subject: The Advantages Of Captive Air Tanks [print this page] The presence of a pressure tank in water pumps has two objectives. Firstly, it prevents the pump from overheating.
Objective two is to create a mini reservoir of water. Spare water that doesn't need drawing out from the pump is called a drawdown.
For the pup to operate smoothly, tanks should be fitted with the right volume of drawdown. Water system's gpm should be met with the same drawdown amount.
A homeowner has two options in choosing what kind of tank they want to get. It can be a conventional one or the one that is fitted with a rubber diaphragm.
Calling conventional tanks as a hydro pneumatic tank is actually misleading. Pressure tanks used in water pumps involve water and air. In referring to the two types of tanks, it should be either captive air or conventional.
A rubbery or plastic like material can be found inside captive air tanks and also has a calibrated pressure. It is imperative the pressure switch is always higher than the pressure inside the tank.
Adjustments on the pre charged pressure should be made if one would use higher or lower pressure pump settings. Do not forget that all water should be drained from the tank before the pressure is calibrated.
There is no plastic or rubber layer that separates the water from air in conventional tanks.
In conventional tanks, water has a lower vapor pressure than the pressure found in the air, which means that less water molecules are coming up on the air while, air molecules are always bearing down on the water molecules, this means that if the air supply is not completely refilled, all air will be eventually lost to water.
An airless conventional tank will not run, and homeowners should see to it that it doesn't happen.
Usually, a plastic float solves the problem of losing the air supply into the water. It is bendable enough to be inserted into the tank. It requires regular check up to assure that the air supply is in the right level.
If using conventional tanks can be a little tricky, then a question comes to mind on why it is still used by some contractors.
You'll be surprised by what we've discovered. Certain contaminants present in the water can be reduced by the way these conventional tanks work. Setting up this kind of tanks requires service fees.
The service people may have never tried a captive air tank and may be quite unsure on how it is installed. Now is the time for them to step out of that habit and try better types of tanks instead.
