Pump won't start after shock chlorination

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Beets

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Just finished opening the cap on my well; gently pulled excess wires/rope just below the cap. I did not tug on them in any way. I did hear a bit of junk falling, after disturbing wires. Never saw anything; just heard it. Inserted garden hose. Started to run water into the well. Dumped a gallon of chlorine down the well. Came back in the house and noted that the pressure kept dropping. I thought that was odd. I confirmed the pump was on. 250 volts across the pressure switch. Very minor flicker in pressure gauge when I turn the pump on/off, but won't build pressure. Closed up valves to ensure there was no water going to house. Still not building pressure. Is the next step to call someone to replace the pump?

I am going to go listen at the well and see if I can hear falling water. I highly doubt I could have disengaged the pitless adapter, but I'm running out of ideas.
 

Beets

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Black to ground - infinite resistance
Yellow to ground - infinite resistance
Black to yellow - 4.5 ohms. Franklin box says should be 4 to 5.5
Red to yellow - 17.1 ohms. Franklin box says should be 16.5 to 20.5

How much current?
I don't have any device to measure current. I might have to ask my neighbors.

I think you are hinting at a stuck pump. I'm pretty certain I have a check valve, so I can't flush backwards through the pump. On a 240 volt pump, is it possible to reverse the leads and put a pump into reverse? I have experience with 3 phase pumps at work, but I don't understand 2 phase. I have some sort of "start" wire in that franklin box. Not sure what that is for or what happens if I were to reverse the leads. I might have nothing to lose??
 

Reach4

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I was thinking broken wire/connection. But your ohms and voltage measurement say no.

Not starting could be because of a start capacitor or start relay. If the motor does not start, expect high currents that typically will trip the breaker. The start capacitor applies a phase change to the start winding to get things going. Then that cuts out after a few seconds.

I seem to remember reading about people doing your idea -- swapping the start and run wires temporarily. The yellow wire is common to the two windings.

Clamp-around ammeter. I hope the neighbor has one.
 

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Neighbor didn't have ampmeter, but he had two spare control boxes......I tried both of them. The brand new one cause a slightly bigger pressure flicker, but it didn't work. I'm trying to pump straight to atmospheric pressure now.
 

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4.8 amps on the yellow and 5 amps on the black. I think my pump is jammed.
 

Reach4

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4.8 amps on the yellow and 5 amps on the black. I think my pump is jammed.
1/2 HP motor?

I think jammed would be high amps.
How about the red? Maybe zero after a few seconds.

Clogged would be my fear. I liked your thought of pumping to atmosphere.
 

Beets

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Thank you. Red isn't reading any amps at the well. It takes me 30 to 60 seconds between turning on the pump, and walking to the well, and getting a reading. I don't have any help this weekend....which why it was a good time to do a shock chlorination.

I have a well guy coming to help me tomorrow morning. He said the same thing as you Reach4 i.e. the 5 amps is too low for a locked rotor. He was thinking plugged, or hole in tubing.
 

LLigetfa

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There was another recent thread where shocking the well resulted in a huge amount of iron sludge clogging up the volutes in the pump.
 

Beets

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The pump guy checked my pump, and he came to the same conclusion i.e. that the pump is pumping, but it isn't lifting. He unseated it from the pitless adapter (I think that is what it is called), and it still wouldn't lift. While pulling it, we saw slime predominantly near the fluid level on the hose and there was less to no slime near pump intake on the hose. He asked me if we should try and clean up the old pump and re-run it, or run a new one. The one we pulled is 21 years old. I told him to run a new one. He ran a new pump and we started it with it unseated from the pitless. He tied in the fluid to return back down the well to circulate. We added chlorine, and kept circulating. We then landed the pitless, and circulated from house. I'm in the process of doing a shock treatment. I'm only doing it about 18 hours later than I had hoped, and with a lot less money :)

My learnings from this:
1) It might not be worth it to shock chlorinate :)
2) If you do shock chlorinate, it would be wise to ensure the pump is running before you introduce anything to the well. In my case, the pressure tank had 50 psi and it was not running. I likely flushed something into it and that may have concentrated near pump intake. I don't know if it would have helped if the pump was running, but I think it might have been better off.
3) Add chlorine in smaller batches.
 

Beets

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I should mention that he said the slime in my well wasn't bad compared to some he has seen. Having said that, it sat overnight with a gallon of hypochlor 12 in it, so that should have cleaned things a bit.
 

LLigetfa

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The one we pulled is 21 years old. I told him to run a new one.
Out of curiosity, if you want to do a post mortem on the pump by disassembling it, my guess is you will find the volutes are all clogged with iron "poop".
 

Beets

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Thank you. Pump looks brand new on the outside. I am fortunate not to have any iron. My nemesis is H2S and biofilms.
 
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