptied again? Do I pump up tank to 38 with a 40-60 tank when water is emptied out?

My initial thoughts are is that pump is not good after running water out of new pressure tank and watching how long it took to go from 40 to 60 and shut off. It went very slowly through that pressure and I initially thought it stopped at 40 so I adjusted screw, so maybe that is why it took so long. Still working but still not good water pressure but will know more after new switch is put in and pressure tank is set correctly.  As I said will repost back tonight or tomorrow on how this is turning off and turning on and pressure  I am getting out of faucet. My faucet water is clear by the way.

Is there any way to prevent this buildup in pressure tank of this much mud and sediment and iron? How often should this be cleaned out, and what is best way to do it? I cannot let this ever happen again and did not realize it was this bad. Over 18 years and probably only emptied once is not good by any standards and I did not know better but do now and will take all necessary care to do this.

Should pump be taken out and looked out for buildup of same stuff around it when weather gets nice?  I suppose this pump may need replaced sooner than later as it has reached now 18 years, and best to replace before no water at all. I no doubt put some serious stress in the pump by running it with a bad pressure tank but did not realize water would still run without pressure tank use. I want best submersible pump for my issues of my well, which is a lot of sediment, iron. I will post another question about this later, if pump allows, as pressure tank is main issue right now and getting it to work correctly at the new 40-60 switch I am putting in. I had already bought a pressure tank prior to posting here but will look at link in future. I got an Amtrol 203PA model.  I hope it is a good one.

Is replacing a submersible pump very hard? I was a carpenter all my life, built new homes as a contractor so I never had time to even know about this until now. I can see that everyone takes shortcuts. This pressure tank replacement was not as easy as it should have been as everything was connected without any slip fittings for easy removal. I had to literally cut it out and almost ruined the manifold threads in doing so. I did install a slip fitting so any further issues is only a simple removal of one nut to take out. 

Will repost later for final outcome and possible more help if not working correctly as new switch and proper pressure on last two things to do and see outcome. Hope it works OK after this.

4 (edited by Speedbump 2015-02-18 11:20:52)

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

When installing a tank (if it's a bladder tank) the tanks air pressure should be two pounds less than the pressure switches turn on pressure.

Be careful with slip fittings, they can slip off and do some serious flooding damage.

I wouldn't mess with the pump until it  goes out.  You will need to know what to replace it with and you won't know that until you pull it out.  You may have to measure the water level if you can't read the label on the pump.

Don't let the mud and crud bother you.  That's normal and is nothing that can hurt you.  If it was, I would have never lived this long.

Amtrol is a good tank as long as it didn't come from a big box store.

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

speedbump,

Installed new pressure switch today and new pressure gauge. I bought two switches. One is 30-50.other is 40-60. Installed 40-60 and readjusted pressure in tank. When refilling back up, I noticed again at about 40 psi the gauge moved very slowly to reach the 60 cut off. I listened to water coming in line off pump and it seemed to not be coming in strong, although I really don't know for sure, but it did take a good 5 to 10 minutes to go from 40 to 60. I don't know what this means, but would like to know what you think at this point. My best guess, and that is what it is, is I should put 30-50 in to put less strain on the pump as something is not right, unless this is normal. You will have to tell me as I do not know. I figure I will have to readjust pressure again and leave it at 30-50 until good weather and call person up who drilled the well. Everything has been replaced with accurate gauges, new pressure tank, and this is what I came up with. Not what I was hoping, but appreciate what you think.

By the way, it was not a slip joint I put in but a union. I called it a slip joint as it kind of just "slipped" in. Told you I don't know anything here.

thanks as I appreciate your response and best guess at what the issue may be. Should the 30-50 be put in the take any of this strain of getting to 60 off the pump or is this normal to stay on this long? And I did  readjust pressure in tank to 38. It gets to 40 real fast than kind of like stops moving, but does move very slowly if you watch it. Is this normal or not? As I said, everything is set right up top and all is new now.

6 (edited by Speedbump 2015-02-21 11:09:22)

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

The reason your pressure goes to 40 real fast is because of the air pressure in the tank pushing the bladder down.  The tank can't take in water until the pump overcomes that 38 psi.  five to ten minutes is quite a long time for a submersible pump to fill a tank.

If you could undo the line from the well and run it wide open, you could see how much water is coming from the pump and/or if the pump is pulling the water in the well down to the pumps inlet.  This condition would make the water come out then quit and would just keep doing this if the well is not keeping up with the pump.  You could still have a hole or two in the drop pipe.  No way of telling that if you have a check valve up top.

Can you post some pictures?

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

Here's some photos of what I have done. Replaced just about everything that needed replaced. I have some closeups of that old check valve that I took off. You see the gauge at 30 and my wife is using the water. It just stays there. Can use water all you want but it will not go above 30 when using water once it gets to that point and I assume pump is running all this time and reason for higher electric bills that we noticed. Hard to get off barb from connection at check valve, but I can take it off again and run pump directly out that black poly line into drain if need be. Thanks speedbump for responding.

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

here's some more.

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Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

and another

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10 (edited by greg30 2015-02-21 14:15:05)

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

and another

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11 (edited by greg30 2015-02-21 14:18:12)

Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

and another. can't figure out why I can't upload more than one at a time. Won't let me do it.

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Re: Is my pressure tank bad?

If you want to see if you have holes in the pipe down the well, you have to remove that check valve all together.