swenerst
New Member
Hello. I am hoping someone on this forum can help. I have had my "well-guy" tell me that neither he nor his bosses have ever seen this problem in a combined 70 years of experience. Here's the deal.
Something is causing the static air pressure in my tank to build. It builds to the point where water is no longer able to enter the tank, thus causing the well pump to short cycle.
Here are the steps I took to attempt to diagnose the problem:
I switched off the pump and completely drained the tank. Almost no water drained out. I then closed the drain valve, and took a pressure reading at the Schraeder. Pressure was 50+ psi (my tire gauge only went to 50 and it blew past it). I found this very odd because I've NEVER added air to the tank. I bled the air pressure back to 38 psi (based on a 40/60 switch), switched on the well pump and thought all was fine. A few hours later, I noticed short cycling again.
I drained the tank a second time (again almost no water drained out), and took a reading at the Schraeder. Static air pressure was 50+ psi again. This time, I bled ALL the air out of the tank. I noticed some popping noises inside the tank (assumed that bladder was just moving around). What's odd is that when all the air was out, the tank continued to trickle/sputter water for a solid 30 min. No water from the house lines was flowing back because I had the ball valve to the house line closed. Weird.
I shut off the water valve and repressurized the tank to only 30 psi. Switched on well pump and filled tank. Again, a few hours later I noticed short cycling. Drained tank, almost no water came out again, and got another 50+ psi reading at the Schraeder.
My theory is that water must be entering the top static air compartment, thus displacing the air and causing the pressure to build. My well-guy disagrees because I'm not seeing water spurt out of the Schraeder when I bleed off air. I'm not sure I agree with him because wouldn't the water need to reach all the way to the top of the tank to spurt out the Schraeder? Also, the tank continued to trickle drain/sputter for 30 minutes after all the air was bled out. Could that have been from the water in the air compartment leaking back down through a bad bladder?
So, do I need to buy a new tank or is my problem elsewhere? My current tank is a Red Jacket (86 gal.) that is about 9 years old.
I'm a little desperate to get this fixed, and any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank You!
Something is causing the static air pressure in my tank to build. It builds to the point where water is no longer able to enter the tank, thus causing the well pump to short cycle.
Here are the steps I took to attempt to diagnose the problem:
I switched off the pump and completely drained the tank. Almost no water drained out. I then closed the drain valve, and took a pressure reading at the Schraeder. Pressure was 50+ psi (my tire gauge only went to 50 and it blew past it). I found this very odd because I've NEVER added air to the tank. I bled the air pressure back to 38 psi (based on a 40/60 switch), switched on the well pump and thought all was fine. A few hours later, I noticed short cycling again.
I drained the tank a second time (again almost no water drained out), and took a reading at the Schraeder. Static air pressure was 50+ psi again. This time, I bled ALL the air out of the tank. I noticed some popping noises inside the tank (assumed that bladder was just moving around). What's odd is that when all the air was out, the tank continued to trickle/sputter water for a solid 30 min. No water from the house lines was flowing back because I had the ball valve to the house line closed. Weird.
I shut off the water valve and repressurized the tank to only 30 psi. Switched on well pump and filled tank. Again, a few hours later I noticed short cycling. Drained tank, almost no water came out again, and got another 50+ psi reading at the Schraeder.
My theory is that water must be entering the top static air compartment, thus displacing the air and causing the pressure to build. My well-guy disagrees because I'm not seeing water spurt out of the Schraeder when I bleed off air. I'm not sure I agree with him because wouldn't the water need to reach all the way to the top of the tank to spurt out the Schraeder? Also, the tank continued to trickle drain/sputter for 30 minutes after all the air was bled out. Could that have been from the water in the air compartment leaking back down through a bad bladder?
So, do I need to buy a new tank or is my problem elsewhere? My current tank is a Red Jacket (86 gal.) that is about 9 years old.
I'm a little desperate to get this fixed, and any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank You!