I have what seems to be a small leak somewhere near my pressure tank. The floor is always wet, but I can't hear any dripping or other noise. Pressure in the tank seems to be holding. It seems to get worse with more well pump cycles. The entire system is only 10 years old. Any ideas?

Doug

You need to determine if it is the tank, or the water lines going to it to better help you with what you have.

No pressure loss in tank? no visable leaks or drips? worse when the pump recyles?...sounds like a simple condensation problem to me.

OK, I see where it's leaking from. It's dripping right at the connection where the water line (brass) connects with the bottom of the pressure tank. It's a slow drip - about one drip every 20 seconds.

Doug

It probably needs to be tightened. Unscrew the nipple, tape or dope it and tighten it back up.

There's a problem with that idea - the copper pipe (about 1" dia) is formed into an "s" shape, lower end on the tank side. Tightening it (I'd have to cut it off), would change the angle to the rest-of-house pipe itting and it wouldn't line up anymore. I'm thinking that this is not a DIY project....

Doug

The proper way to pipe things like this is to use unions and ball valves, so future maintenance is a piece of cake. If you have a plumber come out, have him repipe the tank like this. A slick fitting is called a brass tank cross, this is what I would use.

Thanks!

It's not hard but if you haven't done it before you may be better off calling a pump guy or plumber that knows well water systems. You need big pipe wrenches so you cna tighten the tee correctly without damaging the nipple connection to the bottom of the tank. I use 24" pipe wrenches. And you have to be careful not to crush the cast brass type tees.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

I don't use or suggest unions due to the fact that most pressure tanks will not need to be moved etc. until they are being replaced. Replacement tanks if even from the same manufacturer and the same model usually will not fit the permanent part of the unions and they will have to be redone anyway. It's actually easier and better to cut the tank out and replumb it or its replacement.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Gary, the unions are piped in after the ball valves, on the drops to the cross tee. Then there is a couple of inches of pipe to the 90's, then male adapters. You break the unions, then you have a built-in wrench to spin the adapters off and on.

I never put unions in because the potential leak they could pose.....and.........I never worry on the what if down the road related to putting removable unions in....that could be years before they get used.


I am usually taking them out and not replacing them. The old timers though almost demand them though.



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Everything in Plumbing can be repaired or replaced.

I know, I've seen more than a few very old tanks and some new DIYer installed tanks plumbed this way but... doing so adds to the expense of the install and IMO there's no benefit from doing this. And in this case where the tank ell/tee connection is leaking, the tank has to be removed and upended or at least laid on it's side to be able to fix the leak. In many cases the house side plumbing is done so the tank tee can not be rotated without loosening that fitting at the tee outlet. On the pump/well side, the plumbing has to be removed too. And there should never be a union on the tank inlet side IMO. If the tank tee in/outlet plumbing isn't removed, you can't remove the tank tee and retape or dope and reconnect it without needing 6' of rotation space. I cut so I don't have to remove the tee outlet side fitting.

So I (say) cut the house side, and usually cut or remove the last piece of PE tubing or PVC coming from the well back to the first ellbow and replace that to the tee fitting that I've left in the tee as I set the tank. Then I use a repair coupler on the house side.

I can cut a lot faster than fooling around with opening unions. I can prepare to and solder a coupler a lot faster than trying to get some unions to quit leaking. And I know my new well side tubing is good and soldered joints don't leak like unions can. And if I can't get the old corroded union to seal, I have to do the coupler thingy anyway, but I have to use two and a short piece of tubing! but.... what's the benefits I'm missing by not installing unions?

Gary
Quality Water Associates

No unions on the pump pressure tank? Yikes!
I have unions between the well and pump, pump and main supply line and pump and tank.

Mainly the reason is that I need to rebuild my pumps about every 5 years and replace the bladder tank about every 7. Also if there is a problem that I need to change the pump or tank.. all I have to do is break a union and replace the offending unit. I do not have the time to wait for glue to dry. I have never had a problem with leaking unions. ( as long as the O-ring is in there).
40,000 chickens get really thirsty really fast.
Also you wonder why i have to rebuld my pumps so much.. by rough figures it pumps on average 10,000 to 20,000 gal. per month depending on year.
Stuff just wears out.

Gary, I don't need 6' of rotation space to spin anything off. I was taught to think about the guy coming in after you. That is the problem with a lot of hacks and diyer's. They don't think about what comes after. You might not see the benefit of unions and that's fine. But a lot of people like the fact that they enable maintenance without cutting and soldering. I am also the guy that likes to have ball valves to each fixture ahead of the supply stops, so I can isolate indivdual fixtures w/o shutting down the whole house, if the supply stops go bad, which most do around here in a couple of years. Overkill? Yes, but it's cheap at the price. I value your advice and skill, but coming up as commercial plumber and nuke fitter, I like isolation valves and brass unions, not dielectric.

IMO you have a special need for all those unions that the average homeowner doesn't have. And I'm glad to see you're using PVC. Unions on jet pumps are okay but again, not for the homeowner if I install their pump. It's just one less thing to go wrong and that helps to prevent call backs, which I absolutely hate.

Gary
Quality Water Associates