JohnnyQuest
New Member
Hi everyone, great site here.
I have a problem and I'm hoping you guys can give me some advice. This might be a long-ish post as I tend to ramble...
A couple of months ago my well pump died. Not really sure why, guy who used to live here (my friend) said he put one in years ago, and it was a cheaper one, so probably just wore out or something.
Anyhow, he had a spare one, as he had recently upgraded his well to a larger pump, so he brought that one up.
We pulled the old one, hooked up the new one, sent it back down, and everything worked great.... for about a month.
Then all of a sudden this one just quit working too.
I've had a pro guy come out and check a few things, he put a meter on it to read the amps, and said that they were too high, which to him suggested that the motor was fried.
I should mention that, at some point before the new(used) pump was put in, I had to replace the pressure switch. When I did, I wasn't paying attention, and got the type that doesn't kick off the power if there is no water coming up (I apologize for not knowing the technical terms).
Shortly after putting in the new(used) pump, this pro guy noticed that, so I went the next day and put on the right kind of switch.
Just mentioning that in case that may have fried the motor or something.
Anyhow, so I plan on pulling it out this weekend, and was just wondering once I get it out, if there is any way to test it to see if the pump is actually bad, or if it might be something simple like a bad electrical connection.
I mention this, because after doing a lot of reading on this site, I'm not sure that my electric connections at the pump were necessarily waterproof.
When we hooked the new one back up, I just grabbed some el-cheapo butt-type connectors I had laying around, and sealed them with some shrink-tubing.
So I was thinking that perhaps the connection eventually got water in it, which may be causing the problem ? Even if that is so, I don't know if that would have damaged the pump etc.
So I guess my main questions are, how can I test the pump when I get it out, to see if it might still be ok, and would a poorly sealed connection down there be causing it not to work ?
Here are the details of what I have going on, as best I know.
- Well is in a concrete pit in my backyard, about 30 feet from the house.
- There is no pitless adapter etc, the pressure tank, switch, everything is down in the well pit.
- Pipe is PVC, probably about 200 feet or so, going to measure when I pull it this time just to know, no idea how deep the well and water level is.
- The original pump was a 2-wire, 230V, 1/2 HP. I'm not 100% positive on the one we replaced it with, but I'm assuming it has to be a 2-wire same voltage, or it wouldn't have worked to start with (?). Just not sure on the HP, I think it's 1/2 HP as well. Don't know the brand name either, if that matters.
- I tested the amps today on the line going down the well, I used the lever on the switch to force the contact points etc. One wire was reading about 5 to 8 amps when power was on, and the other was about 8 or 9 amps. If I put the clamp on the gauge in between the two wires, I was getting about 15-16 amps, I'm assuming that this was the sum of both wires (?). I'm pretty handy at fixing things but measuring amps etc is a bit new to me.
- Also I tested the voltage at the switch, it was reading 250, I don't know if that is a problem, I always thought res. circuits were either 110 or 220, but there's a lot about electrical stuff that I don't know.
That's all I can think of right now, if anyone has any advise I would be very grateful. Also if there is any more info you need please let me know and I'll do my best to find out for you.
Thanks again in advance for all of your help, and for this site !
J
I have a problem and I'm hoping you guys can give me some advice. This might be a long-ish post as I tend to ramble...
A couple of months ago my well pump died. Not really sure why, guy who used to live here (my friend) said he put one in years ago, and it was a cheaper one, so probably just wore out or something.
Anyhow, he had a spare one, as he had recently upgraded his well to a larger pump, so he brought that one up.
We pulled the old one, hooked up the new one, sent it back down, and everything worked great.... for about a month.
Then all of a sudden this one just quit working too.
I've had a pro guy come out and check a few things, he put a meter on it to read the amps, and said that they were too high, which to him suggested that the motor was fried.
I should mention that, at some point before the new(used) pump was put in, I had to replace the pressure switch. When I did, I wasn't paying attention, and got the type that doesn't kick off the power if there is no water coming up (I apologize for not knowing the technical terms).
Shortly after putting in the new(used) pump, this pro guy noticed that, so I went the next day and put on the right kind of switch.
Just mentioning that in case that may have fried the motor or something.
Anyhow, so I plan on pulling it out this weekend, and was just wondering once I get it out, if there is any way to test it to see if the pump is actually bad, or if it might be something simple like a bad electrical connection.
I mention this, because after doing a lot of reading on this site, I'm not sure that my electric connections at the pump were necessarily waterproof.
When we hooked the new one back up, I just grabbed some el-cheapo butt-type connectors I had laying around, and sealed them with some shrink-tubing.
So I was thinking that perhaps the connection eventually got water in it, which may be causing the problem ? Even if that is so, I don't know if that would have damaged the pump etc.
So I guess my main questions are, how can I test the pump when I get it out, to see if it might still be ok, and would a poorly sealed connection down there be causing it not to work ?
Here are the details of what I have going on, as best I know.
- Well is in a concrete pit in my backyard, about 30 feet from the house.
- There is no pitless adapter etc, the pressure tank, switch, everything is down in the well pit.
- Pipe is PVC, probably about 200 feet or so, going to measure when I pull it this time just to know, no idea how deep the well and water level is.
- The original pump was a 2-wire, 230V, 1/2 HP. I'm not 100% positive on the one we replaced it with, but I'm assuming it has to be a 2-wire same voltage, or it wouldn't have worked to start with (?). Just not sure on the HP, I think it's 1/2 HP as well. Don't know the brand name either, if that matters.
- I tested the amps today on the line going down the well, I used the lever on the switch to force the contact points etc. One wire was reading about 5 to 8 amps when power was on, and the other was about 8 or 9 amps. If I put the clamp on the gauge in between the two wires, I was getting about 15-16 amps, I'm assuming that this was the sum of both wires (?). I'm pretty handy at fixing things but measuring amps etc is a bit new to me.
- Also I tested the voltage at the switch, it was reading 250, I don't know if that is a problem, I always thought res. circuits were either 110 or 220, but there's a lot about electrical stuff that I don't know.
That's all I can think of right now, if anyone has any advise I would be very grateful. Also if there is any more info you need please let me know and I'll do my best to find out for you.
Thanks again in advance for all of your help, and for this site !
J