Pressure tank replacement workmanship connections advice

[jgraham295]

First thank you to this great community of plumbers and experienced tradesmen, it has helped me a lot in the past. Long explanation, so please bear with me. I'm located in central California, and our well pressure tank developed a pinhole leak. We had a local well company come and replace our pressure tank. We put in a new pad next to the old tank and upgraded the tank size. The billing was labor and parts. After looking at how they hooked the tank to the existing well and house plumbing I am concerned at the amount of fittings and parts that were used. Just seems like a leak waiting to happen and unnecessary parts cost. I have attached pictures to explain what I am talking about. All of the pipe and fittings between the tank and the gate valve on the right and the white PVC coming out of the ground on the bottom are the pipe they installed. All of the pipe from the compression coupling on the pump side to the tank are also new. Should I be concerned on how they did the connections and lack of pipe support? It seems like they could have gotten longer sections of galvanized and threaded it to save on couplings. They have already had to come out twice to fix leaks and created a new leak in the old pipe by the gate valve that I have to have another plumber come and fix as they won't touch the old work. Any advice would be helpful. I like the customer service and am happy with the company overall, but am concerned about the workmanship on this particular job. Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[Reach4]

Non-pro comments:

Normally you want the pressure switch at the pressure tank to prevent double-clutching and early turn on/off. Maybe they did that to limit the amount of air injected each time the pump turns on. You have a drain-back valve down the well.

PVC should be protected from UV by paint, tape, or cover.

I would tend to avoid galvanized pipe for a house to avoid adding rust/iron to the house water, but I guess you have that galvanized tank, anyway. Maybe this is just irrigation or animal water.

I don't see tape/dope on the threaded fittings, but maybe the photo resolution prevents resolving that.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[jgraham295]

Thank you for the comment. As far as I can tell galvanized is still used a lot around my area. It is our main house well and they did use pipe dope on the connections, but they still leaked.

 

[Reach4]

Thank you for the comment. As far as I can tell galvanized is still used a lot around my area. It is our main house well and they did use pipe dope on the connections, but they still leaked.

They may be weak.
I see you have a Dresser-type coupling near the well, just upstream of the check valve and snifter casting. This could allow some longitudinal slop as the pipes get tightened. Consider dresser coupling as a search term if you want to know about that. The union will need to be loosened and re-tightened too. That should be loosened before they do the wrenching with bigger pipe wrenching. I think whoever works on that needs longer wrenches or be less weak. Always two wrenches.

Your valves appear to be ball valves rather than gate valves.

For general workmanship, I am not sure. I am not impressed, but somebody might find that adequate.

If you redo this, I would use both pipe dope and good PTFE tape. An experienced plumber can be leak-free with one of the other, but I like to have maximum leak prevention.

 

[Valveman]

Doesn't look too bad. The dresser coupling could be straightened up a bit, but still probably ok. I would chain or tie the pipe on both sides of the dresser to keep the pipe from slipping out. Galvanized pipe doesn't need much support. They could have cut and threaded a couple of longer pipes and not had so many couplings, but they probably used what they had available. The pressure switch being so far from the tank isn't usually a problem with a bleeder orifice and air maker system, as there is air in the line on pump start and it usually won't bounce the pressure switch.

 

[WY_WaterWellGuy]

Looks like they had some short galvanized nipples rolling around the back of the truck that they wanted to use up nothing wrong with the setup though. I would second the recommendation to use tape and dope if you opt to fix the leak(s) yourself.

 

[jgraham295]

Thank you everyone for the replies! Sounds like they could have possibly been "cleaner" but the job is acceptable. That is what I wanted to know!

One more question. When they were putting in the new lines they caused a leak that wasn't there before, just downstream of their connection to the old pipes (first picture on the right, between the gate valve and the 90). When they were out fixing some of their leaks I asked if they would fix that too, but they said it is in the old pipes, and wouldn't touch it. Is this industry standard or do you think they should have fixed it?

 

[Reach4]

One more question. When they were putting in the new lines they caused a leak that wasn't there before, just downstream of their connection to the old pipes (first picture on the right, between the gate valve and the 90).

Is the leak you are describing near place S on the marked up "Pix 1" attached?

Also, does downstream mean farther from the well?

 

[jgraham295]

The leak is somewhere around T and U in the picture attached. Yes i meant farther from the well towards the house plumbing.

 

[Reach4]

The leak is somewhere around T and U in the picture attached. Yes i meant farther from the well towards the house plumbing.

When they were out fixing some of their leaks I asked if they would fix that too, but they said it is in the old pipes, and wouldn't touch it. Is this industry standard or do you think they should have fixed it?

I am not a pro, but it sounds pretty ridiculous/non-standard to me. However, when I tried to understand, I went back to https://terrylove.com/forums/data/attachments/61/61653-36c48406c45c1bc2080af424f3d97fa2.jpg
What is the relationship that picture to Pix 1? The TUV area looks totally different. Which is before and which is after? And if TUV was on the old, why are you asking about it?

 

[Valveman]

Thank you everyone for the replies! Sounds like they could have possibly been "cleaner" but the job is acceptable. That is what I wanted to know!

One more question. When they were putting in the new lines they caused a leak that wasn't there before, just downstream of their connection to the old pipes (first picture on the right, between the gate valve and the 90). When they were out fixing some of their leaks I asked if they would fix that too, but they said it is in the old pipes, and wouldn't touch it. Is this industry standard or do you think they should have fixed it?

Where ever you stop fixing stuff is exactly where the next problem will happen. I think it is more Murphy's Law than "Industry Standard" though. Still very common. The installer has to use some discretion or there is never a place to stop.

 

[jgraham295]

Thanks again everyone.

@valveman: Completely understandable. If you didn't stop somewhere, you would be going on forever.

@Reach4: Hopefully this picture will give the overall view. The pipes go from the well in the back (middle of picture), around to the pressure tank on the left (out of view). They then exit the pressure tank (again on the left out of view) and go to the right. Everything from the check valve/snifter (to middle) to the elbow just above the gate valve (bottom right) is new. Thank you everyone for helping me with this. Sounds like they did an acceptable job and I shouldn't be worried with how it looks at the moment (as long as it isn't leaking).