I believe I have a failure of the bladder in my hydro-pneumatic tank as I am getting water out of the Schrader valve and my pump is short cycling on demand. How do you determine tank size? The one I have I would guess is about a 50 gallon tank & local well supply companies want about $650 for a replacement. Is there an advantage to upsizing? Disadvantage to downsizing? Does anyone make a tank with a replaceable bladder? I'm guessing no-one wants the liability of a pressure vessel that can be taken apart.

TexasFire

 

$650 would be a little on the high side for a 50 gallon tank. For that price it should be an Amtrol. The home improvement store tanks are considerably less.

You are correct. Water coming out of the Schrader valve signifies a bladder rupture and there are no replaceable bladder tanks.

Upsizing is always a plus. The higher the capacity the less the short cycling which ultimately saves on pump wear and tear.

 

Pressure tanks are relatively cheap. 50-60 gallon ones are around $250 at most home centers. Maybe the price you were quoted includes installation and removal & disposal of the old one.

There is really no "right" size for a pressure tank. Your well water system will work without it. All it does is minimize the on/off cycling of the pump. Turning on and off frequently is generally considered bad for a motor. Larger pressure tanks allows you to use more water between cycles of the pump turning on again so in theory a larger tank helps your pump last longer. You'll have to do some fuzzy math with a lot of guessing to try and find the optimum point. I think I have an 86 gallon one at my house.

One benefit of a large pressure tank is if you expect the power might be going out. Manually click the well pump on and fully charge/fill the pressure tank. Then when the power goes out you have some amount of water water.

 

 

You'll have to tell us more than "a galvanized tank".

 

A "galvanized tank" or other non-bladder tank used as a pressure tank requires the outlet to be near the bottom just as for a bladder tank. A single inlet/outlet as is typical with a modern bladder tank will also work with a non-bladder tank.

There should be a means up top to pump more air into the non-bladder tank as with a bladder tank. In fact the typical non-bladder tank needs to have more air added periodically since the air already inside will be gradually absorbed by the water.

The main connection(s) to the bottom of the pressure tank have no check valves but may have shutoff valves that are always open during normal pump operation. Optional: There may be a check valve in the inlet pipe to keep water from going back down to the pump when the latter has stopped.

There are optional gizmos and associated extra pipes to automatically add more air to a non-bladder tank as the pump cycles. These are analog (read: inexact).

To preset the pressure of a non-bladder tank, turn off the pump and open a cold faucet as usual. Now add air to the pressure tank until the added air starts bubbling out of the faucet. Then close the faucet. Add air to set the tank pressure to the usual 2 PSI below pump turn on pressure, Finally turn the pump back on.

If you overdraw the pump, say, by having too many faucets on at the same time and lot of air spouts out then the pressure tank air cushion will be depleted and you will need to repeat the preset process.