I had a water emergency on Sunday where one of the connections coming out of my pressure tank failed. In the 1st pic you can see that everything was pretty corroded, the valve to the house supply would not fully close, and the pressure gauge hasn't worked since we moved in 2 years ago. The joint at the top of the main valve failed and water was spraying everywhere. I shut everything down and drained the pressure to contain the problem. As I started to take the assembly apart, some connections just disintegrated.
In the 2nd pic, I have rebuilt everything with new parts, trying to use as much brass as I could obtain. I know that galvanized parts are not preferred but I went with what I could find on short notice. I was told that upgrading to a higher pressure switch would be okay so I went from a 30/50 pressure switch and annoyingly low water pressure in the house to 40/60 and the pressure is MUCH better (upped the PSI on the bladder to 38 PSI).
My problem now is with the connections on the black poly pipe and the dielectric fitting. I have a very slight weep of water at the 3 barb connections for the poly pipe and the lower connection for the dielectric fitting. I keep tightening the dielectric fitting and the leak is becoming less, so I guess to did not tighten it well enough (now I see that there is not much love for dielectric fittings, oh well...). I'll keep tightening until the leak stops. The connections on the poly pipe have me a bit frustrated. I heated the pipe slightly with a heat gun before inserting the barbed connectors and clamping. Should I heat those connections again to try to get a better seal? I've also read that the worm-drive hose clamps are not the best (oetiker clamps being better). I tried 2 opposing worm-drive clamps on each connection and that actually made the problem worse so I'm back to single clamps.
The existing leak is a drop or 2 of water every 30 min. from each connection, so nothing is dire but I would like to eliminate all of the leaks 100% (pressure tank is in a basement room with flooring). Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
In the 2nd pic, I have rebuilt everything with new parts, trying to use as much brass as I could obtain. I know that galvanized parts are not preferred but I went with what I could find on short notice. I was told that upgrading to a higher pressure switch would be okay so I went from a 30/50 pressure switch and annoyingly low water pressure in the house to 40/60 and the pressure is MUCH better (upped the PSI on the bladder to 38 PSI).
My problem now is with the connections on the black poly pipe and the dielectric fitting. I have a very slight weep of water at the 3 barb connections for the poly pipe and the lower connection for the dielectric fitting. I keep tightening the dielectric fitting and the leak is becoming less, so I guess to did not tighten it well enough (now I see that there is not much love for dielectric fittings, oh well...). I'll keep tightening until the leak stops. The connections on the poly pipe have me a bit frustrated. I heated the pipe slightly with a heat gun before inserting the barbed connectors and clamping. Should I heat those connections again to try to get a better seal? I've also read that the worm-drive hose clamps are not the best (oetiker clamps being better). I tried 2 opposing worm-drive clamps on each connection and that actually made the problem worse so I'm back to single clamps.
The existing leak is a drop or 2 of water every 30 min. from each connection, so nothing is dire but I would like to eliminate all of the leaks 100% (pressure tank is in a basement room with flooring). Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
