On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 22:22:00 -0500, "Eric Scantlebury"
wrote:


"EXT" wrote in message
tanews.com...
Air leaked out of tank: bad fill valve. OR Leak in bladder: water filled
the air half of the tank behind the bladder.

So how does one test for this? The tank, when the pump has cycled to it's
normal 60 lbs high point, has 36 lbs of pressure at the air valve. I've
read a little about this and apparently it should read 4 lbs less than the
low kick in win no water. Does the 36 lbs translate to anything non drained
and fully preasurized?


You said in your original post that when you run water after the pump
has cycled the pressure drops like a stone to 40 lbs. This isn't
right, the pressure should drop gradually as you run water; that's
what the tank is for. This combined with your measurement above makes
me think your tank has lost its air charge, or most of it. If the
bladder had failed, you probably would have had water leak out the air
valve when you checked the pressure. But if you just put a gauge on
there you might not have noticed. take the cap off the valve, and
depress the stem with a small screwdriver and see if any water comes
out at all. If so, replace the tank. If not, try draining the tank
and with the water drain valve still open, recharge the tank to 2lbs
less than cut-in pressure. If this works, great, but it probably
won't last, since whatever caused the air to leak out will probably
happen again.

Another (remote) possibility is that you've got sediment and debris
totally blocking the tank inlet so that it is effectively out of the
picture. If you don't see the air pressure change while the pump is
cycling on and off, I would suspect this as the cause.

HTH,

Paul F.