Pressure tank not filling up ???

I recently bought a house that was forclosed on. A lil back ground on the house ..these things I know from visual inspection. All new pvc plumbing. New hot water heater. Softner and pressure tank all seem new. My problem is I cannot get the pressure tank to fill up . I am not new to a well or pressure tank since my current house has one. The house came with a big garage out back that has water to it. Now when I turn the pump on from the breaker and main water turn on I dont hear anything like I would normally. Now there is a valve that is labeled to the garage and when I open that I hear water moving and the pressure switch is operating and I also think I hear water entering the hot water tank which makes no sense.also my pressure tank at home has a inlet and outlet and this does not I guess im confused by the plumbing routing they used . Ill include pics ..sorry for the paragraph I'm on my phone so its a bit hard

If the pressure is increasing, water is going into the pressure tank. You won't hear water entering a bladder style tank like you do the old galv tanks.

theres no water in the pressure tank. I can move it easily it feels empty. also there is no water inside the house at all

Does the pump never turn off? If yes, when the pump turns on, how long does it run?

If you turn off the pump power, what does the gauge do? What does the pressure gauge say? If it stays above 30 at a fixed pressure, the tank is at least partially working. Open a tap. Does the gauge move down slowly? If so, water is being drawn from the tank.

If that is the "PC66R" model, it will hold about 6 gallons or so between when the pump cuts on at 30 PSI and off at 50 PSI. To maximize it, check and maybe adjust the "precharge" pressure.

Is too bad they did not replace the rest of that galvanized pipe while they were at it.

when I turn off the pump power it doesn't drop at all I think its at 40 psi. when I open the faucet nothing comes out and doesn't drop the psi. if I don't touch the valve with the black hose the pump does nothing but when I open the valve the pump runs ive seen it go to 60 psi.. I was thinking how can the pressure tank fill and push water throught one inlet . the one in my house goes in one side and out the other so im confused as to why it would fill the pressure tank when it can just go straight up the pipe

jstephens said:

when I turn off the pump power it doesn't drop at all I think its at 40 psi. when I open the faucet nothing comes out and doesn't drop the psi.

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Let's stop right there. "The faucet"? Do you mean the faucet in the middle of your second picture? I doubt that is it, because that picture has the leftovers from some water coming out of that faucet. So you apparently mean a different faucet. I would then think that either a valve is closed into the faucet with no water or there is a serious pipe blockage.

If the gauge stayed at 40, I would think bad gauge. I would leave the pump off for now. But you see the gauge change to 60 at times. Post a wider picture that shows where the pump line comes in and shows the relationship of these things. There should not be a valve between your pump and your pressure switch.

jstephens said:

if I don't touch the valve with the black hose the pump does nothing but when I open the valve the pump runs ive seen it go to 60 psi.. I was thinking how can the pressure tank fill and push water throught one inlet . the one in my house goes in one side and out the other so im confused as to why it would fill the pressure tank when it can just go straight up the pipe

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One pipe for input and output is normal for a pressure tank. Think of it like a balloon. You blow in the same opening that air will later come out (barring a burst).

Why would water go into a pressure tank? Because the pressure in the pipe is a bit higher momentarily than the pressure in the tank. The more water goes into the tank, the more the trapped air compresses. So if the water pressure in the pipe goes down, some water will be pushed out of the pressure tank. If the pipe going "up" lead to an open faucet, maybe nothing would go into the pressure tank at that point.

Are you electronics oriented? If so, there would be some good analogies. Such as the pressure tank being analogous to a filter capacitor. It's a flawed analogy because the capacitor would have another lead hooked to maybe a ground.

by the faucet I mean in the house faucets. the faucet that you see does work. I turned the pump off last night. here are some more pics of the plumbing

Which is the pipe from the well?

Reach4 said:

Which is the pipe from the well?

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My guess is the bottom of the brass check with the gauge and switch is where the water comes in. You can see a pipe next to it where the wire goes out.

Ah.. I see it now.

Jstephens, I would hook up a garden hose to that faucet at the base of the pressure tank. Turn on the pump. I expect the gauge to climb to 60. Turn off the pump power. Turn on that faucet, and check that at least 5 gallons of water comes out of the hose. The gauge will smoothly drop while the water is flowing. If that happens, I expect the tank is good. Go ahead and turn the pump back on. You could alternately use the outside faucet, which I am guessing is fed by the pipe through the wall in the right of a picture.

You will then need to find the valve or blockage that is keeping water away from that house faucet.

the faucet at the pressure tank does have water that comes out .. how much I do not know since all my hoses are froze up. I have seen the gauge go to 60 when I opened the valve with the black hose on it. I tried going in the crawl space but I can barely move in there its so small.

i can try to catch the water with a 5 gallon bucket? but does that tell me if the pressure tank is working or if the pump is working because the same pipe the faucet is on comes from the pump

jstephens said:

i can try to catch the water with a 5 gallon bucket? but does that tell me if the pressure tank is working or if the pump is working because the same pipe the faucet is on comes from the pump

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It tells you the pressure tank is working because the pump is off.

so leave the pump off when I open the faucet?

Yes. You are measuring what the pressure tank is holding.

As the water drains out, the pressure should fall very quickly once the pressure drops to about 38 PSI.

ok I will do that and post results in a hour or so .. thanks so much

well I went to the house and did what u told me. the pressure switch kicked on after it filled the bucket. also I went to check the water in the kitchen sink and had water coming out of the hot side but it was cold. so I shut it off and waited around a bit and now have water coming out of both sides hot and cold. I have not done anything different then before so I suspect something was froze under the house? what I don't understand is how both hot side and cold side were both frozen

You have proved the pressure tank works well. That's good.

If you suspect frozen pipes happened, watch for leaks as things thaw. Turn off the pump while you are away until you are confident there is no burst pipe.

how do I keep them from freezing the crawl space was so small I couldn't check every pipe but I could tell it was all pvc and had black foam around it

jstephens said:

how do I keep them from freezing the crawl space was so small I couldn't check every pipe but I could tell it was all pvc and had black foam around it

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You could leave the opening open if it opens to the inside.

Anyway, if you note the water pressure after you turn off the pump, and the pressure is the same when you come back, there is not a leak.If the pressure has dropped, it could have gone back into the well, or it could have gone into your crawl space. Look in with your flashlight in that case. A leak after a pipe thaws is not usually very subtle. You are probably OK, but caution makes sense.