accumulator issues

[seatotaler]

I'm having issues with my accumulator. I'm pretty sure it's bladder has burst. It's a one gallon steel Groco tank. About 8" in dia and 12" long. I had the same problem about 4 years ago. Is that normal for the life span of these accumulators? I noticed that Jabsoc and Sur-flo make ones that hold about a quart. Are they better? Or perhaps not suitable for my application?

My pump is a Jabsco Par-Max4 3.8 GPM. It has a pressure switch of 40 psi. I've had the accumulator set at 20 psi. But I've also tried 30 and 40 psi with no noticeable difference. I've read that the accumulator should have half air pressure of the pressure switch, and for the first 2 or 3 years it worked fine.

What's happening is that the pump is coming on about every 10 to 15 minutes or less. When I went to check the pressure in the accumulator tank lots of water flowed out the air valve. Same thing as a few years prior.

But leading up to this, for a couple years now after running the water for awhile, ( enough to fill half of the galley sink) it would stop flowing and sometimes it would take up to 9 seconds before the pump would start up. But other than that, the system worked fine and the pump never ran unless I was using water. However it would be annoying when having a shower with the water flow pausing for up to 9 seconds several times over a 5 minute period.

But then a couple days ago the pump started to come on regularly as I mentioned at the beginning of my story. But at least now I have great pressure and no lag time when using the water. When showering I can't hear the pump so I don't know how long or how often it comes on.

No water leaks anywhere in the system that I can see. If the plastic smaller Sur-flo or Jabsco ones will work I might switch because I would think accumulator tanks should last longer than 3 or 4 years.
I appreciate any and all suggestions and advice. Thanks

[Cheechako]

The small ones do almost nothing other than to stop the "shock" when turning on/off.
The big ones, gallon, are of some use, not great but do seem to help with the pump running so much. I don't know about life but yeah, I would say 5 years maybe. If you turn off the water source and pump the system you should be able to read pressure on the accumulator with water pressure zero. If not it's shot.

[senormechanico]

If water comes out the air fill, yeah, as the doctor on that TV space show said,

"He's Dead, Jim."