Well question.... Replacing a pressure tank.

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
Hi folks,
I have a basic understanding of well systems but I've never owned one so it's not something I've had to deal with very much. My sister in law just posted on FB that their "pump is out". She was asking her friends if they knew of any plumbers that might be able to do the job on a Sunday.

I asked her to post a picture of it. She posted a picture of her pressure tank. Another of her friends commented that their system goes through them fairly regularly. Is that normally the case? If so, I'm assuming that it's no big deal to replace the pressure tank and that the pump is probably still OK.

It looks like Home Depot carries them and if I can get one the same size, it will probably have instructions on installing it. I've done a LOT of plumbing over the the years and can replace a water heater in my sleep, but I've never dealt with a pressure tank. Are they pretty easy or a pain?

If they're not a big deal, I'll cancel what I had planned for tomorrow and go put in a new one for them. I'm in Rochester but they live in Fenton so it's a bit of a drive but not that big of a deal.

Thanks in advance for any input!

John
 
Putting in a pressure tank is no big deal. If I can do the plumbing on it, I bet you can. But you need to be sure that that is the problem. Diagnosing between the pump and the tank requires more knowledge than I have, but I've had them both go [separately]. When the tank goes, the pump keeps turning on. But when the pump is bad, well, it sometimes still turns on briefly.
 
Yeah that's kind of what I thought. They live about 40 miles from me but they have a Home Depot about 3 miles from their house. I think I'll go up there in the morning and check the pressure switch and see if I can figure out what's going on. If it is the tank, I'm sure I'll be able to switch it out with no problem.

Thanks!
 
I'll give her a call in the morning and talk to her. I just read one of her comments and it says "the water has been pulsing for a couple months, now it's ticking". It sounds like they've got no water at all at this point because she said she's got a few buckets of water for flushing.

Sounds like it might just be a pressure switch possibly.
 
Several things it could be. Maybe waterlogged. You will need a source of air. Could be tank, they have rubber bladders inside that keeps them from getting waterlogged. Well could be dry. Check valve could be bad and pump is loosing prime. Pressure switch could be bad not letting the pump to operate. Might be a circuit breaker in electrical panel. Good luck they aren't to complicated, you should be able to find the problem pretty quick.
 
If it's the bladder type of tank, check the valve stem on top of your tank, if it sprays water when you push it in then you got a busted bladder. The tank usually holds about 20 psi when it's working properly, so if no water coming out, make sure it's around that.
 
My well problem recently turned out to be fixed with a pressure switch adjustment. I didn't even open the well house door! Landlord sent a well guy. He was here 10 minutes tops.
 
Thank you all for the input!

Darren, that's PERFECT. I'm not sure because I haven't talked to her yet, but it sounds like she may have gotten it working. I saw a message last night on FB that makes it sound like she got a tip from someone else on FB and it's working. But the way I see it, she said that the water has been "pulsing" for a couple months. I'll give her a call in a little while and see what's up. Whatever she did may just be a band aid and the problem still exists. I may print out that PDF and take it with me and go up there and see what's happening.

Take care all!

John
 
If the pump wasn't working, sounds like it may have been sucking wind and the breaker needed resetting. That used to happen pretty frequently here, but out well guy managed to drop the pump another 20' down the casing for us.

We had our pressure tank replaced once because the bladder had ruptured and water was on both sides of the bladder and had pretty much filled up the entire tank. Symptoms were crud coming out of the tank, weak pressure, pump running too much, etc...

Getting the tank out was an issue because it is installed in a closet in the house. Had to poke holes in the side and drain it into buckets to get the water out before we could remove the tank.
 
I had my tank replaced about a year ago. Had it done but mechanically not a difficult job. Getting the internal pressure correct is a critical step. All previous advice looks excellent. I'm going to look at that page Darren put up.
 
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