I have a water pump of the type that has an air bladder. We recently had a problem where the pump was taking a long time to come on and it was determined there was not enough pressure in the air bladder so air was added. I had a trusted friend with some experience in plumbing over to help. Now I'm concerned that there may be too much air pressure, because the pump (although pressure is now good and consistent) is short-cycling. It comes on about every 10 seconds briefly. Besides being a power drain and an annoyance, I'm worried this will wear out the pump. Can I back air out of the bladder with a standard tire pressure gauge? What is the simplest way to measure the correct amount of air pressure that should be in the tank and correct for it?

The air pressure should be 2 PSI lower then pressure to turn on pump. If your pump turns on at 40 PSI then tank should be set at 38 PSI. To set the tank pressure you have to empty tank and check and set PSI while empty.

The can be adjusted up with a compressor and lowered by releasing air with a tire gauge.

The span between on and off for PSI is usually set at 20 PSI difference. If lower is 40(on) then 60 is the higher setting to shut off pump.

Chuck

problem where the pump was taking a long time to come on
I don't really know what that means and

it was determined there was not enough pressure in the air bladder
I don't know how that was determined.

An under inflated bladder would cause pump short cycling, exactly what it is doing now. A ruptured bladder, which would eventually result in a water logged tank, could cause a delay in pump starting as water outside the bladder has to pass back through the rupture to inside the bladder.

The subsequent short cycling of the pump, after adding air to the tank, is also an indication of a ruptured bladder. The added air has been absorbed by the water and the tank is again water logged.

Sorry but the symptoms you describe indicate that you have a ruptured bladder.