More Pressure or More Volume?

[Matt A]

Hey guys, love the Forum! You guys have saved my butt many times! I have a rental property with a single well with an 82 gallon pressure tank and a single softener system which services a small 3 bedroom house and 3 small 1 bedroom apartments. The setup has served me well all over the years but with this Corona stuff everybody is home and using water, doing laundry, showering etc. I'm not sure if I need more pressure, more volume or both? If it's volume that I need I was thinking of buying a second tank and putting it in tandem to increase the on-demand volume. Would this be the correct decision or should I just bump up the pressure? I'm at 30/50 right now and really don't want to go much higher because the house is quite old and I'm afraid about bursting pipes Any help or advice would be greatly received and appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[Matt A]

PS. I discharged the system and verified tank pressure is spot-on at 28 PSI.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

When using water if the pump is cycling on and off between 30 and 50 you have plenty of volume and just need more pressure. If the pressure is low and just stays low and doesn't cycle on and off, you need more volume which means a bigger pump.

Either way a larger tank will make it worse.

 

[Matt A]

Ahhh. Makes sense. I think I will turn up the pressure maybe 5 pounds and see what happens.

 

[Valveman]

40/60 is much more common these days. But even at 40/60 you are down to 40 more than half the time. With a CSV you can have strong constant 50 PSI all the time water is being used, which is as high as yours get now just as it shuts off and starts to drop again.

 

[LLigetfa]

Either way a larger tank will make it worse.

I agree. I don't really understand (the thought process) why folks think a bigger tank would help.

Folk seem to think that they start using water with a full tank that is at max pressure and end with a full tank at max pressure. That does not happen often in practice. Murphy's Law is the pressure is down to almost cut-in and then when you draw water, the pump can supply it only so fast and so your use competes with refilling the tank. The other scenario is the tank is half full and you have to suffer the lower pressure longer while draining the tank before the pump comes on and then again, your use competes with the refill.