Ok my second wellxtrol wx350 went out they only last me a five years each so I am switching to a galvanized unit to hopefully get longer life. My question is in sizing. I am going verticle and am removing and replacing the concrete that is broken formerly under the wellxtrol. Voles actualy burroughed right under/thought the dirt under the tank and the pad settled.

My qustion is in reagrds to tank sizing. I am looking at either a 525 or a 900 gallon. Other than more time between when the pump turns on, what are the differences other than sizer and cost?

I have a 50+ GPM 6 inch well and currently have a 3hp pump putting out over 32 gpm. I plan to upgrade to a 5hp when that one dies. Water is at 105 feet and the well itself is 185 feet.

I irrigate 3 acres with lawn not pasture. I fill a half acre pond in the summer with the well, and of course the house is run from the well also. With the 3hp pump I run my lawn irrigation 8 hours straight basically 6 days a week on two different parts of the property. So 3 days each part. This is due to the 8 hours time. I am hoping with a 5 hp to cut it down a little.

I mentioned this because I want to size the tank now for the larger pump later. Not sure if and how it matters.

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Thanks for the help,

Brian

 

Well all is good again, well actually I think better than it ever was.
I chose a 525 gallon galvanized tank. The installer talked me out of a 900g. I have a 3hp pump now but will move to a 5hp when that one fails.

I had to cut out the concrete around the well it was poorly installed and cracked and sunk. Since I was going from a 120g bladder tank to 525 the weight was a concern so I made the pad a foot thick with 1/2 inch rebar plus larger. It is a verticle tank due to space issues near it. I did the concrete myself the breaking and refoming rebar and pouring etc... No problem there.

We did get lucky in that when switching from a bladder to a galv. you have to have a bleeder thing on the pipe running down to the pump. Basically after the pump shuts off the water runs down the pipe and is replaced with air. When the pump kicks on it pushes the air into the tank. This solves the problem of folks having to add air to their non pressure tanks. I was a littel nervous talking to a couple of dealers who said I would have to add air all the time. These folks need more education that is not the case with this type of setup. .We got lucky in that the pipe to the pump had a tee at twenty feet already plugged this meant we did not have to remove a union and put a plug in.

Now that I understand how this setup works I must say it is slicker than the bladder system. The pump cycles a whole lot less with the large tank and it seems a little smoother too if that is the way to decribe it. Folks are getting 30-50 years with this setup here. Hopefully I will too. Now I wait for the pump to give up, it is coming up on twenty years old next year.

Brian