Help! (I used to hate guys who yell for help like this but now I understand)

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dschag

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I have a 565' deep well in California. Water level was tested (24 hour run test) 5 years ago at 345' and have not had any problems, until now. My low water tank alarm (Rhombus XT) went off a couple hours ago. Got a ladder and looked in my 10,000 gallon tank and sure enough, water had dropped--hard to say but maybe 5-6' from lid. I could see the float (with its tether extended full) about at the water level and I could see another two floats hanging about one foot from the top of the tank (I am assuming it must me something to signal controller that tank is full). Looks like both floats say 'SD Electrical' on them. In any case, water is not being pumped into tank. So, I am guessing at four possible problems: 1) well is dry, 2) pump (redjacket with HS30 controller) is bad, or 3) floats are not communicating property or 4) power problem. It was easy to rule out #4, by resetting breakers (we have one panel that provides power to well pump and pump (aquavar) to house from the well. The pump to the house comes on and off so I am confident we do have power to the panel. But I am at a loss to figure where to go from here (also, of course, this happens on a Friday afternoon, so not optimistic about getting an expert out here before Monday--anybody recommend a well expert in the Los Angeles area?). Any ideas on where to go from here? I have a volt meter and assume one step would be to take cover off controller and make sure it is getting power (I think I remember this is 220v so I may re-think my doing it. Ideas, especially good ones, are welcomed. Thank you. Dan
 

Reach4

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Not a well expert, but I know a few things...

1. 240 VAC ("220") is not significantly more dangerous to probe or work with than 120 VAC. The reason is that the voltage to ground is 120 VAC in both cases. Normally shocks are between 1 wire and ground. I presume you are not going to grab 2 wires. Another thing occurs to me. Maybe you have 3 phase power to your well. Your setup seems big. You would have noticed that, I am thinking, so I suspect you are just using 240.

2. I would establish how many wires are going down the well. Measure the voltage(s) across them if you can. If no voltage, the problem would not be the pump or the well; that would be good news. If 2 wires, and there is 240, then the problem is somewhere between the controller and the bottom of the well. So those would be your #1 and #2. If 3 wires go down the well, measure them. But I don't know how to interpret your numbers in that case.
 
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dschag

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Ok, I don't think I need to measure voltage for wires into well because here is what I have determined. The controller does not have any power (it's an ITT controller, HS30 and it has a status light, which right now is showing nothing, no lights whatsoever). I reset the breaker again and that did nothing, although it's weird because the breaker almost flips off too easily (you barely touch it and clicks to a middle or broken position--I don't know if this information is meaningful or not). In any case, I then reset the main for the panel which controls the four breakers on that panel (controller, tank alert, outlet, and pump to house). I wanted about 5 minutes and closed the main breaker. The only thing that happened was that the tank alert sounded. So then I turned the panel off again and climbed up and pulled the long hanging float out the tank (thinking, if the float is working correctly, it should not sound the alarm). Re-energized panel, no power to controller and low water alarm sounded. I'm confused by that. It looks like the wires to the float run from the tank to the alarm box. And, it looks like power runs from panel to alarm box and then to controller. Is there any chance the alarm box, for some reason, is not passing the power to the controller? I've (hopefully) attached a pic of the set up. Thanks for any ideas.
 

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dschag

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Oh, and wanted to add another source of confusion for me: when I take the controller hard (metal) cover off, there is this kind of thin piece of black plastic (?) that seems to cover the entire controller board so I am not sure how or if I can get to any terminals to test the current. Anybody have experience with this? Seems weird that you cannot get to the board? Thanks again.
 

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VAWellDriller

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You may have other problems too, but start at the breaker, with what you described, the problem starts there.....when some breakers trip, you have to turn them all the way to the off position to make them reset....if you just try to turn it back on, it will return to the mid (tripped) position. If you're comfortable with working in a breaker panel, unhook the wires leaving the breaker and see if you can get it to stay reset...it's unlikely but breakers do go bad.
 

dschag

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VaWellDriller. I am thinking about re-naming the subject of my post to: HELP, I'M AN IDIOT! The breaker was the issue. Simplest of all issues. I've re-set breakers many times and knew about the hard right first issue but somehow never registered with me. What a relief. Thank you all very, very much. Dan
 
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