Well Pump help.......

[Corie]

Ok, please help me. Please.


Here is the scenario: Water pressure goes to nothing on Sunday night. I don't know what's happened and I'm not familiar with this stuff, so I wait until Monday to talk to those who ARE familiar. I get home and start checking things out. Pressure switch is wired correctly and sending 240V to the pump. Check the wires that are heading down to the submerged pump; also have 240V. Clearly power is heading to the pump properly. Sounds like the pump is the culprit.

I go inside, and flip the breaker ABOVE the well pump 15A breaker. Instantly, the pump starts running. Fills the tank, and acts completely normal until Tuesday night. Tuesday night, same thing. Loss of pressure, pump not running. I check breakers and all looks good. Still have 240V at the pump leads. But GET this. I turn the pump off at the circuit breaker to make new wire connections at the top of the well, just to make sure corrosion isn't the culprit. When I flip the breaker back on for the well pump, of course I see 240V at the pump leads, but oddly enough, the heat pump circuit breaker trips.



Anyone that can make sense of that, please, feel free.

 

[velvetfoot]

I'm no expert but you may need an electrician.
Usually a 240 volt circuit has two breakers that are attached to each other.
Be careful.

 

[Corey]

More info please:

The "15 amp breaker above the well pump" - is this the heat pump breaker? (15A seems kind of low), also, is it 240?

If this is not the heat pump, is the heat pump breaker near the well pump breaker, same / opposite side of the panel, etc?

Was the heat pump on at the time the breaker threw?

Is there any 120v or low voltage wiring associated with the well pump? ie a 12V or 120V switch / relay which senses pressure / flow or when your reservoir is full?

 

[Corie]

The breaker directly above the well pump breaker (15A, 240V) is a 20A, 240V breaker.

The heat pump breaker is directly across from the well pump breaker....I hope that makes sense. The 15A well pump breaker is on the left strip of the box and the 40A, 240V heat pump breaker is on the right strip of the box, directly across from it.


The well pump gets nothing but 240V power from the pressure switch, which is sensing the pressure in the tank and turning it off.



Hope there is something in there to help....

 

[mayhem]

Short in the breaker box?
Crud in your pressure tank keeping the switch off?

I had a problem with my well pump shortly after we finished building the house...water pressure dropped to zero, all electrical checked out, but no water coming into the house. Turns out we sucked up a pile of sediment and it plugged up the house water filter...popped it into bypass and everythign was fine.

Probably not helpful, but I've learned the hard way to double check simple solutions first.

 

[RJP Electric]

It doesn't matter where the heat pump breaker is because it will share the same 240 volts on the buss regardless where ever the water pump breaker is located. As it goes for the heat pump tripping, I have seen this before. When you turned on the pump breaker, it was using a lot of power basically draining power off the main buss starving the heat pump of it's full voltage required. If the voltage went down the current on the heat pump branch circuit went up, causing a over current situation, not a short circuit. Your pump is drawing a lot of current, a 15 amp 240 volt circuit is usually good in most cases because a submerged pump only draws 7 amps. But if it is 500 feet underground, you may have voltage drop issues too. Motors when they are on there way out generally start to over heat or use a lot of current. Check for the obvious including connections, wirenuts, breakers and the buss for signs of loose breaker connection. Bob

 

[savageactor7]

If it looses pressure slowly it's probably the foot valve.

 

[seige101]

Personally to me i would check the buss bars them selves in the panel. Shut off the breakers and pop them out, make sure the buss bars are not burned, pitted, or have char marks anywhere on them. DO NOT TOUCH THEM they will be live! When you pop out the breakers feel the area on the beaker that would be in contact with the buss bar, does is feel warm. Now sniff it, any odd burning charring smell?

If you have any charring, burning, or black marks on the buss bar you should call a qualified licensed electrician asap.

 

[burntime]

Loose wire behind the breaker? Is it a damp location? Sounds like a short in th box though. These should not efffect each other ulesss there is some conection.

 

[North of 60]

It doesn't matter where the heat pump breaker is because it will share the same 240 volts on the buss regardless where ever the water pump breaker is located. As it goes for the heat pump tripping, I have seen this before. When you turned on the pump breaker, it was using a lot of power basically draining power off the main buss starving the heat pump of it's full voltage required. If the voltage went down the current on the heat pump branch circuit went up, causing a over current situation, not a short circuit. Your pump is drawing a lot of current, a 15 amp 240 volt circuit is usually good in most cases because a submerged pump only draws 7 amps. But if it is 500 feet underground, you may have voltage drop issues too. Motors when they are on there way out generally start to over heat or use a lot of current. Check for the obvious including connections, wirenuts, breakers and the buss for signs of loose breaker connection. Bob

Go with RJP and seige101. Good and well explained advice from a proper trades person working in his field.

 

[burntime]

Well, what happended? As it stands we think your house is gone? Fixed yet?

 

[North of 60]

Yeah what burntime said. Share and share alike. :coolhmm: