[lauferein]

I replaced an old alvanized water tank with a Wellsaver tank with a "diaphram". I used the old Pressure Swith that worked well but does not seam to wok with this WellSaver tank ( I believe that it was a mistake to buy it, but it was the only water tankl availble).

When I put the electricity on, the pump works fine till it reaches about 38 PSI and keeps working but the pressure does not go up and the pressure swith does not turn the pump off.

I don't know what to do as I am not familiar with this WellSaver tank and am afraid that it might explode.

I call the Wellsaver Help and they tolfd me to lover the preset 38PSI pressure.
Does anybody know if it will work as I have no experience with this typpe of water tank and the instalation was very difficult.

[jlisenbe]

1. I don't think you made a mistake. The diaphragm tanks are very popular. It certainly is not going to explode at 38#. You should check this but it is probably rated to 90# or even a little better. I'm not saying to run it that high, but to not worry about explosions.

2. The pressure at the valve at the top of the tank should be two pounds below the cut in pressure, so if your pump is coming on at, say, 30#, then the pressure at the valve should be 28#. This should be set with the tank pretty much empty so drain it down, then set the pressure as indicated above.

3. Just out of curiosity, why did you replace the old tank?

[lauferein]

Thanks for the advice. However I am going to wait some time before I lower the pressure form 38PSI to 28 PSI. I have not had water for 2 months and so now I am enjoying the water even if I have to turn it on and off manually. I just don't trust this tank.

As to why I replaced the tank - several holes and the tank wall was thin as paper at the water line.
The galvanized tank does not drain completely. There is about 2 inches of water left. As I used the house only as weekend and summer house, the 2 inches of water were there for 20 years and corroded the galvanized tank. I had there about 5 small holes and the iron was like paper. So I replaced the tank which was not easy considering that the connecting pipes were iron and impossible to remove.

[lauferein]

Thanks again for your advice.
Now I have another question as you seem to know a lot.

When reconnecting the new tank to the old plumbing, I could not do it the right way and replace all pipes. Thus I had to use several pipe size reducers and connectors not to mention "union joint". Now one of the joint is leaking, a very minor leak - couple of drops of water. Is there any compound that I could buy to stop this minor leak? I certainly would not want to do the whole connectiong job over.

I would appreciate any advice.

[jlisenbe]

Sounds like you are talking about galvanized pipe. If that is the case, others on this board could address that better than me. But I will say this much. If it was me, and the leak was a few drops an hour and not in a position to damage anything, then I wouldn't worry about it. My experience has been that galvanized pipe will seal small leaks by rusting over time. I might get shot down for saying this, but I have seen this happen in several places. And the only alternative is to start at the union and work your way back to the offending joint. Of course, doing that is not the end of the world either. BTW, did you use a brass "T" fitting under the new tank to hook everything up? Also, what size tank are you dealing with?

I would suggest that you address your pressure issues. Having the pump not want to cut off is not something you want to play with. Remember with wells that the stuff above ground is a heck of a lot easier to deal with than the stuff below the ground. If you keep running that pump when it will not cut off because the system will not get to cut off pressure, you will shorten the pump's life considerably and could end with below ground issues as opposed to what you have now. The fact that the pump continues to run but will not get above 38# is troubling. The first step is to set the pressure correctly in the tank. Again, that should be 2# below the cut in pressure and should be set when the tank is basically empty.

Check out this post for more info on the pipe leak. Speedball generally gets it right.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbi...ak-180538.html

One more thought. I did exactly what you are doing a few years ago. The old galvanized tanks with no diaphragm had to have some method of keeping air in the tank. Many of them used a system which allowed water to drain back down the well pipe every time the pump shut off (submersible pumps only). When the pump turned back on, it would first deliver all the air in the well pipe into the tank, thus recharging the air in the tank. A valve on the side of the tank would keep the tank from becoming completely full of air. If this was not done, the air in the tank would, in a few months, dissolve into the water and the air charge in the tank would be gone... bad news. Diaphragm tanks don't need this since the diaphragm keeps that air and water separated. When you replace a galvanized tank with a diaphragm tank, you must be sure that this system, if its in place, is disabled.

Your diaphragm tank probably fills/drains from one port in the bottom, thus doing away with the problem of water entering/exiting from 2" up. No crud on the bottom of the tank! You are going to like this new tank!