On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 11:29:57 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 11:21:50 AM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

I have a well that has an above ground pump. There is a bladder tank
that holds about 2 to 3 gallons of water. Lately I noticed the water
pressure cycling too much, like about 3 times in the time it takes to
fill a one gallon jug.

Checked the bladder tank and the pressure at the tank was about 60 psi.
Cut the well pump off and drained the pipes to the house. Then let air
out of the tank to the recommended 2 psi below the cut in pressure
switch to about 38 PSI. Worked better for a day or so. Then noticed
the short cycling again. Cut well pump off and drained water pipes.
The bladder tank was back up to almost 60 psi. I have done this several
time.

Just how is that bladder tank making air ? There does not seem to be
any water comming out of the air valve at the top of the tank that
normally the bladder keeps the water out of. Looks like I should be
getting water out of the valve if the bladder has a hole in it.




I found a youtube video that shows the same thing my well pump system
was doing. More air pressure building up in the bladder tank. It shows
the bladder tank gaining air pressure when the bladder is bad.
I still don't see how it can gain air pressure with the pipes open, but
it does. Maybe if I let all the air out of the tank by the air valve
water would start comming out.

Anyway I have a plumber comming out Monday morning to replace the tank.
While it is simple enough to do it, I just hate plumbing so bad I am
willing to pay a man a reasonable ammount to do it.
Found some paper work on the tank and it is 6 to 7 years old so I guess
that is about what others are getting out of their tanks.

Makes no sense to me that these tanks fails so quickly. It's just a plastic
bag, inside a tank, not exposed to weather, UV, etc. I recall seeing ones, maybe
they all have it, with a good size plug on top that the air fitting comes out of.
I assumed you can get a new bladder and replace just that. Which would be
a lot easier and cheaper, assuming the plug will come out and that's what
it's there for.

I assume it is just the constant flexing and if you are not diligent
about checking the air the bladder gets over extended. They are
replaceable.
The problem is finding the bladder if it is a bladder tank. Some are
diaphragm tanks and you can't replace that.
I have never found a bladder for a tank when I needed one. My tanks
are diaphragm tanks now.

Also I still can't fathom how a broken bladder results in the tank
gaining air. I would expect it to lose air, as the air is slowly absorbed into
the water.

I thought about this for a while and the only thing that makes sense
is that there is some kind of pocket that holds water, even when the
system is at zero pressure and that reduced volume maintains more air
pressure.
That's why I said lift up that tank and see if it is waterlogged.

On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 22:40:07 -0400, posted for all of us to
digest...


On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 11:29:57 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 11:21:50 AM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

I have a well that has an above ground pump. There is a bladder tank
that holds about 2 to 3 gallons of water. Lately I noticed the water
pressure cycling too much, like about 3 times in the time it takes to
fill a one gallon jug.

Checked the bladder tank and the pressure at the tank was about 60 psi.
Cut the well pump off and drained the pipes to the house. Then let air
out of the tank to the recommended 2 psi below the cut in pressure
switch to about 38 PSI. Worked better for a day or so. Then noticed
the short cycling again. Cut well pump off and drained water pipes.
The bladder tank was back up to almost 60 psi. I have done this several
time.

Just how is that bladder tank making air ? There does not seem to be
any water comming out of the air valve at the top of the tank that
normally the bladder keeps the water out of. Looks like I should be
getting water out of the valve if the bladder has a hole in it.




I found a youtube video that shows the same thing my well pump system
was doing. More air pressure building up in the bladder tank. It shows
the bladder tank gaining air pressure when the bladder is bad.
I still don't see how it can gain air pressure with the pipes open, but
it does. Maybe if I let all the air out of the tank by the air valve
water would start comming out.

Anyway I have a plumber comming out Monday morning to replace the tank.
While it is simple enough to do it, I just hate plumbing so bad I am
willing to pay a man a reasonable ammount to do it.
Found some paper work on the tank and it is 6 to 7 years old so I guess
that is about what others are getting out of their tanks.

Makes no sense to me that these tanks fails so quickly. It's just a plastic
bag, inside a tank, not exposed to weather, UV, etc. I recall seeing ones, maybe
they all have it, with a good size plug on top that the air fitting comes out of.
I assumed you can get a new bladder and replace just that. Which would be
a lot easier and cheaper, assuming the plug will come out and that's what
it's there for.

I assume it is just the constant flexing and if you are not diligent
about checking the air the bladder gets over extended. They are
replaceable.
The problem is finding the bladder if it is a bladder tank. Some are
diaphragm tanks and you can't replace that.
I have never found a bladder for a tank when I needed one. My tanks
are diaphragm tanks now.

Also I still can't fathom how a broken bladder results in the tank
gaining air. I would expect it to lose air, as the air is slowly absorbed into
the water.

I thought about this for a while and the only thing that makes sense
is that there is some kind of pocket that holds water, even when the
system is at zero pressure and that reduced volume maintains more air
pressure.
That's why I said lift up that tank and see if it is waterlogged.






I forgot about diaphragm tanks. Nice images here to look at differences between
them.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=bla...l+tanks&ia=web

--
Tekkie

In article , says...

I forgot about diaphragm tanks. Nice images here to look at differences between
them.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=bla...l+tanks&ia=web

--



There are some differences in the bladder and diaphragm, but not really
that much in the way they work.