Well pump & pressure tank size

Fredycruger

Fredycruger

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i'm going to run my new house off existing well pump and i'm going to add another pressure tank with pressure switch that's going to control the well in the new house.


local plumber supply have 6 different tank sizes, biggest one 112 Gal.
i have no info on the pump specs other than it got 1" PVC pipe coming out

house is about 150-200 feet away from well. and will have 3.5 baths.
whats size tank should i get? is bigger the better? 112 gallon tank is about 1600$ :eek:
 
I asked a similar question on a dying 4x4 site And was told to go with the largest pressure tank you can fit in the location you want to put it. I went with 2, 62 gallon tanks because that height of tank was the tallest I could fit in my well house. That is Supposed to keep your well pump from running more frequently, just runs longer when it does run which they said was better for pump life.
 
thanks

do you guys run sediment filter or anything like that before the pressure tank? :beer:
 
Fredycruger said:
thanks

do you guys run sediment filter or anything like that before the pressure tank? :beer:
Click to expand...

At one time I wanted to and even was thinking about running the softener before the tank but was told by several sources that it was a very bad idea.
 
Fredycruger said:
thanks

do you guys run sediment filter or anything like that before the pressure tank? :beer:
Click to expand...

No, it should have or you should plumb a clean out/garden hose connection right off of it.

I did a whole house filter right after it and before my water softener.
 
No filter before it but my water is pretty clean. I do have my garden hose plumbed immediately afterwards so I can drain it down easily. Shitty water filter is further down the line just before the house.
 
Michigan has a website where you can look up well records back to at least the 50's. Gives a lot of specs including what pump was originally installed and it's flow rate. At the end of the day bigger/ more pressure tanks is always good.
I set up a second pressure tank in a rental at the opposite end of the house to help smooth out the pressure change at cycling and it worked well.
 
Your pressure tank should match the size of your pump. The gallons per minute not horse power. Do you know what the gpm of the pump is?
what brand pressure tank are you looking at?
 
my dad's got a fiberglass pressure tank
all I see for sale and at the scrap yard are steel
how often do they rot out?
 
I thought it was the inner bladder that usually goes bad.

Anyways I just bought one for my cabin and what I found was number of fixtures x 3 was the minimum size you should get. I ended up with a 20 gallon unit. The tank was the cheap part, all the fittings for the manifold ran $300 bucks.
 
My brief search came up with two thoughts on tank size: 1) number of fixtures, 2) pump/well GPM(ie ensure pump runs minimum amount of time)

I'm curious about how one would pick a pressure switch based upon multiple tanks especially if they are different.
 
[486 said:
;n102475]my dad's got a fiberglass pressure tank
all I see for sale and at the scrap yard are steel
how often do they rot out?
Click to expand...

Gee, I wonder why people don't take the fiberglass ones to the scrap yard. :flipoff2:
 
Key is whats the drawdown of the tank as this tank advertised as an 86 gallon tank and the physical size of the tank may be 86 gallons it does not supply 86 gallons.

More like 20-25 gallons drawdown are supplied, and this is about the largest "bladder" design tank unless a custom bladder tank is procured.

A galvanized tank is or was about the largest tank but it doesnt work the same as a bladder, there is valving involved and it requires more attention than a bladder tank.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Water-W...=REC-_-pip_mobile-_-202846488-_-202846487-_-N
 
You don't want anything that is going to restrict flow between your pump and tank.

Ime wellmate fiberglass captive air tanks don't last outdoor.

Cheaply made big box store tanks don't last.

You don't get pressure or flow from your tank that comes from the pump, the tanks job is so that the pump doesn't have to start every time you use water like washing your hands or flushing the toilet.
If you have extra money to throw away on an oversized then it's your money no one can tell you how to spend it.
 
A comparable bladder tank would be about 2X $$$ right ??
 
Code in central fl is the Draw down of the tank is a minimum of one minute of run time for the pump. The gallons the tank delivers from shut off to turn on is the draw down Need to know what the gem of the pump is. Then get the largest one or ones that will fit the budget. The larger the tank , the less the pump will cycle. The cycling of the pump is a lot more damaging than a pump running continuous. Tank charts will give the drawdown of the tank at different off/on pressures. The Home Depot or Lowe’s tanks don’t seem to last as well as a Flexcon or well x trol. The less a pump cycles makes the tank live longer also
 
As mentioned before, you need to size the tank to the pump. Given that the output on the pump is only 1", this is a pretty small pump. My 2 HP submersible pump has a 2" outlet and pumps 40 gal/min. You didn't mention what kind of 112 gallon tank you were getting for $1600, but that sounds awfully expensive, unless this is a true 116 gallon bladder tank, which would probably be equivalent to a 500 gallon conventional tank, which is WAY oversize for that little pump. If it's a bladder tank that is a 116 gallon equivalent, then it's WAY overpriced. You can buy a 250 gallon equivalent ( 44 gallon actual) Welltrol for ~$600 from Home Depot, which is probably more than sufficient for your needs. When our well/pump was put in, that same size is what the well driller installed and it has worked great for almost 30 yrs.

