Accumulator - another pressure question
My 2000 Monaco has a accumulator tank in the water system. Does the tank control or regulate the pressure when using the pump, or is it a pass through that delivers whatever pressure the pump delivers...
Forum Discussion
It depends... there's two types of accumulators.
The cheap ones are just an air chamber, and can become saturated and lose their air.
The better ones have a rubber bladder. Those have a Schrader valve on top. (Like a bike tire) You can adjust the pressure in the bladder to work like you want. Just raise it to match the pump's output. Those are in fact, just a miniature version of what's used in a typical well system. The pump feeds water into the system, the bladder compresses and holds pressure in the piping system. The pump now only runs to fill the volume of the bladder/tank area, and cycles much less, and also smooths out the water flow. It's especially effective for low flows, (barely open faucet) where the pump would normally fast-cycle.
The cheap ones are just an air chamber, and can become saturated and lose their air.
The better ones have a rubber bladder. Those have a Schrader valve on top. (Like a bike tire) You can adjust the pressure in the bladder to work like you want. Just raise it to match the pump's output. Those are in fact, just a miniature version of what's used in a typical well system. The pump feeds water into the system, the bladder compresses and holds pressure in the piping system. The pump now only runs to fill the volume of the bladder/tank area, and cycles much less, and also smooths out the water flow. It's especially effective for low flows, (barely open faucet) where the pump would normally fast-cycle.
