How difficult should it be to add air to bladder tank?

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david633

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Just non-plumbing homeowner here trying to adjust my water pressure tank. I have a well and a gould diaphragm tank for water pressure. Had been noticing a gradual loss of water pressure in the shower when toilets are flushed and made it worse the other day when I added a new bag of 80/20 mix to the neutralizer. So now the pressure drops even more so. Checked the gould tank which is currently set for 67 psi with a cut in at 45 psi. The air pressure in the tank was 32 psi. So reading that it needs to be 2 psi under the cut in, I flipped off the power, drained the tank to zero pressure and tried to use a bicycle pump to increase the air pressure from 32 to 43 psi. Naturally, the tank sits under my basement stair well, so I'm kneeling and hunched over trying to use a bike pump attached to a nozzle at the top of the tank . . . best I can do is put the pump on the wall and lean into it to pump it. After 60 difficult pumps, got it up to 35 psi and needed a rest. Can't tell if it's just my bike pump not working well, or if the bladder is far more rigid than I expected, but is it normally pretty difficult to inflate that thing? I'm concerned that if I keep working at it that I might damage the bladder . . . if not my contorted body :)
 

JohnjH2o1

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I would say your body will suffer long before you do damage to the bladder. I'd be looking for someone to loan me a compressor.

John
 

DonL

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Buy a cheap oil-less 12V compressor at WM for $20 and run it from your Cig lighter.

Or spring for $40 and get the one with the built in battery.
 

Jastori

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You wont damage the bladder unless / until you significantly exceed the target pressure. A good bicycle pump should be able to exceed 100 psi with no trouble at all. The strokes should not be 'difficult' at 35 psi - it should be fairly low resistance at that pressure. If there is a lot of resistance, it is likely that your bike pump is not working well. It is a low volume pump, however, so it will take a long time (many strokes). I've pumped up car tires with a bike pump in an emergency, and it is tiring due to the number of strokes needed.
 

Jadnashua

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The volume of your tank's bladder is MUCH bigger than a bicycle tire, so it'll take lots of strokes.
 

LLigetfa

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The volume of your tank's bladder is MUCH bigger than a bicycle tire, so it'll take lots of strokes.

Ja, tell me about it. Growing up on the farm, a bicycle pump was all we had. Try pumping up farm implement and tractor tires with one.

We had an old piston pump with galvanized tank under the stair landing. The AVC on it didn't work and I still remember pumping air into the tank just as the OP described. That was 50 years ago. I have a compressor now.
 

hj

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You also have to be sure to have a faucet open in case all the water has not drained from the tank. If the pump is not turned off and the water drained, the air pressure in the tank will be the same as the water pressure in the system.
 

Ballvalve

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Just non-plumbing homeowner here trying to adjust my water pressure tank. I have a well and a gould diaphragm tank for water pressure. Had been noticing a gradual loss of water pressure in the shower when toilets are flushed and made it worse the other day when I added a new bag of 80/20 mix to the neutralizer. So now the pressure drops even more so. Checked the gould tank which is currently set for 67 psi with a cut in at 45 psi. The air pressure in the tank was 32 psi. So reading that it needs to be 2 psi under the cut in, I flipped off the power, drained the tank to zero pressure and tried to use a bicycle pump to increase the air pressure from 32 to 43 psi. Naturally, the tank sits under my basement stair well, so I'm kneeling and hunched over trying to use a bike pump attached to a nozzle at the top of the tank . . . best I can do is put the pump on the wall and lean into it to pump it. After 60 difficult pumps, got it up to 35 psi and needed a rest. Can't tell if it's just my bike pump not working well, or if the bladder is far more rigid than I expected, but is it normally pretty difficult to inflate that thing? I'm concerned that if I keep working at it that I might damage the bladder . . . if not my contorted body :)

Good points guys, but lower pressure in his bag, will only give him MORE water draw down and NOT lower pressure. It would also eventually break the diphragm. If the pressure in the tank was, say, 10psi his switch would still give him the 45-67 psi. So he has a restriction in the system, or some other issue.
 
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