About speedball1 Expertise About me: My Plumbing Expertise: I retired from plumbing after a lifetime in the trade. all phases from service and upkeep to construction, both residential and commercial. I am qualified to do anything in plumbing from fixing a leaky faucet to drafting a set of plans for a commercial shopping center and supervising the construction. My last five years were spent as a trouble shooter for a large plumbing company. I took on all my companys complaints. I have been a expert on the plumbing page at Askme.com. In a field of 200 experts my rating was number one. You may also find me at Answerway.com and AskMe Help Desk.com. This is fun for me and if I can help anybody out that`s iceing on the cake. Degrees & Certifications: As for degrees, I don`t have any. Just a Journeymans ticket, but hey! How about fifty years experience?
Experience Life Experience? Hmmmmmmm! Ran away at 15 and joined a carnival, Navy at 17 Merchant marine at 19 I've had a hellava life.
Question Any time I turn on a facet or flush a toilet, I get a little bit of a surge that appears to be water. The pressure in the system appears to be fine once it is running steady.
I have a Well-x-trol presure system that was moved a couple of inches and placed on a brick by workman replacing my oil tank. When I 'shake' that tank, it appears to be empty, or at least very light. Could this be the source of the air in the system? I would have thought a bad blatter would actually fill the tank completely, what would prevent it from filling?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Answer Hi Ed,
You may have too much air pressure in your tank. This added pressure would force the pump to shut down before putting water in the tank.
Let me explain the function of a bladder tank. Pressure and bladder tanks provide a air cushion that produces water pressure in your system so your pump doesn't kick on every time you draw a glass of water. a bladder tank has a neoprene membrane in the center. As the pump puts water into the bottom half of the bladder tank the membrane compresses the air in the top half. When the pressure reaches the cut off point in the control box the pump shuts down. However you still have between 40 to 50 pounds of pressure pushing the water out to your system. As the pressure drops in the tank when you make a draw the pump kicks on and everything starts over again.
Your plumber failed to check the integrity of the membrane.
To check, take something metal and start rapping at the bottom of the tank and work upwards. You will hear a "clunk" in the bottom half full of water. On the upper half you should hear a "clink" because the upper half should have nothing but air in it. IF the sound doesn't change or changes close to to tank top then the bladder tank must be replaced. Your air setting on the tank should be 2 pounds UNDER the cut in point in the pressure control box. If your pressure control has a 20 PSI cut in and 40 PSI cut out the tank pressure should read 18 PSI. This should be done with the pump off and no pressure in the system.( This is important!! Shut the pump off at the breaker box and drain the system down before checking the bladder tank pressure.) Hope this helps and thank you for rating my reply. Tom
