To make a short story long, a year or so ago, I replaced the pressure dial gauge on my well because of a cracked glass. No big deal, just shut well off, run out the pressure, replaced gauge, power up pump. At that time there was quite a surge of blackish water after I repressurized it. Last week I wanted to replace the whole house filter sump (holds the cartridge) with a clear one just to see the filter condition better. Ordered new filter, get a housing + sump. New clear sump has different thread than old one, need to replace entire filter housing. In the process of tightening things up, a drip developed at the union where the well pressure tank is connected. When wrenching it up to stop the drip, the leak turned into a stream. Guess what? The union coupling was all corroded and rotted away: replaced union. With the tank now off the line, I checked the pressure: zero ! Its supposes to be 2 psi lower than the well's low end pressure cutoff (my case 30 psi). Threw air into the Schraeder valve: Hissing at the water line = ruptured diaphragm. Oops. Now I hadn't noticed any remarkable pump short cycling, but the web search indicated the bad tank leads to reduced well pump life and higher electrical usage. Replaced tank and pressure regulator. All systems: go. Great.
Now this tank is a major brand, was about 5 years old and looked brand new (beautiful blue paint condition. But the thing was shot. New tank came with advertized pressure, I increased it to the 2 psi less than low end pressure and things are back to design intent.
If you have a well pressure tank, its snowing too hard to have any fun outside and you have nothing better to do, check your tank by running the water pressure to zero and see if there is any residual pressure in the tank. Use a tire pressure gauge. Should be over 25 psi. If so, fine, if not, save some money and get a replacement.
Now this tank is a major brand, was about 5 years old and looked brand new (beautiful blue paint condition. But the thing was shot. New tank came with advertized pressure, I increased it to the 2 psi less than low end pressure and things are back to design intent.
If you have a well pressure tank, its snowing too hard to have any fun outside and you have nothing better to do, check your tank by running the water pressure to zero and see if there is any residual pressure in the tank. Use a tire pressure gauge. Should be over 25 psi. If so, fine, if not, save some money and get a replacement.
The bacteria don't seem to harm you. We put in a UV light instead.
