Multiple pressure tanks on a shared well?

[boilernole]

Hi. Long story short, we have 4 houses sharing a community well. Two houses have a pressure tank, ours does not, and the last house isn’t built yet. Our neighbor is demanding we add a pressure tank, but both our builder and plumber said we don’t need one. We were told only one pressure tank is needed on each shared well by both of them.

I’m looking for some sort of consensus on the issue so we can put the issue to rest (and likely move on to another). Thanks for any info and help you all can provide!

 

[Valveman]

Multiple pressure tanks at different locations are not a good idea. Distance and friction loss means they will fill at different times and confuse the pump. One pressure tank is all you need for multiple houses. A 20 gallon pressure tank is plenty large when controlling the pump with a Cycle Stop Valve. However, without a CSV you need as large a tank as you can fit through the door and two in the same location would be better. But you cannot have enough tanks to eliminate the cycling like a CSV will do. With a CSV I use a single 86 gallon tank for a city with 100,000 people.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Hi. Long story short, we have 4 houses sharing a community well. Two houses have a pressure tank, ours does not, and the last house isn’t built yet. Our neighbor is demanding we add a pressure tank, but both our builder and plumber said we don’t need one. We were told only one pressure tank is needed on each shared well by both of them.

Put the pressure tank(s) at the pressure switch normally. Is there a well house, or what?

What is the legal framework for the sharing of the well?

If you did need to add a pressure tank at your house for some reason (peace with neighbor maybe), it might be best to feed that via a check valve. That would minimize pump confusion/oscillations.

 

[Valveman]

A check valve just adds even more friction loss, further causing the tank farthest away to fill up last.

 

[Reach4]

A check valve just adds even more friction loss, further causing the tank farthest away to fill up last.

It would delay filling slightly, but it would add to the total capacity, which I have to think is the objective of the complaining neighbor. It is only maybe a 2 psi drop I think. So it should lag little.

Having a 44 gallon tank at the remote location without a check valve would be worse probably.

 

[Valveman]

Depends on the friction loss. Sometimes it is 10 PSI or more difference. This causes the first tank to drain into the second tank after the pump shuts off. The check valve also keeps anyone else for utilizing the draw down from that tank. Check valves at the tanks could increase pump run time, but would decrease pump off time.