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My well tank sprung a leak jimsullivan 12-18-2007
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Posted by on December 18, 2007, 4:27 pm
Last night I turned on my water and found there was none. At first I
thought that a pipe froze. Then I go to the pit where my tank is. It
took hours to even get in there since the entry was buried in ice and
snow. In that underground pit is my tank with the pressure switch.
The instant I looked in there I knew there was a big problem. The pit
had over 4 feet of water in it, my bladder tank was sideways more or
less floating as the plastic pipes were still attached. The pressure
switch electrical part was under water (yet the breaker never blew).

I shut off the power and put a sump pump in there and pumped it out.
After it was empty, I put the tank back on it's base, checked all the
piping for breaks (none existed), and thoroughly dried out the
pressure switch. I turned it back on and it worked again. That's
when I noticed a small pinhole leak in the tank blasting against the
wall of the pit.

OK, I need a new tank, but it's going to be a few weeks until I can
afford one. I took some JB Weld and glued a sheetmetal screw into the
hole. I am going to let it dry all day before I turn it back on, and
got some bottled water from a neighbor for the day.
My question is whether this will hold? I know JB Weld is pretty
strong. I scraped all the paint to the bare metal before I applied
the JB Weld. I found a thick screw that threaded in tightly, put the
JB under the head and tightened it. Then I spread the JB all over the
area next to the tank, covering about one inch all the way around the
screw.

Has anyone done this?

PS. The bladder is still fine. I drained all the water before I did
this patch and used a torch to get it totally dry. I released all
the air from the bladder too, not that it was necessary, since the
bladder is in the top of the tank, the leak is in the bottom. I have
since refilled the tank air in the bladder without any air coming out
of the water drain valve, which is still open while the JB dries.

Jim


PexSupply Full Banner
Posted by Nate Nagel on December 18, 2007, 4:34 pm
jimsullivan@unlisted.com wrote:
> Last night I turned on my water and found there was none. At first I
> thought that a pipe froze. Then I go to the pit where my tank is. It
> took hours to even get in there since the entry was buried in ice and
> snow. In that underground pit is my tank with the pressure switch.
> The instant I looked in there I knew there was a big problem. The pit
> had over 4 feet of water in it, my bladder tank was sideways more or
> less floating as the plastic pipes were still attached. The pressure
> switch electrical part was under water (yet the breaker never blew).
>
> I shut off the power and put a sump pump in there and pumped it out.
> After it was empty, I put the tank back on it's base, checked all the
> piping for breaks (none existed), and thoroughly dried out the
> pressure switch. I turned it back on and it worked again. That's
> when I noticed a small pinhole leak in the tank blasting against the
> wall of the pit.
>
> OK, I need a new tank, but it's going to be a few weeks until I can
> afford one. I took some JB Weld and glued a sheetmetal screw into the
> hole. I am going to let it dry all day before I turn it back on, and
> got some bottled water from a neighbor for the day.
> My question is whether this will hold? I know JB Weld is pretty
> strong. I scraped all the paint to the bare metal before I applied
> the JB Weld. I found a thick screw that threaded in tightly, put the
> JB under the head and tightened it. Then I spread the JB all over the
> area next to the tank, covering about one inch all the way around the
> screw.
>
> Has anyone done this?
>
> PS. The bladder is still fine. I drained all the water before I did
> this patch and used a torch to get it totally dry. I released all
> the air from the bladder too, not that it was necessary, since the
> bladder is in the top of the tank, the leak is in the bottom. I have
> since refilled the tank air in the bladder without any air coming out
> of the water drain valve, which is still open while the JB dries.
>
> Jim
>

It'll probably work, but I won't consider it permanent. I did the same
repair on an oil pan, and it held but weeped a little. I suspect you
will find the same.

If you could braze it that might work better, but I understand that that
might be problematic given the weather and location.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Posted by dpb on December 18, 2007, 5:02 pm
Nate Nagel wrote:
> jimsullivan@unlisted.com wrote:
...
>> ...I took some JB Weld and glued a sheetmetal screw into the
>> hole. ...
>> My question is whether this will hold? I know JB Weld is pretty
>> strong. I scraped all the paint to the bare metal before I applied
>> the JB Weld. I found a thick screw that threaded in tightly, put the
>> JB under the head and tightened it. Then I spread the JB all over the
>> area next to the tank, covering about one inch all the way around the
>> screw.
>>
>> Has anyone done this?
...

