MegOhmMeter

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PumpMd

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What's a good brand that's worth the extra money or a brand that's cheaper but still gets the job done.

Franklin said that we finally need to upgrade meters on their VFD's, over 50yrs and never needed one until today.

Franklin recommend a Uei Dmeg3
 
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Reach4

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Megger is the big classic brand. I see Amprobe offers several, and that is a brand you know.

The older ones had an analog meter and a crank. Those were reliable. I see there are really cheap ones with an analog meter and a crank, but I don't know if they are any good.
 

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Thank you Reach4.

I thought this would be a good read from Franklin Aid (12-1983)&(1-1984)
 

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PumpMd

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More reading material from (2-1984)&(3-1984)
 

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Now to July/August 1990 "Tools of the Trade". Then Franklin came out with a 3 part on this topic.
 

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Part 3. "Tools of the trade: Insulation Resistsnce" & "Tools of the trade: Winding Resistance with more on my next post
 

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The rest of Windings Resistance
 

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Valveman

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What's a good brand that's worth the extra money or a brand that's cheaper but still gets the job done.

Franklin said that we finally need to upgrade meters on their VFD's, over 50yrs and never needed one until today.

Franklin recommend a Uei Dmeg3

That is because with a VFD on a 230 volt system you will get running voltage spikes of up to 1000 volts. And since the wire insulation and everything else is only rated to 600 volts, it is important to use a meg ohmmeter to check for a short. The old Simpson at Rx100K is not sensitive enough. So yes if you throw the VFD away you won't need a meg ohmmeter.

And the analog meters are not good enough because the young techs don't know how to read one. You have to give them a number off a digital meter that they can match up with a number in their cheat sheet manual to be able to help you.

But I do use them for deep set and high voltage applications. This is the one I use. I think it is dated about 1950.

20160620_155507_resized.jpg
 

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That is because with a VFD on a 230 volt system you will get running voltage spikes of up to 1000 volts. And since the wire insulation and everything else is only rated to 600 volts, it is important to use a meg ohmmeter to check for a short. The old Simpson at Rx100K is not sensitive enough. So yes if you throw the VFD away you won't need a meg ohmmeter.

And the analog meters are not good enough because the young techs don't know how to read one. You have to give them a number off a digital meter that they can match up with a number in their cheat sheet manual to be able to help you.

But I do use them for deep set and high voltage applications. This is the one I use. I think it is dated about 1950.

View attachment 34821

Thanks for showing us your old meter that still works
 

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IF, you throw the VFD in the trash where they belong, you don't need a megger

This replaced a CSV system (2 different brands of pump ends, not thrust bearings) that we discussed on here before when I first joined this forum and how I was concerned about the Franklin SD control box being waterproof. It got a short circuit fault code over the weekend and I wanted to find out why and this is when Franklin wanted a megometer to check the wires before Franklin says it's the control box, slice or motor.

Took the customer to his long lasting traditional system again (it's about 200' away from this one where he knows how much it cycles), and now he sees why we recommend old school traditional systems.
 
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Boycedrilling

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I've got two both 20 plus years old. A Bidgle that I bought used on eBay for about $250, 20 or more years ago. My other one, which I used daily is a mi,Italy surplus unit. I bought 10 of them brand new, surplus in the mid 90's for $75 each. Sold the other 9 for $150 each and kept one for myself. Haven't used it since yesterday.
 

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I've got two both 20 plus years old. A Bidgle that I bought used on eBay for about $250, 20 or more years ago. My other one, which I used daily is a mi,Italy surplus unit. I bought 10 of them brand new, surplus in the mid 90's for $75 each. Sold the other 9 for $150 each and kept one for myself. Haven't used it since yesterday.

Thank You for sharing
 

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I prefer my old Simpsons. It's never come up that they might be insufficient. I can see how it's an issue on the top end. I have a high end Fluke meters I can go to if I needed, when I was working as an electrician they were worth having. I don't see much reason in carrying around 500 dollar meters for regular business. Don't want to risk banging them up. I like analog meters, the Fluke ohm meter is digital.

