Diaphragm tank pressure problem

I am desperate. I've been without water for weeks. I finally figured out that my well 'control box' was bad, and I managed to put a new one in. I checked, and the diaphragm switch is at the proper voltage. My problem is that while I have some water now, there is no pressure in my tank. There is nothing wrong with the tank. Shouldn't it automatically pressurize now that the power is back on? I'm at my wits end. How do I repressurize the tank?

PLEASE help!

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ronda smith said:

I am desperate. I've been without water for weeks. I finally figured out that my well 'control box' was bad, and I managed to put a new one in. I checked, and the diaphragm switch is at the proper voltage. My problem is that while I have some water now, there is no pressure in my tank. There is nothing wrong with the tank. Shouldn't it automatically pressurize now that the power is back on? I'm at my wits end. How do I repressurize the tank?

PLEASE help!

Click to expand...

You mentioned that you are getting some water now. Is your well pump back up and running? You really don’t have to re-pressure the bladder tank, (if everything is set correctly) it will fill itself up. You may have to drain the pressure in the system and check the air pressure in the top of the bladder tank. It should be 2 to 3 pounds lower then the turn on pressure setting of the pressure switch. Do you hear the pressure switch contacts closing and opening as you are using water?

Mike

How much pressure are we talking here? If it's normal than the gauge on your tank is probably bad. If it's way low then there is another issue other than the tank and it's probably with the pump itself. Did your control box go bad because of a lightning strike?

The pressure tank isn't coming back on at all. The well is back up and running, and I'm getting water in the pipes, but the pressure tank appears to be not functioning now. I thought when I fixed the control box, the tank would come back on, because prior to the control box completely fizzing, the pressure tank was holding pressure just fine
Should I use a compressor to put pressure back in the tank (to 38 pounds) and see what happens?
Could the problem have been the pressure tank from the beginning, and it somehow burned out the control box? (I know the control box was bad, I had it looked at). Mike, how do I drain the pressure out? There doesn't appear to be any pressure in the tank as it is....

We haven't had lightening

If your pressure tank is a bladder type tank and the bladder is intact then the pressure in the tank needs to be 2lbs less than the pump cut in pressure. This adjustment needs to be done with the pump off and the system drained of pressure. If after shutting the pump off and draining the pressure, the tank is still heavy and full of water the bladder is bad and the tank needs to be replaced. If you have a tank without a bladder the system needs to be drained, closed and pressure to 2lbs below cut in pressure needs to be pumped into the tank.

ronda smith said:

The pressure tank isn't coming back on at all. The well is back up and running, and I'm getting water in the pipes, but the pressure tank appears to be not functioning now. I thought when I fixed the control box, the tank would come back on, because prior to the control box completely fizzing, the pressure tank was holding pressure just fine
Should I use a compressor to put pressure back in the tank (to 38 pounds) and see what happens?
Could the problem have been the pressure tank from the beginning, and it somehow burned out the control box? (I know the control box was bad, I had it looked at). Mike, how do I drain the pressure out? There doesn't appear to be any pressure in the tank as it is....

We haven't had lightening

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When talking about draining the pressure, (prior to checking the bladder tank) we are talking about draining any water pressure out of the line that leads to the bladder tank…not draining the pressure in the bladder tank itself. When checking the bladder tank, there must be no WATER PRESSURE pushing on the bladder tank. So just shut off your pump, (like at the breaker) and drain the water pressure out of your water pipes. I have a hose bib just next to my bladder tank that I open up. When you are sure that is no water pressure in your pipes, then you can check the pressure in the tank, and make sure it is holding air pressure, (in the top of the tank valve stem). You can just use a tire gauge to check this.
Your problem may not be that you have a bad bladder tank, but that is a good place to start, when you are having problems, and it the pressure in the tank should be checked once a year or so anyways. If you are still having problems checking the bladder tank, I can give you my phone number, (in a private message) and I can talk you through it. I have free minutes on the weekend.

Mike

We are now not getting water. When the breaker is turned on for the well pump, the new control panel makes a 'bzzz' sound, like it is sending a signal. It cuts out then, then half a minute to a minute later it does another one, and then cuts off, then does another one. (it is a bzzz sound that lasts about 3 seconds). It does this approximately 3 times. No water sounds like it is coming into the pipes.
Before this whole thing happened, we turned the system on after it had been turned off. A rush of water came in, and the pressure on the tank went up to about 30 pounds. Then it started shorting. We got scared and clicked it off, and an inch of flame shot out of the side of the breaker. We replaced the breaker, and we replaced the control box. The place where we took the old control box said the cylinder was badly corroded.

