Pressure tank

[Olaf]

Why would the plumbing and electrical need to be changed for a bladder tank? Screw a bladder tank to the existing plumbing and follow the manufacturer's instructions with the tank to be sure you pressurize the tank properly (and don't blow the bladder).

I never thought of a possible benefit of the water having exposure to air in the pressure tank. I don't see how it could continually benefit from it though. If it did use O2 from the air in the tank it's not like that air is refreshed at any useful interval.

We have pretty much the same setup at the home where I work. High sulfur water included. They have a bladder tank and submersible pump. A reverse osmosis filtration system for drinking water makes the water actually tolerable to drink.

[Harry K]

conventional

If they did not install snifter valves or some method of automatically adding air to the tank, you will have to constantly, i.e., about every week, drain the tank to get air back into it. I can't believe that any pump person would do such a bone-headed thing.

Olaf gave a good reply to the remainder.

Harry K

[Mike]

The reason they did not install snifter valves, is because they knew I had a big air compressor and I always had trouble with the air float switch in my tank not working. I replaced that air float valve so many times I gave up. The rust and sulphur from the water in the tank caused it to fail within a year af being installed. I just air charged the tank as needed. The pump guys knew this, so they left out the snifters, and said this was now good for either tank setup.. You are correct in saying that I must add air to the tank. I drain the tank and add air twice a year (I should do it more often) or the tank gets waterlogged, and the pump runs for a long time.

Mike

[Mike]

The reason for the electrial change, (if i go with the bladder tank) is because the pressure swicth is on top of the tank right now. The bladder tank setup has the pressure switch just off the floor. I will need to run a new line down to the floor. Not a big problem.

The plumbing change is because my (non-bladder tank.) has a pipe going in on one side, and a pipe coming out on the opposite side. With the bladder tank, I must install a brass tee (not included with the tank) into the bottom of the bladder tank, the detour the in and out water pipes into the tee. Also I need a pressure relief valve. When it's all added up, it gets a little expensive to make the detour with the exsisting plumbing.

Mike.

[Mike]

Aeration of water is a good thing. There are thousands of articles about this all over the internet (do a google search) The link below is just one example. Aeration of water , also helps eliminate the oxides in rust.

Thanks for your comments

[Olaf]

Very interesting. I learned something else new today. :-) I thought bladder-less tanks were old fashioned relics from the past. They have devices for automatically adding air to the tank?

Heck, if it significantly helps with the sulfur in the water I'd consider the fiberglass bladderless tank. But if you don't add air soon enough to the tank won't it burn your pump up? Does it really help with the sulfur? I'd love to suggest it to my employer.. The water at works about gags everybody.

Thanks for the info! Very cool!

[Mike]

I have a Submersible well pump (outside the house) with a conventional pressure tank located in my basement (non-bladder tank). My pressure tank rots through about every ten years due to corrosive sulphur in my well water (terrible rotten egg smell). The guys who replaced my well pump told me that the next time I need to replace the pressure tank, that I could go with abladder tank. the water is in a rubber bag, and will not touch the metal (thus no rotted out tank). They also told me that because a bladder tank is not air-over-water, that the lack of oxygen on the sulphur water, will make the sulphur smell even worse than before, they said I will have to think about the pros and cons of the whole situation.

They told me that in order to be able to use a bladder tank if I want later, that when they installed the new pump, they did not reinstall the bleeder orfrices (sniffters) the only thing above the pump itself is the check valve.

I have three options

1. Iinstall a cheap (non bladder) tank with no modifications. Betwen 0.00 to 0.00

1. Install an expensive fibreglass tank (that will never rot out) Betwen 0.00 to 0.00

2. Iinstall a bladder tank (which will need to have the plumbing and electrical modified) About 0.00 including tank

All the above estimated prices are for material only, Labor I will do.

What is the best way to go in the long run ? Thanks for all comments and opinions.

Mike

[Harry K]

charged the

Aha! That makes sense. I have had the good fortune to have never had a sulphur problem on any of the wells I worked on. I am beginning to wonder about my current one tho. Once in a while I get a sniff of sulphur when taking a shower.

Harry K

[Doug Miller]

Oxygenation, specifically.

Yes, that's true - but you're not going to get any significant aeration of water in an air-over-water tank after the first few days. Since the tank is not open to the atmosphere, the oxygen which reacts with various substances in the water is not replaced. As soon as the oxygen is depleted from the air inside the tank, any benefits of aeration disappear.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[Harry K]

Kinda hard to see the set up here but it sounds like you are doing more than necessary.

I would tie the in/out pipes together with a galv (or copper) T. Then run from the T to the fitting that comes with the tank (or at least mine did). Of course tank location might make that impossible. The PRV valve should go on the hot-water heater, never saw one on a pressure tank.

Harry K