Well issues help!

Unless your well is slower gpm than mine. Its going to be cycling while filling up a big tank.

I would advise getting the biggest size PT you can fit. A 20gallon PT only has a draw down of say 6 gallons or so before it has to kick the pump on again.

So if you are filling a 100 gallon tank , you are going to be cycling the pump several times.

We have floats on all of our water tanks so its not a huge draw at one time. Except during the winter when we have to unhook the tanks so they don't freeze.
 
Is the info plate gone from the well? I'd dig around in there and see if it isn't buried in the dirt.
 
I am in the same boat as Ron.....more we are out of water experience. I do know the pressure tanks have gotten relatively smaller over the years. For my system I would try to up size that portion alone as best I could. Older ones like my folks and their parents were easily double capacity. I would think this would also reduce cycles and also force a longer run time.

I would be nice to know what the well was rated for flow. No need place a higher GPM pump if mother nature cant keep it supplied. As for HP of the unit.....more HP for any given head pressure just make sense to me. Rather have a bit more grunt over a unit running at its rated limit. HP will be relative to depth and flow but even a big unit will short cycle and heat up if the PT tank and related consumption don't balance.

Seems a chart should be available for such a selection.
 
Drawdown Capacity
The volume of water which the tank will hold will always be less than the actual size of the tank. This is referred to as the tank's drawdown capacity. In the process of sizing the tank, the drawdown capacity is the number that is sought after. With the necessary drawdown capacity determined, the actual tank size can then be decided.

Flow Rate - The drawdown capacity is dependent on a variety of factors, but perhaps most importantly is the pump's flow rate. At this point, the water pump has already been selected based on the household's demand for water and the well capacity. The water pump's flow rate in GPM will be needed to determine the tank's required drawdown capacity.

For pumps with a flow rate of less than 10 GPM, the required drawdown capacity would be determined by multiplying the flow rate by 1. For example, a pump with a flow rate of 8 GPM would require a tank drawdown capacity of 8 Gallons. For pumps with higher flow rates, the equation changes. The following equations give a general rule of thumb for determining drawdown based on the flow rate:

For flow rates between 0 and 10 GPM, multiply by 1.

For flow rates between 10 and 20 GPM, multiply by 1.5

For flow rates larger than 20 GPM, multiply by 2.

Based on the above equations, a pump with a flow rate of 16 GPM would need a tank with a 24 gallon drawdown capacity (16 x 1.5 = 24).

THIS was taken from a really good article I found on just PT tanks.....kinda cool I thought.
 
How long does your pump run to fill up the PT?

After reading about this a few years ago when i was having some well problems. (I can't remember all that i read) but I think 90 percent of the PT people install are too small. do they work yes, are they ideal no.
Depending on the pump hp i think you want the run time to fill the pressure tank to be a 1 - 2 minutes minimum for longer pump life. you can also link 2 pressure tanks together to increase the capacity.

In your case if its an older pump and it is short cycling or cycling a bunch. It could be heating up the pump up and then drawing more amps when trying to start.

I'm no expert but the longer the pump can and rest between cycles, the longer the life of the pump.
 
I think I’m gonna get the 52 gallon swapped out this weekend.
The next thing is can I run a 220v pump without running new wire. If I install a new 2 pole breaker and use the red and black for 2 legs of 110v and the green for ground that would be a simple swap in the breaker box.
It would seem that a 220v pump would’ve be working “less” in the medium range if it’s capability compared to a 110v pump running at the upper limits of its range?? Maybe??
 
When we moved into our place, I couldn’t find any info on the well. So to be safe I installed the biggest PT I could find. I’d like to keep the unknown pump as happy as I can. I ended up buying the big one from tractor supply. CLPT85 85 gallon. Plus if power goes you’ve got 26 gallons of reserve to flush toilets etc..
My 240v pump is set up using a
2 wire+ground 12 gauge wire I don’t see why you couldn’t use your existing wiring as long as it right gauge for the needed amp draw.


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Last edited:
josh m said:
When we moved into our place, I couldn’t find any info on the well. So to be safe I installed the biggest PT I could find. I’d like to keep the unknown pump as happy as I can. I ended up buying the big one from tractor supply. CLPT85 85 gallon. Plus if power goes you’ve got 26 gallons of reserve to flush toilets etc..
My 240v pump is set up using a
2 wire+ground 12 gauge wire I don’t see why you couldn’t use your existing wiring as long as it right gauge for the needed amp draw.


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I still need to gauge the wire that is there but as heavy as it is I do not at all see why I could not run the 220v pump I would like to give and it will be a .5hp which I assume the 110V pump that is there now is also probably a .5HP as well.
 
Looking back at your pictures. It appears to be 12g wire so that should handle a 20amp circuit. No problem.
Plus 220v motors use less amps than 120v so that’s helps you out too


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