Well Pressure Tank

I just began having what seems to be a problem with my well pressure tank. Its a Well-X-Trol model WX-203. I am thinking that I may be partly to blame. I have the cut in and out pressure set at 50/70 because I was not happy with the water pressure. The pump seems to be cycling much too often. As I am doing laundry this morning, the washing machine is filling. The pump turns on, begins filling the tank and after only about ten seconds of filling I hear what sounds like a squirting sound in the tank, the pressure jumps to 70, the pump shuts off and the pressure drops down to around 45-50 or so almost immediately. After ten seconds or so the pump cycles back on and does the same thing all over again. It seems to hold pressure if there is no water draw though. I tried opening the schrader valve with a screwdriver a little and got a slight spray of water. Pressure was 40 psi or so in between pump cycles. I'm assuming the bladder has failed in the tank and I need to replace it. Is this a correct assumption? Should I not have the pressure set so high? I thought it would be fine because the tank is rated at 125 psi, but I don't think I ever increased the empty pressure of the tank when I did that about 6 years ago. The tank is only about 8 years old. Is there a way to fix this without replacing the tank? Is there any other info I can offer? Thanks for any help you can give me.

John

 

It sounds to me like the pressure tank is bad. The symptoms you describe lead me to believe it's waterlogged.
You should have increased the precharge when you raised the pump cutin/cutout pressures. The bladder is probably overstretched.
That higher the cutin/cutout pressures, the less drawdown you'll get from the pressure tank. The WX-203 will give you about 8 gallons of drawdown at 40/60, and you're even higher than that.
You might even consider replacing it with a bigger tank.
Ron

 

You should not be getting water out of the schraeder valve. It would agree you pressure tank is bad.