Hardyh
Member
Our setup had been running flawlessly for about 4 years when the pump had to be pulled a few months ago - the installer actually thinks it was as simple as the electrical tape loosening from the connections and either causing a short or getting tangled in the pump. Either way, we had a new 3/4HP pump put in around April and everything worked fine again for a while. Now it has been acting up again and originally I thought it was either the tank or the pressure switch. We had a 30/50 low pressure cut-off pressure switch that I thought might be the culprit and I had been planning on adding a cycle sensor to the system anyway so I order/installed the sensor and switched to a 40/60 (no cut off) pressure switch. The cycle sensor has been helpful in giving me a better picture of what is going on:
It seems like the pump kicks in and floats around 6.5-7 amp, except sometimes when it drops down to about 4.5 amp ( I have the dry sensor set to 5amp right now with a 20min delay). To me that sounds like the well is being run dry, because usually a cycle or two max and the pump is back to normal running a cycle at 6.5amp to full pressure and then shutting off. But today I measured the well depth with some fishing line and a bobber and it was sitting at about 40ft down from the well head and this was within half an hour of a load of laundry and some breakfast dishes. If it really was running dry I think it should have been lower. Also, the cycle sensor shows me that occasionally there is an amp draw when the pump isn't on, usually .06-.08 amp but I have seen .30 amp once too. So what else could this be? We seem to have a well that can hold at least 150gal at a time, and there is no way we're pumping that much out before the sensor notices the amperage drop, which usually happens within 2 minutes of the pump kicking it. Also, can it be a faulty pump if it works correctly 3/4 of the time and then drops amps sporadically? Are there other steps I can take to troubleshoot before we get the installer back out here?
Here is a drawing of the setup;
It seems like the pump kicks in and floats around 6.5-7 amp, except sometimes when it drops down to about 4.5 amp ( I have the dry sensor set to 5amp right now with a 20min delay). To me that sounds like the well is being run dry, because usually a cycle or two max and the pump is back to normal running a cycle at 6.5amp to full pressure and then shutting off. But today I measured the well depth with some fishing line and a bobber and it was sitting at about 40ft down from the well head and this was within half an hour of a load of laundry and some breakfast dishes. If it really was running dry I think it should have been lower. Also, the cycle sensor shows me that occasionally there is an amp draw when the pump isn't on, usually .06-.08 amp but I have seen .30 amp once too. So what else could this be? We seem to have a well that can hold at least 150gal at a time, and there is no way we're pumping that much out before the sensor notices the amperage drop, which usually happens within 2 minutes of the pump kicking it. Also, can it be a faulty pump if it works correctly 3/4 of the time and then drops amps sporadically? Are there other steps I can take to troubleshoot before we get the installer back out here?
Here is a drawing of the setup;