Second Tank installed on system - Not what I expected

[Rutherfordman]

So I got the 60 gallon tank installed this morning on the system and have left the 20 gallon at the pressure switch. At first there was almost a 15 psi difference between the tanks. I suspected the water filter was terribly clogged which was between them as I just bought the house and have not replaced it. As usual could not get the dang thing apart to pull it out. About everyone of these cartridge type inline filters is a bear to get apart so if anyone knows another type that you can remove and replace filters easily I am all ears. Anyway I just cut the thing out of the pipe and spliced in a new section of pipe. Sure enough once I did that there is only about 3-4 psi difference between the tanks. Later on today showers needed to happen so I could check things out better. I watched as the pressure gage got down to just below 40 psi at the tank at the pressure switch and the pump kicked on. It ran up to 60 psi and shutoff as usual but when I checked the new tank on the system it was only at 50 psi when this happened. It evened out to where there was 5 psi between the two. Not really the results I wanted to see and yes valveman was right. I may have bought some more time but not as much as I wanted. I set the air pressure at the new tank on the system at 38 psi just like the tank at the pressure switch. So other than eating crow is there anything I can do such as change air presure at the second tank or maybe there is trapped air. Maybe cut my losses, take tank (if I can) back and install CSV, hard lesson learned I guess.

 

[Craigpump]

If it was me, I'd remove the smaller tank and just use the bigger one.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

If I understand "It evened out to where there was 5 psi between the two" correctly, I think the two gauges are calibrated differently, or that the lower-reading gauge is about 11 feet higher than the other. Except for altitude differences, the gauges will be seeing the same pressure when the pump is off and no water is being used.

I like the Pentek Big Blue 20x4.5 filter housings for fairly low backpressure and many choices of non-propriatary filter elements. Do get a wrench for un-screwing the housing, but you normally do not want to use a wrench for tightening. Have a spare O-ring on hand, and apply silicon grease to the O-ring whenever you install/reinstall.

Whatever you do, there must be a pressure thank at the pressure switch, and there must be no valve or fiter between the well pump and the pressure switch.

 

[Rutherfordman]

I wish I could remove the smaller tank and put the larger one there. It is under my stairs and there is no room unless I move everything like the pressure switch to a different location. The tanks and pressure gages are at the same elevation, probably around thirty feet between the two. The run time on the pump has improved but not all that much so I am thinking my pressure gages are probably accurate. I think I can take the tank back as I got it from a friend so I am considering that and installing the CSV. Even though it was alot of wasted time, work and money in the end I want the system to function as best as it can. Money lost which is hard to come by but lessons learned. Not the first time. I am over 50, no college education so the only way I have made it is doing everything myself for all these years. Even though I design commercial plumbing systems I started off pushing a pencil across a drafting board for many years and the old guys taught me. These days they require a college education and lots of letters behind your name. The entry level I squeezed in on is not there anymore. Dont know how the younger generation will do as many of them have not learned to do things themselves.

 

[LLigetfa]

Find another location for the tank and run a 1" line to it that is not going through a filter. I predicted the outcome in your other thread.
https://terrylove.com/forums/index....system-is-working-properly.58804/#post-434972

 

[Valveman]

You can still add a CSV. The CSV will fill the tank(s) at 1 GPM. At 1 GPM there will be no friction loss between the two tanks and they will fill equally. But once you see how the CSV works, you will realize you didn't need the larger tank at all.