The other concern I would have is the distance from the well to house and the pressure drop using 1" pipe for a 200' run. That's a fairly long run for small pipe, so you are likely to have some pressure drop because of that. I realize that there's not much you can do about that, but just be aware of it. My house is also 200'+ from the house, and I ran 2" for all but the last 2' or so that I stepped down to 1 1/4" going into the house.
 
1" wellhead?
yikes

Look up
Floculation tank
Resiviour \retention
Jaccizi pump
Depth filter
 
[486 said:
;n102475]my dad's got a fiberglass pressure tank
all I see for sale and at the scrap yard are steel
how often do they rot out?
Click to expand...

They sell replacement bladders for fiberglass tanks and it can be easier to replace the bladder than the entire tank if you have to redo a bunch of plumbing and the bladders are IIRC about 20 percent the price of a new tank. Steel tanks do rust out around here.
 
[486 said:
;n103203]

well I'm sure that any tank will burst if you leave it outside full of water, ice does some crazy shit
Click to expand...

I didn't read your location. I live in the central valley, California it's not uncommon for well pumping systems to be outdoors. The fiberglass tanks spring leaks at the tops and bottom near the wraps I guess the sun breaks down the resin. We sell flexcon tanks with ss steel acceptance elbows and hardly ever have a failure unless someone lets the air out of it.
 
M92PV4U said:
t.

You don't get pressure or flow from your tank that comes from the pump, the tanks job is so that the pump doesn't have to start every time you use water like washing your hands or flushing the toilet.
Click to expand...

Yes and no.... tank doesn't create anything, but it does essentially store pressure, so you can support a short term flow rate higher than the pump can produce. I.e., 1 gpm pump would be enough for most things, but if fills up a 100 gal pressure tank you could then run something at 10 gpm for 10 minute before it would drop off to 1 gpm pump flow. The number here are made up, but should illustrate the point. Larger the pressure tank the greater/longer you can sustain a load greater than pump output - for instance 2 showers, toilet flush and laundry all at the same time. Also means less pump cycling, though pump will run longer when it does cycle.

Bottom line, other than higher price and needing more room there's no downside to too large of tank. You may not need it, or see any benefit too having it, but the converse isn't true - if go too small it's definitely going to be noticeable.

Another plus is more stored water in the event of a pump failure or power outage. 100 gallons of water will last a surprisingly long time if you're careful, and as long as there's no leaks you will still have water pressure.
 
sdmuleman said:
Yes and no.... tank doesn't create anything, but it does essentially store pressure, so you can support a short term flow rate higher than the pump can produce. I.e., 1 gpm pump would be enough for most things, but if fills up a 100 gal pressure tank you could then run something at 10 gpm for 10 minute before it would drop off to 1 gpm pump flow. The number here are made up, but should illustrate the point. Larger the pressure tank the greater/longer you can sustain a load greater than pump output - for instance 2 showers, toilet flush and laundry all at the same time. Also means less pump cycling, though pump will run longer when it does cycle.

Bottom line, other than higher price and needing more room there's no downside to too large of tank. You may not need it, or see any benefit too having it, but the converse isn't true - if go too small it's definitely going to be noticeable.

Another plus is more stored water in the event of a pump failure or power outage. 100 gallons of water will last a surprisingly long time if you're careful, and as long as there's no leaks you will still have water pressure.
Click to expand...

If you are relying on the pressure tank capacity to cover the demand of water that you need then your system is designed wrong.
 
A better way if you want reliability is to use the pump in the hole just to pump water and not to pressurize the tank, I have a 5k green tank that holds my water and have a jet pump that pressurizes the bladder tank to supply the tank.

This saves the 3 wire submersible pump from pumping when the pressure tank pressure drops, it only pumps when the holding tank gets down to a level I desiginate so its cooling properly.

Could use a diagram of my setup anyone good with cad ?
 
so this is what i found

existing pump and pressure tank info

tank is water worker [TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 3, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"]HT-44B[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]44 Gal Tank/120Gal Equiv[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]642031613165[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]69[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]22[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]22[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]36[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
by their chart its 44 gallon tank 36"x22"

pressure switch-stays 40 -45psi between cut i n and out (i say something might be wrong with the switch settings )

i measured in the bathtub and look like 10 GPM supply
this might be more as im taking the water from bathtub and not right at the tank

drawdown is around 8 Gallons between cut in -out
 
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