Submersable pump went to half amps

[RonL1]

My 220 2 wire submersible normally runs for roughly 4 minutes while it's pushing water through my geothermal heat pump. And draws about 1280 watts (5.25 amps) I monitor them using an emporia monitor. I just happen to see my well kick on at half the watts (547) for 16 minutes ( and there was no variation 547 solid) . Then turn off and then 2minutes later kick on at normal draw for its 4 minute cycle. And this was in the middle of a long heat pump cycle.where it ran normal before and after all during the heat pump cycle.. it's like it started sucking air and needed less watts to run, but if that happened the heat pump would have quit. And it didnt So the pump must have been pushing some water. Any ideas ? It's been running normal since ... even through an hour long heat pump cycle.

 

[RonL1]

My 220 2 wire submersible normally runs for roughly 4 minutes while it's pushing water through my geothermal heat pump. And draws about 1280 watts (5.25 amps) I monitor them using an emporia monitor. I just happen to see my well kick on at half the watts (547) for 16 minutes ( and there was no variation 547 solid) . Then turn off and then 2minutes later kick on at normal draw for its 4 minute cycle. And this was in the middle of a long heat pump cycle.where it ran normal before and after all during the heat pump cycle.. it's like it started sucking air and needed less watts to run, but if that happened the heat pump would have quit. And it didnt So the pump must have been pushing some water. Any ideas ? It's been running normal since ... even through an hour long heat pump cycle.

Also, this is a 2 wire. No grou d wire going down the well. Just 2 hots.
I just checked the pressure switch connections, the circuit breaker connections and the wire nuts that extend the original wires to the generator sub panel. One wire nut was a bit loose, so maybe that's what did it. But I wouldn't think it could run on just one leg, with no ground wire.

 

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[RonL1]

No response from the experts ?

 

[LLigetfa]

On many pumps, amps drawn is commensurate with volume of water pumped.

 

[Reach4]

Well runs dry for a while, and amps go down?

The pump stops if either hot leg is opened.

 

[Fitter30]

Have never seen a running motor not vary in amp draw a little couple of hundreds of a amp. Even if a wire nut was a little loose the connection was bad the nut would be discolored and warm to hot. Also bad connection the the insulation right below the stripped copper would be discolored. H pump uses 2 gpm per ton. If wattage drops off to 50% pump wouldn't flow 50% it would be less and the H pump wattage would change go up. Can purchase a cheap clamp on amp meter for under $50 to compare monitor to amps.

 

[Valveman]

Yeah don't know what to tell you. Amps dropping by 50% would mean it isn't pumping any water. But the heat pump would not have kept running for 16 minutes with no water? So, I think the reading was off, not the pump.

 

[RonL1]

Yeah don't know what to tell you. Amps dropping by 50% would mean it isn't pumping any water. But the heat pump would not have kept running for 16 minutes with no water? So, I think the reading was off, not the pump.

I think your right, everything has been running fine ever since, it was just A very odd reading to see as the amps / wattage used in both heat pump and well stayed exactly the same rate for the same time period. Roughly 2500 for the hp and 547 for the well. I should have taken screen shots of the data... as it's gone now, Emporia doesnt store the minute by minute data for to long ( I think 2 weeks)