From: Speedy Jim 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Water tank noise
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:47:46 -0400

None wrote:
> 
> H everyone!  I'm a fairly new homeowner, and I have almost no plumbing
> experience besides.  I'm hearing a noise coming from my water tank
> that's worrying me a bit... I have an on-site well, and a Wel-X-Trol
> WX-202 tank in the basement.  The noise I'm hearing was explained to
> me as the pipes "slamming", but after doing some research, I'm
> convinced that's not what it is.  What I believe it may be is the
> pressure switch.  The area it's coming from is right by the tank, the
> little electro-mechanical box that is attached to the pipe coming into
> the house (the pressure switch I believe?).  I've checked the pressure
> in the tank as per the tag attached to the red cap on top (35PSI) and
> the guage by the switch says between 40 and 45 PSI.  As near as I can
> tell from my reading, those numbers are pretty close to what they
> should be.
> 
> Can anyone point me in the right direction?  This noise only started a
> few weeks ago, we've been in the house over a year now.  Should I be
> worried and get a professional in, or is there something simple I can
> check?  It's a fairly loud noise, and mostly happens after water has
> been running for a minute or so anywhere in the house (sometimes when
> water isn't running, but that's extremely rare).
> 
> Thanks in advance all!

Is it a single event, like a loud "thump" or "clank" or a series?
Is it related to the well pump shutting off?   You should be able to 
tell by watching the pressure gauge.

If you manually switch the pump off (circuit breaker), can you
force the noise to occur by running water?

Jim