Pressure Tanks and Private Well Systems by HomeAdditionPlus.com

If your home gets its water supply from a private well, chances are you have one of this sitting in your basement or utility room.

Hi, I am Mark Donovan from HomeAdditionPlus.com and today, I am going to talk you about pressure tanks. Pressure tanks works in conjunction with your well pump to supply water to your home. Pressure tanks serves three main purposes: (1) it ensures a constant supply or a constant pressure of water to the various plumbing fixtures throughout the home; (2) it extra prolong the life of the submersible pump; and (3) it access a whole tank full of water for the home.

The pressure tank itself consists of two sections that is separated by a rubber diaphragm. In the upper portion is pressurized the air. In the bottom-half is actually for holding water. What happens is your well sends water into the base of the pressure tank and as it builds, it creates a pressure on the upper half of the tank. And that pressure is used to provide the constant flow of pressure to your faucets in showers within your home. At the heart of the pressure tank is a pressure switch. What this does is it sense when there is a need for adding water into the pressure tank. Also, it determines when to shut off the flow of water into the pressure tank. And how it basically works is when somebody turns on the faucet and it runs for a while, the pressure reduces to somewhere around 20 to 30 PSI. That tells the pressures which then turn on the pump motor to the well and water then rushes into the tank to fill it up. Once the pressure tank gets to somewhere around 40 to 60 PSI, the pressure switch tells the well pump to turn off and that is what acts to control the constant flow of water pressure within your home.

Again, one of the main purposes of a pressure tank is to reduce the number of times the well pump has to turn on and off. The life of the well pump is directly proportional to the number of times it needs to be turned on and off. And so the bigger the tank you have, the less frequently that motor pump has to turn on or off and thus it will be extended on the well pump.

To determine if a pressure tank is bad or not, you just have to tap the top or tap the bottom and you will notice two different sounds, a hollow sound at top and a thudding sound at the bottom. This indicates that this pressure tank is working properly. If you heard the third sound, both top and bottom, then you would know water actually filled up inside of the entire tank which indicates that the diaphragm is broken inside. When a situation like that occurs, it is time to get a new pressure tank.

In terms of getting a new pressure tank, there is a couple of metrics that you need to be aware of. Number one, you are going to need to know the gallons per hour flow rate of the well pump; and number two, you are going to need know the number of plumbing in water spicket and kitchen type of fixtures that depends on this pressure tank.

You take those two pieces of information to a plumbing store and they can select select the appropriate size tank for the needs and requirements of your home. So that is it on pressure tanks. If you have any other home improvement questions, visit us at HomeAdditionPlus.com today.