Now, for all you big city folk, this would simply entail ringing up city hall and telling them to suss things out... with a well, it's... well... a little more complicated... and if you call in a plumber... a lot more expensive.
I had actually gone out and purchased a new pressure tank a little while ago... our old tank is probably 20 years old, a little grungy at the tee... and it sits way down on the basement floor. I figured I'd replace the tank, the pressure switch & gauge... and fab up a table at waist-level to avoid that hands & knees deal. It's a little awkward to get down and read that gauge, or reset the switch... and in another ten years, it'll be downright painful.
Anyway, this pressure thing forced my hand... and I spent an hour yesterday removing & installing a new switch & gauge. Wanted to see if it was just the bits causing trouble... or whether the tank itself had failed.
Here's what I found...
You can see that the tube on the bottom of the pressure switch is completed occluded with, well... I don't even wanna think about it. The gauge is similarly baffed and stuck on 60 psi.Swapped in the new pressure switch... which also now has a built-in low pressure trip that shuts off the pump if pressure drops below 20 psi. Nice to have if you blow a washing machine hose... or have a pipe freeze & burst.
And it's always nice to have a working pressure gauge...
I also had to air up the bladder in the old tank... it'll hold long enough for me to throw together a platform for the new tank. I actually splurged and bought a new brass tee as well.Once all this stuff is in... it'll mean I've bullet-proofed the in-house components... which means the only other possible problem I will have in the forseeable future is the submersible pump itself.
A pretty simple operation overall... certainly a lot less drama & frustration than my last few forays into home maintenance.
