Two months ago I wrote that in my next column I would write about something a bladder tank won’t do, in my opinion, and that is make up for a weak well or slow pump. The best of my intentions went awry as the deadline for last month’s column came and went. I came down with some affliction and felt about as bad as I have felt in my entire life. I had just a terrible cough and, when I did cough, it felt like a good boxer had punched me in the ribs. To make matters worse, my wife Shirley was sick also. We were really a pair to see. After a failed trip to a clinic and finally my regular doctor, I got on the mend quickly and am feeling fine. So, you did not see my column last month — I apologize.
As I make my final comments about bladder tanks let me quickly review the subject. These tanks are certainly a wonder and, along with the submersible pump and the pitless adapter, are, in my opinion, the great advances to the well water supply industry in the last 50 or 60 years. Although bladder tanks on occasion will cause taste and odor problems in the water, they are so far ahead of any other hydro pneumatic tank it is not even funny. Certainly bladder tanks, along with lightening arrestors for motors, have saved many, many pumps from a premature death, usually from short cycling. While bladder tanks are not perfect, they are way out ahead of whatever is in second place. I have heard them purported to be the answer to a low-capacity well or an under-capacity pump. With this, I must disagree.