Well pressure switch or pressure tank not working??

[Jarrod318]

My water stopped flowing today. I checked fuses and they are ok. The well is in a pit with the pressure tank. The first issue I notice is that I can manually turn the pressure switch on and the pump starts, but the pump turns off after awhile and the switch doesn't open. The pressure tank which is only 3 years old is not pressurizing. I got the water running again but no pressure in the tank even though I have water in the house. This happened earlier today and I was able to get it running for now but I assume that it is just the hot water tank that is full....for now. So, could it be the pressure switch or maybe the pressure tank is frozen since it is VeRY cold in IL today. I have had a heat lamp in the pit facing the pressure tank and switch. Any thoughts???

 

[Reach4]

How do you know the pressure tank is not pressurizing? Did you turn off the power to the pump, and lose pressure immediately?

The thing that would be frozen may be the pipe to the pressure switch.

Good move on the heat lamp. The heat helps, but if its frozen, you need to apply that heat for a time. So keep going. You could also switch to a little heater if the bulb fails. Try to insulate from above. Packing material, or bales of hay would be good.

How big and how deep is your pit?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Cacher_Chick]

What commonly happens when the pressure switch inlet freezes is that the pump will run until it cooks or, with plastic pipe, it falls off the pipe when it gets hot.

The pump is the only thing in a well system that actually makes pressure in the tank and the house.