> It'll probably work, but I won't consider it permanent. I did the same
> repair on an oil pan, and it held but weeped a little. I suspect you
> will find the same.
...

I'd have cut a rubber washer from a piece of old inner tube or similar
and put it on the screw w/ a flat washer. It would hold leak-free as
long as there's enough metal around the screw hole for the threads to
hold the pressure.

I've not used JB Weld, but I have epoxied things like automobile
radiators and had them hold for years--of course, they're lower pressure
but much higher temperatures.

--


--

Posted by Pete C. on December 18, 2007, 5:12 pm
jimsullivan@unlisted.com wrote:
>
> Last night I turned on my water and found there was none. At first I
> thought that a pipe froze. Then I go to the pit where my tank is. It
> took hours to even get in there since the entry was buried in ice and
> snow. In that underground pit is my tank with the pressure switch.
> The instant I looked in there I knew there was a big problem. The pit
> had over 4 feet of water in it, my bladder tank was sideways more or
> less floating as the plastic pipes were still attached. The pressure
> switch electrical part was under water (yet the breaker never blew).
>
> I shut off the power and put a sump pump in there and pumped it out.
> After it was empty, I put the tank back on it's base, checked all the
> piping for breaks (none existed), and thoroughly dried out the
> pressure switch. I turned it back on and it worked again. That's
> when I noticed a small pinhole leak in the tank blasting against the
> wall of the pit.
>
> OK, I need a new tank, but it's going to be a few weeks until I can
> afford one. I took some JB Weld and glued a sheetmetal screw into the
> hole. I am going to let it dry all day before I turn it back on, and
> got some bottled water from a neighbor for the day.
> My question is whether this will hold? I know JB Weld is pretty
> strong. I scraped all the paint to the bare metal before I applied
> the JB Weld. I found a thick screw that threaded in tightly, put the
> JB under the head and tightened it. Then I spread the JB all over the
> area next to the tank, covering about one inch all the way around the
> screw.
>
> Has anyone done this?
>
> PS. The bladder is still fine. I drained all the water before I did
> this patch and used a torch to get it totally dry. I released all
> the air from the bladder too, not that it was necessary, since the
> bladder is in the top of the tank, the leak is in the bottom. I have
> since refilled the tank air in the bladder without any air coming out
> of the water drain valve, which is still open while the JB dries.
>
> Jim

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable temporary fix. With the threads from
the screw taking most of the load, the JB Weld should work fine. Leave
the sump pump in place so if it does start leaking again at least the
tank won't end up floating again. Replace the tank as soon as you can.

Posted by Bob F on December 18, 2007, 5:26 pm

> Last night I turned on my water and found there was none. At first I
> thought that a pipe froze. Then I go to the pit where my tank is. It
> took hours to even get in there since the entry was buried in ice and
> snow. In that underground pit is my tank with the pressure switch.
> The instant I looked in there I knew there was a big problem. The pit
> had over 4 feet of water in it, my bladder tank was sideways more or
> less floating as the plastic pipes were still attached. The pressure
> switch electrical part was under water (yet the breaker never blew).
>
> I shut off the power and put a sump pump in there and pumped it out.
> After it was empty, I put the tank back on it's base, checked all the
> piping for breaks (none existed), and thoroughly dried out the
> pressure switch. I turned it back on and it worked again. That's
> when I noticed a small pinhole leak in the tank blasting against the
> wall of the pit.
>
> OK, I need a new tank, but it's going to be a few weeks until I can
> afford one. I took some JB Weld and glued a sheetmetal screw into the
> hole. I am going to let it dry all day before I turn it back on, and
> got some bottled water from a neighbor for the day.
> My question is whether this will hold? I know JB Weld is pretty
> strong. I scraped all the paint to the bare metal before I applied
> the JB Weld. I found a thick screw that threaded in tightly, put the
> JB under the head and tightened it. Then I spread the JB all over the
> area next to the tank, covering about one inch all the way around the
> screw.
>
> Has anyone done this?
>
> PS. The bladder is still fine. I drained all the water before I did
> this patch and used a torch to get it totally dry. I released all
> the air from the bladder too, not that it was necessary, since the
> bladder is in the top of the tank, the leak is in the bottom. I have
> since refilled the tank air in the bladder without any air coming out
> of the water drain valve, which is still open while the JB dries.

If the bladder hits the screw inside the tank, I would ecpect the screw to
puncture the bladder quickly.




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