tank problem

I have a well mate tank hooked up to my home water system...This morning had hardly no water pressure, the pump was running but sounded like it was not pumping as usual...Finally stopped pumping all together..Reprimed it and worked good for a few minutes but lost all pressure again..Now with no pressure I checked the pressure in wel mate tank (model wm-6) and there was no pressure in it...Tried pumping it back up to 28 psi but could not get any air in it, could this be the problem...Is the tank ruptured you think or what....Thanks to you for any help...Oren

It sounds as if you have two problems. A broken bladder doesn't cause a loss of prime. I assume you have an above ground jet pump, becasue submersible pumps aren't primed. So your foot valve or the plumbing between the pump and the foot valve in the well is leaking; causing the loss of prime.

The bladder should hold pressure and since it doesn't, the bladder or tank needs to be replaced. The bladder in the WellMate tanks is replaceable BUT, you'll do it once and never want to do it again.....

Gary
Quality Water Associates

tank

If no water came out of the valve when you tested for air, the bladder is probably not ruptured. And you cannot add air to the tank until you turn off the pump and drain all the water out of the tank.

I recently had to replace a tank where the metal shell leaked on the air side of the diaphragm. The leak was down near the inlet and was difficult to find.

The effect was zero pressure on the air side but full pump pressure on the water side. However, the pump cycling was the same as if the bladder had failed.

hj said:

If no water came out of the valve when you tested for air, the bladder is probably not ruptured. And you cannot add air to the tank until you turn off the pump and drain all the water out of the tank.

Click to expand...

HJ, a WellMate tank has a bag in it and the water fills it. And the WM-6 is a pretty large tank. The air is around and above the bag. He said he had no water pressure, no air pressure in the tank and then couldn't build any pressure in the tank when he tried. With a jet pump and a bad foot valve, and the tank tee drain open or closed, the air went down the well drop pipe and out the foot valve or, out the open tank drain valve. The bladder/bag is busted.

Many bad bladders don't cause water when you check the air pressure. It takes quite a bit of time (months) for the water above a broken baldder to be absorbed into the water and if you check the air presure before all the air is absorbed, you won't get water out the Schrader valve. But if you rock the tank sideways and feel and listen for sloshing, you can identify those tanks with a broken bladder and no water when you check for air anddon't get water.

Gary
Quality Water Associates