Well with camping over for the year I have been slowly knocking off items on the to-do list. Last weekend I got two Fantastic Fans installed (love them!). This weekend I will cram my upper half into a space that will be so comfortable that I have already made a chiropractor appointment for Monday. This space is where the 2G acumulator tank will go. Being that I do not want to shoe-horn myself into there too many times, I would like to set the pressure first. My water pump is a FlowJet 03526144, the pressure switch max is 50 psi, and from the research I've done the minimum should be 10 psi lower.
What should I set the tank pressure at? I was thinking it should be 42-45 psi, thinking that it will be full before the pump kicks out, and it will empty before it kicks in. Does that sound right?
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I think you will find that you want it set significantly lower than that. We have one of the small one liter tanks sold for marine and RV use, and it is set around 10 psi. At this pressure, it helps dampen the pulsation and noise of the pump, and keeps the pump from even coming on if you need a little water for something. When you need more water - like for a shower - the pump kicks on, and you run with full pump output pressure. I would start low to minimize pump starts, then if you find you aren't getting enough pressure before the pump kicks on, increase it.
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The air psi needs to be slightly lower than the cutin psi of the pump to get the most drawdown capacity out of the accumulator. I started out by setting the air psi much higher than the pump cutin, then I thoroughly purged all the air out of the water system and let the pump naturally come up to the cutout point. Then I SLOWLY let air out of the bladder til the pump came on, then gave it one tiny pssst extra. This way sets it right on the money without needing to know exactly what the actual pump cutin psi is and no need for gauges to cause any error. Craig
To set it accuratly you need to know the "kick in" pressure of the pump. For best performance, the accumulator should be set to 2 psi below the kick in pressure of the pump. A little lower will not hurt too much, but you do not want it higher than that.
20-25 PSI in my 2 gallon accumulator workes best for me.
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I recently installed a new ShurFLow 5.7. I kept the existing accumulator tank at 30psi (factory set) because it worked well with my old SureFlow 2.8. The new pump has variable speed with 65psi max. The old pump was single speed with 50psi max.
The tank smoothed out the pulsations and reduced pump run time and cycling. While it may not be optimum, it works so well that I tend to think there is an acceptable range - maybe 20 to 40psi.
If you change the tank pressure be sure it is done with no water pressure on the tank.
JMHO
Marv
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I installed a two or three gallon one about 3 or 4 years ago (Can't remember the exact size, it's about 10-12" in diameter). If I remember correctly the instructions stated the air pressure should be set at 25 lbs. It works very well at that pressure.
I set mine at 10 PSI. This allows the most water into the tank with the least amount of water, and then the pressure will stay above 15 PSI until the tank is almost completely empty, then will drop below to 10 PSI as the last drops of water leave the tank.
Remember to check the air pressure every 2-3 years, if you want to.
If you had the air pressure at 30 PSI, then there will be a lot more air, and therefore less water in the tank once it reaches 50 PSI.
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