Greetings on Nevada Day. I think it's Nevada Day.

ok, here's the low down.... The well co folks came out today to track down the problem. As I expected it is the pump and not the pressure switch or the holding tank. Of course the pump replacement is the most costly item at $900. I quizzed them about the #12 wiring and they said that after decades of installing pumps of the same HP (3/4) using #12 they've never encountered problems and are puzzled as to why this pump is failing. They said that if it were a 15 amp/120v pump that it would matter but it's a 240v pump which makes the difference. They used an amp meter to read the pump as it was running and it had an initial amp spike at 20 amps before settling down to 10 amps which is normal. The cause of the spike is unknown, damage to the pump may have been caused by a power surge or close lightning strike, etc and once the pump is pulled they may see the cause (blockage?). But at $900 I calculated out that our water bill for that well has averaged out to $10/month for the past 7.5 years of service. One consolation is that when the well was first installed they beat the competition by $2,000 so I guess I'm still ahead by $1,100, ugh, sucks but WTF. Not happy about this but what can one do? I could trench in a #10 myself, it'd be much cheaper than having them do it but if it's not the source of the problem then what? This well Co has an A+ rating from the BBB with no complaints. Thanks again for all of your advice and insights, any more is also welcome.

I recently tested two of those tanks that are over 30 years old and both are good. The inspector might be wrong. Some of them do not know their anus from a terrestrial fenestra. Here is the test. Remove all pressure from the water system. Then put air into the the air valve on the tank- near the top on the side, looks like a tire valve stem. Put 30 psi on it. If it holds that pressure for 15 minutes the bladder is good. After that, precharge the tank per instructions to match your system and and restore the water pressure. I know of no other definitive test for a defective tank bladder.

A tee may make your pump run longer. Cycling on and off is what pumps with pressure tanks do. I've irrigated as much as 10 hours straight a day for 10 years with a jet pump out of a lake and I'm still using the same tank and pump. I've only had to replace the pressure switch twice during this period.