During the past few years I've replaced my wells holding tank, water softener, and now putting in a new peroxide chlorination system. I noticed my well extrol tank is pretty much rotted all around the bottom so I'm going to replace it while we have to do some new plumbing anyways. I sized up a new extrol tank and my home calls for almost a 44 gal tank, I only have a 20 gal now. My problem is if I go with the 44 gal tank it has to be pipped in with 1 1/4" pipe, everything right now has 1 inch piping. I could go with a smaller extrol 38 gal that only needs 1" connections, or go with the bigger and change all my piping to 1 1/4" somehow. .

 

So what is your question? How to reduce 1 1/4" pipe to 1" or which tank to go with?

 

This bigger pressure tank put into your system does not "need" a bigger main line underneath it to connect to..

You are free to put in a reducer pipe to adapt it to your existing plumbing. (Diameter, not pressure, may require more than one piece to construct depending what is in stock at Home Depot and how much clearance space is under the tank)

All the parts in the reducer and pipe connection should be at least one inch here (the tank opening size or the main line size whichever is smaller).

The bigger tank will give better performance on the system; most folks don't go with the bigger tank because it takes up too much space or costs too much for their budget.

 

What my question would be is the 44 gal tank takes a 1 1/4" brass tee. Can I use a 1" brass tee and put a 1 x 1 1/4" bushing on the end of it going into the bottom of the extrol tank? Will this constrict my draw down presser any? Also on the 44 gal tank it said to use a 30-50 or a 40-60 pressure on/off switch, which would be better to use?

 

mark –

I replaced my tank with a Well-X-Trol just recently. The 1 1/4 connection at the tank is just to accommodate a larger 1 1/4 inch supply pipe if that’s what your house already has. But if your house has a 1 inch supply pipe (which I believe is the most widely used) then you are expected to use a 1 1/4 to 1 inch reducing bushing at the connection at the bottom of the tank as you are planning (I did).

The tank tee would be 1 inch with a 1 inch pipe going from the tee into the reducing bushing at the bottom of the tank.

A 30-50 switch would give you a little more tank draw down than a 40-60 switch. In other words, there would be more gallons drawn as you draw down from 50 down to 30 before the pump comes on, than there would be from drawing from 60 down to 40. In other words, you would be able to draw a little more water from your tank with a 30-50 switch before the pump comes on. Saves your pump a little bit.

But the tradeoff is that you will actually have a slightly lower house pressure. I moved from a 40-60 to a 30-50 and forgot all about it (really bad memory these days) and didn’t later measure or check anything, and I don’t really ever remember even noticing a pressure change at all - but I am a little dense – lol.

 

Almost all the pressure tanks I install have larger fittings than the piping in the home. Reducing down to 1" won't affect your flow or pressure.

 

I found this from the literature I saved:

Well-X-Trol WX-250 44.0 gallon tank

drawdown 20-40 = 17.7gals

drawdown 30-50 = 15.0 gals

drawdown 40-60 = 12.9 gals

 

Thanks for all the info guys, you seem to make life a lot easier, lol. Have one more quick question if you don't mind. I have two 1" brass ball valves on both ends of this system, they're both a little nasty looking from all the bad water I use to have running through them but they still work. I wanna hook my water system up with all new connections, should I use brass ball valves again or are the PVC ball valves just as good? Any pros or cons between the two, will one hold up better than the other?

 

mark –

I’m no expert for sure but I think many plumbers don’t think the PVC ball valves are that reliable and when you need to do a shutoff they may not work. At least that’s the impression I get. I had to use some CPVC up to my Acid Neutralizer Filter (my water is acidic and kills the copper pipes) and I went out of my way to use brass ball valves rather than CPVC ball valves.

But the thing is that going from CPVC (or PVC) to brass ball valves requires an adapter – something like this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/KBI-Adapter...E&gclsrc=aw.ds



And some of the adapters have been known to leak themselves (You can’t win –lol). So I spent a ridiculous amount (about $20 each) and got one like below but CPVC to brass (was Spears brand and 1 inch but I can’t find it online anymore) , but I’m pretty sure stainless steel would certainly be OK to connect to brass.

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/it...?itemid=119320



Anyway, I don’t know whether others would think that it would be worth the trouble and expense to use the above type adapters just to put in brass ball valves. Others may think sticking to CPVC (or PVC) ball valves would be fine.

Hope the experts chime in!

 

I am doing the same thing, I'm installing a 44 gallon tank and I got the 1 1/4 bass T to install in the tank. But I am going to reduce it coming out of the brass T to fit my 3/4 pipe supplying the house, is that ok ? Or should it be reduced at the tank and a 1" T installed ?

 

Reduce it wherever you want. Smaller fittings are usually less expensive so it's usually cheaper to reduce right at the tank so all the subsequent fittings can be the smaller size.