The Seagull

**Smf-retired-user-0043** · 04-14-2023, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by hills

Interesting stuff. I've never seen the metal Extrol tanks done that way before. The fiberglass water pressure tanks supposedly have a replaceable air bladder but the plumbers just throw them away and install a new one. Saves a lot of time when they're billing $ 60.00/hr.

Ran into a stainless steel hot water tank today. It was something along the lines of a boiler mate in the way it functions but had a stainless steel heating coil installed with the Scully flanges. The heating coil for the boiler mate mounts in like the flanged Extrol tank in the first pic.

That Stainless steel water tank my bet is someone would be interested in ownership, would make a good still for essential oils or ethanol.

Now that the snow has melted first time this year in the back yard, living in town I either have to dismantle my treasures in the back yard or inside the shop. Anyhow after a trip to the landfill this afternoon came home with a load of microwaves.

In the back yard discovered I have another of the blue metal tanks, we use a fibre glass tank at the other house.

Yea replacing the whole tank is probably cheaper, the other day inquired on the price of a solenoid for my Jetta TDI diesel, $180.00 a new starter is $20.00 less expensive.

They don't want people fixing their own stuff anymore.

**hills** · 04-15-2023, 01:47 AM

Yeah ... the blue tanks like the one in your back yard seem to last longer but the plug up with rust where it does a 90 deg if you have a lot of elemental iron in your well water. They seem to clean out pretty good with muriatic acid but you have to be careful.

Found a nice Amtrol WX -250 on the dump years ago. Carefully cleaned it up and put it back into service. Having such a large tank really cut down on the pump cycles and saved on the electric bill. It's nice when the power goes out too. You have more of a draw down before the tank runs dry.

**Smf-retired-user-0043** · 04-15-2023, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by hills

Yeah ... the blue tanks like the one in your back yard seem to last longer but the plug up with rust where it does a 90 deg if you have a lot of elemental iron in your well water. They seem to clean out pretty good with muriatic acid but you have to be careful.

Found a nice Amtrol WX -250 on the dump years ago. Carefully cleaned it up and put it back into service. Having such a large tank really cut down on the pump cycles and saved on the electric bill. It's nice when the power goes out too. You have more of a draw down before the tank runs dry.

At our BC property we had a very large water tank with a snifter valve and that tank was at least 30 years old and still going strong when we moved, those bladder tanks maybe five years tops in this Province.

I often see small 2 gallon tanks attached to the water pump, and think to myself every time a toilet is flushed that pump fires up and the hydro meter spins, you absolutely right with the larger tank pump cycling is lowered.

Not many people are aware that when an electric motor starts there's a huge amperage draw.

Complete article - Here

**hills** · 04-15-2023, 04:48 PM

It's funny ... i've seen quite a few of the galvanized tank setups in the older places i've worked on over the years but never had call to actually work on one. They were all phased out in favor of the bladder tanks by the time i came on the scene about 35 years ago. Almost all of the jet pumps have been phased out in favor of submersibles now as well.

I think it has to do with the water table here. A single pipe jet is only good to 30 feet before it starts to cavitate. A two pipe jet with a foot valve is pretty much limited to 100 feet. It's not uncommon for our drilled wells to be 200 - 500 feet deep so a submersible is needed for that job.

The submersibles seem to pair well with the bladder tanks. They usually give you at least twenty years of trouble free service as long as the installation was done right. In a way ... those submersibles are almost too reliable. The impeller stacks slowly wear over the years and there's an imperceptible loss in pump efficiency. That results in longer run cycles from "cut in" to "cut out". You end up using more electricity.

It would almost be better of they had to swap out the pumps with new one a little more often.

Maine is cold, but your part of the world must be much colder in the winter. I wonder if your bladder tanks freeze more often than ours do.