Pressure Tank Making Noise

[G Robert]

Hello and thanks in advance for any help...

My system is in a 20 year old three bedroom house in East Central PA. The pressure tank noise developed recently. Starting about one second before pump shuts off, and lasting for a few seconds after, a fairly loud gurgling/bubbling noise comes from inside tank.

I'm not 100% sure about these two things (if they're real, they're subtle):
It seems that when I water the lawn, the sprinklers behave differently (less duration of full pressure).
My wife thinks overall there's SLIGHTLY less pressure in the house.

System rundown:
Drilled well - depth is in the 300's, pump is hung in the 200's.
1 HP submersible pump, I don't know if it has a flow inducer sleeve - WellXtrol WX-203 tank.
Pump goes on at 34, run times I clocked were 45 sec and 56 sec till shutoff.
Pump goes off at 57, slowly drops to 54 within 1 minute, will hold that till any water is drawn (I checked an 8 hour period).
Edit: when pressure is full (at 54), and I turn on a standard design shower, the pump will come on in about 3 minutes.

Is the tank noise indicating a problem?
If I need to replace the tank, should I get a bigger one?
If I replace tank, should I get a constant pressure pump control valve (what about the pump sleeve issue)?

[Porky]

I don't see a serious problem with the noise. . . yet! The tank seems to be doing it's job OK so I wouldn't replace it. You may want to consider installing a Cycle Stop Valve www.cyclestopvalve.com. It's not expensive and it may reduce the noise and it will give you constant pressure like city water pressure. If and when you ever replace your tank, consider installing a CSV and a smaller tank if you like.

[G Robert]

Porky,
Thanks so much for the help - it will help me to proceed.

[ballvalve]

If you have a standard tank, thats air coming in or going out of the release valve. If its a pressurized tank follow testing instructions in the stickies.

[jimtum]

You may have a bad bladder tank, you can drain the tank and then shake it to see if you can hear water inside, if so then the tank is bad even if you have pressure on the valve with an empty tank because the water could be moving from the bladder to the tank side of the bladder and back again. I just had one do it a couple of weeks ago.

[valveman]

And the bladder in tanks gets broken from moving up and down everytime the pump cycles. Stopping the cycling, solves the problems, and you don't need as large a tank.