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Okay then what should it be doing in your opinion? Approach it as if there is nothing wrong with the tank, it's not some rusty beat up piece of crap that has been sitting around for 5 years in the shed. It's in like-new condition, not everything used is junk.
I do know my jet pump should not be running all the time and also know it shouldn't be kicking on every 10 seconds to maintain pressure. I know I've spoke to you before on MI forums and what works up there may be differnet than here. Up there I would guess it's mostly deep well with a sumbersible pump.
I get water at 8-10 feet here, I have about 20 feet of 1 1/4" pipe out of my well to a 1hp jet pump, with a Square D 30-50 psi pressure switch on the pump. It's a 42 gallon FloTec pessure tank.
Thanks for the pic. Bladder schmadder, many tanks didn't have them in the old days. Your valve is on the top as I expected. Good. Why does tank size matter? because a five gallon tank is going to cycle a lot faster than a 40 gal tank, and even before that was known people were saying that the cycle was too fast. Yeesh. How fast can your car go zero to sixty? Doesn't it depend on horsepower and weight? See my point?
Consider how a tank like this works. The water comes in at the base and compresses a bubble of compressible air at the top, right? The bladder keeps the air from being absorbed by the water and limits corrosion. If a tank has significant air in it, it will work for a while even if the bladder is ruptured. If you think it can't, please explain your reasoning.
At worst, the air gets absorbed into the water over time and the tank has to be recharged every few months.
So... unless there is something REALLY unusual about the water or the tank, once the oxygen has been dissolved out, the rest of the compressible gas (nitrogen, which is somewhat soluble) should remain relatively stable in this tank and it will either function fine as is, or with an extra burp of gas. I know mine does.
I wasn't going to commit to this until I knew more about the tank. There are bladder tanks where the schrader valve is on the center END of a cylinder. That means that if the bladder in a tank like that burst, the tank would be useless. Only less than 1/4 of the tank capacity would be available.
One trick to slow the air from dissolving in a bladderless tank is to use a tiny amount of (food grade) mineral oil, which will act as a barrier. Since it remains at the top, it doesn't get into the drinking supply.
If you want to find out how much air is in the tank, weigh the empty tank, then add water. Water weighs about 8 lbs/gal. A full tank is 336 lbs. One that has a decent amount of air will weigh half that or less. Generally fill pressure for the air in an empty bladderless tank is a couple of pounds less than the low pressure cutout. On a bladder tank, follow the mfgr. instructions. Enjoy your gifted tank.
Okay then what should it be doing in your opinion? Approach it as if there is nothing wrong with the tank, it's not some rusty beat up piece of crap that has been sitting around for 5 years in the shed. It's in like-new condition, not everything used is junk.
I do know my jet pump should not be running all the time and also know it shouldn't be kicking on every 10 seconds to maintain pressure. I know I've spoke to you before on MI forums and what works up there may be differnet than here. Up there I would guess it's mostly deep well with a sumbersible pump.
I get water at 8-10 feet here, I have about 20 feet of 1 1/4" pipe out of my well to a 1hp jet pump, with a Square D 30-50 psi pressure switch on the pump. It's a 42 gallon FloTec pessure tank.
I got rid of the old one because it was a non-bladder type, just a steel tank with a couple of metal stems on the side of it. The top stem about 3/4 the way up the top of the tank leaked. From what I've seen in researching these older tanks mine was missing some apparatus that would make it work optimally. No matter what i did or how many leaks throughout the system I stopped i still got awful pressure.
Sometimes this stuff that is 30-50 years old, back in the day the manufacturers did not put their name on their products. The tank was that way and so is my jet pump, nowhere on my jet pump is their a manufacturers name cast into the iron, no numbers, nothing........so how do you order parts for it if you don't know what it is to begin with?
I got rid of the old one because it was a non-bladder type, just a steel tank with a couple of metal stems on the side of it. The top stem about 3/4 the way up the top of the tank leaked. From what I've seen in researching these older tanks mine was missing some apparatus that would make it work optimally. No matter what i did or how many leaks throughout the system I stopped i still got awful pressure.
Sometimes this stuff that is 30-50 years old, back in the day the manufacturers did not put their name on their products. The tank was that way and so is my jet pump, nowhere on my jet pump is their a manufacturers name cast into the iron, no numbers, nothing........so how do you order parts for it if you don't know what it is to begin with?
I just wanted to be sure the well/pump was not giving you problems BEFORE you changed the tank.
Sounds like it was.
I would still call a driller and buy a new tank. Not one from the big box store or hardware.
Then if it is in the well, the tank can be used on your new well. (if that is necessary).
From reading your posts, it looks like you have two problems. the cycle time when all the taps are closed indicates a leak. if there is not an external leak, then in all likelihood the foot valve (check valve on the bottom of the well pipe) is leaking. It looks like your drop pipe is only 20 feet so it would be easy to pull and check it.
With regards to your tank and whether or not it is leaking, you can only check the air pressure when the water pressure is 0. to check the bladder pressure, you must shut the pump off and bleed all the water pressure off. But I will say, with the running cycle times you indicate, the bladder is most likely bad. a pressure gage on the well would help troubleshooting. without a well pressure gage, there is no way to tell your pressure switch is operating correctly.
hope this helps
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Looks like two problems
