Fatal Airing up of Water Tank

JUGHNE

About a week or two ago a local rancher was killed while adding air to his well water pressure tank.
The details are sketchy but from what I gather this was perhaps a jet pump with standard storage tank in a pit.
It is common practice to add air to these bladderless tanks. The victim was in his 70's and has probably done this a hundred times.
There are many of these pump/tanks in shallow pits. He was leaning above the tank (probably water logged) adding air. The tank was old and rusty and it or part of it blew upwards and death was instant. From what I hear it was a closed casket service.

So this is just a reminder of what can happen. Many of us have done this either for storage tanks or even water heater tanks to quickly remove the water.

delta T

Sobering and so sad.

It amazing how much force is actually behind 40 PSI on a 40 gallon tank. I remember the first time I did the math when I was much younger.....I got nervous around pressurized things for quite a while after that. Still am a little bit......Pressure is something that needs to be respected and understood.

A story regarding pressure where no one (thankfully) got hurt but still very scary and shows the value of education...

We used to work at a condo association with 13 buildings on site, each was heated by a large-ish Ajax tube boiler (650,000 to 850,000 input) serving basebaord. The circulators were Taco 1600 series and the initial design was to have two circs, one on supply and one on return. Still not sure why, maybe just as backup if one of the pumps failed.

Now I'm sure most of us have changed the seals in these 1600's and know that you have to be very careful, and everything has to be very clean to make the ceramic to graphite seal last. The onsite maintenance staff was instructed by us numerous times on how to change the seals, but they kept going through seals in no more than a week. Those seal kits aren't cheap either. We showed them how to do it again, and really stressed the importance that the faces on the seal kit need to be immaculately clean.

About a week later we hear that one of the maintenance people decided that the problem was not how he was installing the seal but instead was some mysterious source of dirty water (draining water out of the boiler never yielded any water that was dirty beyond a small amount near the bottom the boilers as would be expected) that was hiding in the piping somewhere and he was going to find it.

So the plan went like this: Step one, isolate one of the pumps, remove the motor and bearing assembly leaving an open volute. take 1/4" plexiglass, drill holes for the bolt pattern in the volute, bolt it it place with plumber's putty to ensure a good water tight seal, and watch the water go past and find this mysterious cloud of dirty water that was destroying the pump seals.

Now to his credit he did his research, called the plexiglass manufacturer and asked how much force can this 1/4" plexiglass take over this 10" span at 180 degrees. They said that it could take about 40 pounds.

Well the boiler is only at 20 pounds of pressure so I should be fine right?

Math time:

area of a 10" circle is 78.54 sq. in.
at 20 lb/sq in. the total force on that area is 1,570.8 lbs.

Just a little more than 40 pounds.

As you might imagine this did not end well, from what I understand he started filling it with water, and apparently his plumber's putty seal held until the boiler hit about 6 PSI. At this point there was a force of 471 lbs on the plexiglass. He was watching it fill and once the water got to the top of the plexiglass he walked to the other side to check on the pressure (this is how we know it was at 6 PSI) and the plexiglass exploded. The shards flew out with enough force to chip the cinder block wall almost 1/2" deep in some places......right where his head would have been.

Checking the pressure saved his life.

Interesting to think that this could have easily gone the other way and the only thing that would have been needed to avert it was basic knowledge of geometry and what 20 pounds per square inch actually means.

But then again, what is that thing Steamhead is always saying?

Steamhead

Same thing so many others have said. I just pass it on.

I remember when well tanks were just plain steel tanks, with "air volume controls" to regulate the air cushion. Most of these controls were rather short-lived, but Jacuzzi made a very nice one. This type of tragedy would never have occurred with that setup. The tank might still have blown, but the chances of someone being right there would be far lower.

Makes you wonder what we're losing in the mad rush of technology, eh?

SWEI

ISTR stencils saying:
Jacuzzi Bros
Los Angeles, CA
or so...

Solid_Fuel_Man

I know a guy who used an old Electric water heater for additional capacity on his air compressor. Tested to 300 psi right? Well needless to say it worked for a few years in his shop at 125psi or whatever he ran. But when it gave out, remember it was used, it blew off the floor and went into through the 7/16 OSB ceiling. Luckily no one was injured.

There are a lot of inherent dangers we all face on a daily basis, especially in the trades. Be careful out there.

Such a tragic way to leave this earth.

Taylor

MikeSpeed6030

With a functioning air pressure controller, air should be added automatically to the tank each time the well pump starts - in which case there would not be a need to add air with a compressor.