This past weekend I replaced and upgraded my failed well pressure tank with a WellRite SmartTank and so far I am very pleased with the result.
I wrote in a previous post that I was considering doing this.
The SmartTank basically adds a pressure regulator valve (PRV) to the tank's "T". The PRV is set to 50PSI and the pump control switch is set to 40 PSI on, 60 PSI off.
As a result, if you start with a fully charged tank and turn on the water, the system draws down to 40 PSI and the pump kicks on. The pressure at the tap immediately goes to the 50 PSI as set by the regulator and remains there.
The pump does not turn off as long as you are drawing water because the regulated 50 PSI is less than the cut-off setting of the pump control and the flow is sufficient to operate the PRV at the 50 PSI point of it's flow/pressure operating curve.
When you turn off the tap, flow continues into the pressure tank but the flow rate eventually reduces and the PRV begins to operate into the higher pressure portion of it's operating curve. When the pressure reaches 60 PSI, the pump control switch reaches cut-off and stops the pump.
My wife and I are very pleased with the result. The fluctuations in water pressure we used to see as the control valve cycled between cut-in and cut-out are virtualy eliminated. It now occurs at most only once during any drawing of water. Cycling of the pump (the killer of pumps) is also drastically reduced as it too now occurs at most only once during any drawing of water. We still have the full draw-down of the pressure tank before the pump kicks on as we did before, to eliminate pump cycles for small draws of water.
As I said, based on 3 days of use so far, we're very pleased. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]