No water pressure..

[Reach4]

Ive tied a fishing bobber onto a line and lowered it down the well casing and it floating...I tied the other end off with no slack in the line...if I have a leak underground between the well and the house the water level will drop in the well casing and the bobber will no longer be floating...there's no water being used in the house as I'm the only one home. ..Am I correct in thinking this?...

It is the nature of wells that they will keep pretty much the same level when large amounts of water are not being used. They leak both ways, and that is necessary for them to do their job.

Also I figured out the electric issue...the pump is connected to two separate 30 amp breakers in the same breaker box...instead of using a double pole breaker they used two single breakers and they are not side by side..they are separated.

OK. And opening either breaker stops the pump from working.

When you said one line stayed hot, you must have had the wires not connected to the pump. If you just open one breaker, both hot lines will still read hot because there is a path through the pump motor.

A 3/4 hp or 1/2 hp pump would normally be fed by a 15 amp 2-pole breaker -- not a 30 amp breaker.

It may be that box is a subpanel. Can't tell.

 

[Michael Frederick]

It is the nature of wells that they will keep pretty much the same level when large amounts of water are not being used. They leak both ways, and that is necessary for them to do their job.



OK. And opening either breaker stops the pump from working.

When you said one line stayed hot, you must have had the wires not connected to the pump. If you just open one breaker, both hot lines will still read hot because there is a path through the pump motor.

A 3/4 hp or 1/2 hp pump would normally be fed by a 15 amp 2-pole breaker -- not a 30 amp breaker.

It may be that box is a subpanel. Can't tell.

If I turn of either 30 amp breaker the pump shuts down. I had been just shutting off the one on the far left in the picture but today I tried shutting off the other on the right and the pump shut off...so I'm thinking they both have to be in the off position. Leaving one on still leaves a hot wire. As far as pressure goes is it possible I have the wires hooked backwards on the pump? The pump came with a short cord with a blue wire, a brown wire and a yellow/green stripe wire. I know the yellow green stripe wire was ground but is it possible I have the blue and brown wires backwards? And the short cord it came with...the gauge of the wires were substantially smaller than the wires feeding the well. 12 gauge vs the approximate 16 or 18 gauge the new pump came with.

 

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[Reach4]

As far as pressure goes is it possible I have the wires hooked backwards on the pump? The pump came with a short cord with a blue wire, a brown wire and a yellow/green stripe wire. I know the yellow green stripe wire was ground but is it possible I have the blue and brown wires backwards?

No. It does not matter which is hooked to which hot.

 

[Reach4]

Can you monitor the voltage across the two hots while the pump is running? It should be about 240. If it is about that, I would replace the pump with a 1/2 HP 10 gpm pump, or if you need more pressure, a 1/2 hp 7 gpm pump (more expensive because it has more stages). You could also use a 3/4 hp 10 gpm pump.

If the voltage is less than 205, there is something dropping the voltage excessively.

 

[Michael Frederick]

Can you monitor the voltage across the two hots while the pump is running? It should be about 240. If it is about that, I would replace the pump with a 1/2 HP 10 gpm pump, or if you need more pressure, a 1/2 hp 7 gpm pump (more expensive because it has more stages). You could also use a 3/4 hp 10 gpm pump.

If the voltage is less than 205, there is something dropping the voltage excessively.

Ok. Is it possible that the smaller gauge wires the pump came with could be the issue?

 

[Reach4]

Ok. Is it possible that the smaller gauge wires the pump came with could be the issue?

No. The motor leads that came with the motor are big enough. Does measuring the hot to hot voltage seem hard? You could remove the cover on the breaker box, and put your meter probes across the two breaker outputs while the pump is running.