We know that the pump is working (we had a pump compnay out and they said the pump was working properly- when hooked up to an external energy source). The guy also said that the black and red wires were 'touching' (this was before we got a new control box). We don't want to have that company come back out because they charge and arm and a leg.

Mike if I haven't figured this out by the weekend, a call would be great Thank you

Rhonda, the pump makes pressure, the tank just stores it. The tank (probably) has a rubber bladder that has air on one side, and water on the other. When the pump runs, water under pressure from the pump pushes against the rubber bladder and compresses the air in there - storing water. If that bladder is broken, the tank will fill with water. Since water doesn't compress, and the pump comes on, it will almost instantly detect that the pressure is sufficient and it will shut off. This constant on/off will ruin the pump and wear on the control box's contacts as well.

So, you need to get a tire air pressure gauge and check the bladder (pressure) tank. As noted, to do this and set it properly, the pump must be off, and you need to open up a faucet or valve until no water runs (this will remove any pressure on the water, and you can check the pressure in what amounts to a balloon of air in the tank). If that pressure is too high, or too low, you'll have problems. If the bladder is broken (i.e., the tank is full of water or if you notice you get water out of the valve when you go to try to check the air pressure), the tank needs to be replaced. If the air pressure is too low, you need to pump some in with a compressor or bicycle pump (it could take awhile - you need a fair amount of air in there!). If someone put too much air in there, the pump won' tbe able to compress it and there'd be no place for the water to go - the pressure will spike to max almost instantly.

If the tank, pump, and controls are working right, the pump will turn on, push water into the tank, compressing the air, until the pressure reaches the high shut-off pressure. Then the pump will turn off. As you use water, it's the air in the tank that is pushing it out - you're using the stored energy put in there by the pump. When the pressure gets low, the control box turns the pump back on to refill the tank.

The diaphragm tank is empty. NO water. There was only 20 pounds of pressure in it, so we pumped it up to 38 pounds. Still nothing. There is no water coming into the house at all.
Is it possible it's the diaphragm switch? The only other thing it could be is a break in the electric line between the pump and the house, isn't it? Oh I hope it isn't that, we are on 11 acres, and that line is LONG.

From everything I've read here, I'd bet the farm that the pump has bought the farm. Either that or you have a broken wire between the house and the pump.

Just a thought ... does your diapham have a low pressure switch on it? You will know because there is a little lever on it. If so, you need to hold it down until you have about 20lbs on the gage and then you can release it, otherwise, the pump will not run. I cannot explain the buzzing noise.

99k said:

Just a thought ... does your diapham have a low pressure switch on it? You will know because there is a little lever on it. If so, you need to hold it down until you have about 20lbs on the gage and then you can release it, otherwise, the pump will not run. I cannot explain the buzzing noise.

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There isn't a lever

The pump is functional. I know this because it was hooked up to external power and it worked perfectly.

So the only thing left is to lay new electric wire from the house to the well? GAH!

pump

So far it does not seem you have determined the real cause of your problem and are guessing at the solution. Find out EXACTLY what is wrong and then fix that before you start spending time and money guessing at repairs.

Don't guess!

HJ is so, so right. Do you know anyone that knows how to use a volt meter? If you think it is an electrical problem, you need to start at your breaker panel, (with a volt meter) and track it down to where you loose power…be it at the control box or the pressure switch, or at the well itself. But like HJ said, you can spend a lot of money and time guessing, and in a well system, everything cost a lot of money. Find someone that knows how to use a volt meter, and maybe we can talk you through checking the system. There is a way that you can force the contacts closed in the pressure switch, but it's a little dangerous, (because there is 240 volts there) so it would be good if you could find someone that know about electricity before doing anything like that.
By any chance could you have gotten water in side of your new control box, (like if it rained after you put on the new control box). I had a neighbor that rain water got a small amount of water in the control box and his system shut down.


Mike

You should be able to get a good idea of the state of the supply line to the pump motor with a multimeter (which are cheap), but you need to know how to use one. It's not particularly hard, but is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

With the power off, using a multimeter on Ohms (resistance) you should get a fairly small number (maybe 10 ohms - I'm guessing here - the spec sheet for the motor should say, then you'd have some resistance in the wire, depending on how long and what gauge it is) measuring between the two power leads going to the pump. If the value is very high, then the line is likely open (broken or disconnected). If it is a direct short (zero), it would or at least should have tripped the circuit breaker.

A week without water?
Maybe it's time...
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