On Jul 19, 7:12*am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,





*bud-- wrote:
On 7/18/2011 7:59 PM, Smitty Two wrote:

So the brass fitting in the horizontal run of nipples and unions is the
check valve, and the PVC pipe feeds the house, right?

Not obvious to me it is a check valve. In any case there needs to be a
check valve at the bottom. Else you are refilling the pipe to the
surface when you start the pump. A check valve at the surface can't hold
a 1200 ft column of water. Whatever the brass fitting is it looks like
it has a schrader valve.

Is the pressure
switch at the house the little box in picture 10 with 2 conduits and a
piece of romex going to it?

Yes.

I agree with others and am not impressed with the electrical.

Don't think it was covered and it may be way to obvious...
The pressure tank has air in the top. When you pump water into the tank
it compresses the air. After the pump shuts off at the high pressure
setting the compressed air feeds water into the building. As the air
expands the pressure drops, until the pressure switch low cut in
pressure and the pump starts again. The tank air slowly dissolves into
the water and the amount of air slowly decreases making the pump cycle
more often. Pete briefly touched on controls to add air to the tank as
it is "used up". I don't see any in the pictures unless air is added
from a compressor through the schrader valve.

A better (and more expensive) way of making a tank is to have a bladder
between the water and air. The bladder moves up and down as the tank
pressurizes. The bladder keeps the air charge from dissolving into the
water. All the tanks like this that I have seen have a schrader valve at
the top to add and check the air charge.

Not "way too obvious" for me, and was planning to ask about this part of
the system, so thanks for this. So the pressure switch is monitoring air
pressure in the tank, and presumably has adjustable hi/lo settings to
define the hysteresis band, if I understand correctly. The gauge on the
side of the tank in picture 10 would be an air pressure gauge then? (I'm
300 miles away so can't go get a closer look at it right now)

Is it evident from pics that this particular tank is the non-bladder
type? Failing an automatic system involving a dedicated compressor, one
adds air periodically then? How much, how often, and based on what
symptoms?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Forgot about addign air. In a non-bladder tank, the air bubble will
gradually be absorbed into the water adn thus decrease the 'pre-
charge' pressure over time (note that it has no effect on _system_
pressure). If the float or 'snifter' valve fails, you have to add air
manually. How often? 6 months to a year at a guess. When needed?
when the pump cycle begins to get too short. Known as "short-
cycling". As teh air bubble decreases the run time of the pump to
bring the system pressure up gets shorter. Left alone you get 'short-
cycling' On, few seconds, off. Destroys a pump in short order.

"snifter valve" injects a small shot of air with each pump start. I
know what they do but really don't understand how they operate.

The nuisance of draining and adding air soon becomes bad enough that
one replaces the snifter or float valve ...or throws out the antique
tank and replaces it with a bladder type.

Harry K