pump on water tank

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

The pump on my father's water tank is constantly running. He wants to "bleed the tank". Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

-- Bob Ambrozaitis (rambrozaitis@snet.net), February 16, 2000

Answers

I have "bled" tanks before bu shuting off the pump taking out a plug or disconnectig the pipe at the bottom of the tank, then inserting a small hose into the hole,up into the tank above the water level to allow air to inter the tank so the water will drain out. when the tank is empty reattach everything and it should be ok for quit a while. This is only for tanks without "bladders" If the tank has a "baldder" it has a hole in it and you have a diffrent problem.. Doris in Idaho

-- Doris Richards (dorisquilts@webtv.net), February 16, 2000.

does he want to bleed it or pressurize it. Before I got a bladder tank I had to put in pressure every few weeks or the pump would run alot. There should be an air inlet, like on a car tire somewhere on the side of the tank. I used to use a foot pump, didint need alot of pressure

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 16, 2000.

Assuming you do not have a bladder tank, here is what I do. First drain the tank. Second shut all the downstream valves. Third if you don't already have a schraeder valve (Tire type air valve) at the top of the tank, install one. If you operate your water system at 40psi, put 20psi of air into the tank and you should be good to go for some time. If you do have a bladder tank the same method will work with them as well but they weren't designed for it.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), February 17, 2000.

Bob, some of these answers are "close" as far as bleeding the tank. By "pressurizing" the tank, I think Stan is probably talking about the same thing.

But you said your father's pump was constantly running. This is NOT a symptom of a waterlogged tank. A water logged tank will result in the pump turning off and on rapidly--sometimes as fast as you could turn a light switch on and off.

If the pump is actually constantly running, there are a number of things that would cause this. Assuming that the pump has not developed enough pressure to either explode something, like the pressure tank, or blow lots of water out through the pressure relief valve (which is installed to prevent such an explosion), your pump could be worn out, and thus unable to bring the pressure up to the shut off pressure, or there could be a leak in the drop pipe to the pump, resulting in enough water leaking back into the well that the pump can't build up said shut off pressure. I'd need more details to tell you for sure.

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), February 18, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