What does a bladder have to do with why my Crystal Lake well is working?

If the well tank bladder breaks the
water will stop flowing in your
Crystal Lake home.

The water comes out of your Crystal Lake faucet, what’s the problem and what does a well tank? Just because the water flows from your well today doesn’t mean it will flow tomorrow. And, the problem could be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

In the case of your well pump bladder, this time bomb is made of rubber. It’s inside of your well tank and it’s a critical part of your well system.

A well-tank bladder is designed to maintain the proper amount of pressure in the well tank. A well technician will adjust the air pressure that is on one side of the bladder. If the bladder doesn’t have the correct amount of air pressure the bladder is liable to stretch. If it stretches far enough, or often enough, it’s liable to rupture.

A ruptured well-tank bladder is not a good thing – not good at all. It’s impossible to maintain the proper air pressure in a well tank that has a ruptured bladder. It confuses the pressure switch. The pressure switch doesn’t know when to call on the well pump to pump more water up from the well.

Instead of running when needed, the pressure switch will call on the well pump repeatedly for more water. As the well pump and well pump motor are called upon to turn off-and-on repeatedly, a process called cycling, the well pump motor will get hotter and hotter. Eventually, your Crystal Lake well pump motor is liable to burn out.

When the well pump motor burns out, the gig is up. It won’t run and you won’t get any water when you use a faucet in your home. It’s a short chain reaction from the well-tank pressure, to a ruptured well-tank bladder to a cycling and overheated well pump motor, to a burned out well tank motor.

The cost of checking and adjusting the pressure in your well tank is nothing compared to the cost of replacing a well pump and well pump motor. On the other hand, the next time you call your well technician out to maintain and chlorinate your well (You do have your well technician out annually, right?), they’ll check your well-tank pressure as part of the process.

You might call maintaining and chlorinating your well, as well as checking the well-tank pressure, inexpensive private well insurance. It’s insurance that ensures your Crystal Lake well is more likely to keep providing water when you want it.