CutterComp
New Member
Quick background: Septic was installed in July 2014, a few months before I bought the house. Rural location, 200 year old house in a small, steep valley, so the topography presented challenges for the system design. Hence, it is very complicated. House is built into the hillside, road is immediately below the house. System uses a 1500 gallon plastic tank for solids, fluids run from there into an adjacent concrete tank that houses a 3 float system and a grinder pump that is tasked with pumping the water up the hill and around to the other side of the house into the distribution tank which contains another pump that distributes into the sand mound. The grinder/lift tank has been a continuous source of headaches almost since day 1 largely due to the fact that all the wiring connections for the pump and floats were made inside a “watertight” 4x4” plastic junction box inside the tank. The wire connections were originally performed using wire nuts and electrical tape. Needless to say the gases from the tank are endlessly corroding the wiring connections inside the wire nuts. I’ve redone them all a few years ago and it’s an issue again. I’ve also had the pump fail and rebuilt it. Yesterday I started researching a better way to make the wire connections that would seal and protect from the gases and moisture in the tank. I decided on Wago 221 series connectors placed in Wago gel boxes. Thoughts?
That said, the current issue is that the pump is short cycling because the bottom float is somehow turning the pump on and off. Water level never reaches the middle float. Let alone the alarm float at the top. I started looking into float design and found that all three floats are SJE-Rhombus normally open mechanical switch floats (p/n 1006044) with the yellow cap. In the company’s own literature, they state the bottom float should be a normally closed float (white cap). Did the original installer make a mistake? Perhaps the pump has been short cycling since day 1? I’m unsure but I feel I would have noticed that years ago.
Also, I checked all three floats with a Fluke meter at the junction box in the tank and found the middle float isn’t working correctly, at best it gives about 83 ohms when I lift it up and it should have perfect continuity. That should be replaced then I assume, but that’s a secondary issue as the water level is not currently reaching that float.
In theory, my understanding is the bottom float should be normally closed and when the water level rises, it switches open which tells the control panel the water is rising. Then the middle float, which is normally open starts to rise and when the water is high enough to invert the float, it switches closed which operates the contactor in the control panel and sends power to the pump to lower the water level. As the level drops, the middle float opens again, telling the panel the level is dropping. When the bottom float goes from open to closed, the contactor opens and power to the pump is cut.
Please tell me if I understand this system correctly. Should the bottom float be a normally closed model or can it operate okay as a normally open model and I’m missing something?
Side note: the alarm light and buzzer are on (buzzer disconnected while I sort this out) but I’m not sure why as I tested the alarm float to be working correctly and the water level isn’t high.
Thanks!
That said, the current issue is that the pump is short cycling because the bottom float is somehow turning the pump on and off. Water level never reaches the middle float. Let alone the alarm float at the top. I started looking into float design and found that all three floats are SJE-Rhombus normally open mechanical switch floats (p/n 1006044) with the yellow cap. In the company’s own literature, they state the bottom float should be a normally closed float (white cap). Did the original installer make a mistake? Perhaps the pump has been short cycling since day 1? I’m unsure but I feel I would have noticed that years ago.
Also, I checked all three floats with a Fluke meter at the junction box in the tank and found the middle float isn’t working correctly, at best it gives about 83 ohms when I lift it up and it should have perfect continuity. That should be replaced then I assume, but that’s a secondary issue as the water level is not currently reaching that float.
In theory, my understanding is the bottom float should be normally closed and when the water level rises, it switches open which tells the control panel the water is rising. Then the middle float, which is normally open starts to rise and when the water is high enough to invert the float, it switches closed which operates the contactor in the control panel and sends power to the pump to lower the water level. As the level drops, the middle float opens again, telling the panel the level is dropping. When the bottom float goes from open to closed, the contactor opens and power to the pump is cut.
Please tell me if I understand this system correctly. Should the bottom float be a normally closed model or can it operate okay as a normally open model and I’m missing something?
Side note: the alarm light and buzzer are on (buzzer disconnected while I sort this out) but I’m not sure why as I tested the alarm float to be working correctly and the water level isn’t high.
Thanks!