My meters are in my service bag so can get beat up. Greenlee multi meter, that's used soley as an amp probe, I'll use it for ohms or voltage if I want a second opinion. Simpson Ohm Meter. Knopps voltage tester.
 

Reach4

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The deal is that a regular voltmeter puts less than 10 volts between the things you are looking for a point of breakdown. With a meter that puts 500 to 1000 volts across the pieces being checked, a problem can be detected that might not have shown up at a low voltage.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/new-submersible-pump-not-working.65039/#post-490018 is a recent posting where a regular ohmmeter did not detect the problem, but the high voltage megohmeter probably would have.
 

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I prefer my old Simpsons. It's never come up that they might be insufficient. I can see how it's an issue on the top end. I have a high end Fluke meters I can go to if I needed, when I was working as an electrician they were worth having. I don't see much reason in carrying around 500 dollar meters for regular business. Don't want to risk banging them up. I like analog meters, the Fluke ohm meter is digital.

My meters are in my service bag so can get beat up. Greenlee multi meter, that's used soley as an amp probe, I'll use it for ohms or voltage if I want a second opinion. Simpson Ohm Meter. Knopps voltage tester.

Thank you for sharing
 

ThirdGenPump

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The deal is that a regular voltmeter puts less than 10 volts between the things you are looking for a point of breakdown. With a meter that puts 500 to 1000 volts across the pieces being checked, a problem can be detected that might not have shown up at a low voltage.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/new-submersible-pump-not-working.65039/#post-490018 is a recent posting where a regular ohmmeter did not detect the problem, but the high voltage megohmeter probably would have.

Yeah I get it, the Fluke I have can put out 1000v. If I was having trouble with a VFD I might consider grabbing it to double check. As it is now I've never come across a situation where I've needed to doubt the Simpson in well work.

On the electrical side we wanted to be really sure if a 2000 amp service wasn't going to explode when we put power to it.
 

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This replaced a CSV system (2 different brands of pump ends, not thrust bearings)

What pumps did you have and how deep was it to water? My guess is the pressure switch was set too close to the deadhead of the pump, and you were not getting the 1 GPM needed to keep the pump cool. Or it could have just been bad pumps. Failures with a CSV are nearly always installer error, not the function of the CSV.
 

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The deal is that a regular voltmeter puts less than 10 volts between the things you are looking for a point of breakdown. With a meter that puts 500 to 1000 volts across the pieces being checked, a problem can be detected that might not have shown up at a low voltage.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/new-submersible-pump-not-working.65039/#post-490018 is a recent posting where a regular ohmmeter did not detect the problem, but the high voltage megohmeter probably would have.

Yeah that 1000 volts simulates the spikes from a VFD. That way you can see if there is any little defect in the 600 volt wire insulation that would cause a ground fault when connected to a VFD. But a 480V VFD system has spikes of up to 2000 volts, so sometimes even a megger isn't sensitive enough to pick up a problem.
 

PumpMd

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Well specs: (I forgot to mark the depth to water in the file but I checked it for you on the last pump removal) 70' to H2O is our average, Pump set at 200' on 1 1/4 sch80.

All of this was gone over on my thread called "Our CSV Systems", my user name was "Letsrunum" and you can't find it now. You said "maybe it's to big of a pump on the small tank" after going over everything. I believe it was your 70psi brass CSV, since it had a heavy duty switch to shutoff at 75psi.

7-2007 through 8-24-15
1 1/2hp Pentek with S/S Pro-Source pump 16gpm (tried Twice)
1 1/2hp Franklin with Water Horse pump 15gpm (tried Twice)

Installed the first pump in 07, warranted that in 2009, again in 2010, then once more in 2012. Jacuzzi design was used since it was before 2015.
 
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