Voltages on 3 wire pump?

[s10010001]

What kind of voltages should I be seeing on a 3 wire pump?

Front ground, I’m seeing 120/120/277, the 277 red wire concerns me, but I’m not sure how the capacitors in the control box change things.

Pumptec is tripping off, red flashing, “over voltage”. If I bypass the pumptec the pump runs fine and water flows strong. I’m thinking the pumptec is failing but I want to confirm that voltage first so I don’t mess up my pump.

 

[Reach4]

What kind of voltages should I be seeing on a 3 wire pump?

Front ground, I’m seeing 120/120/277, the 277 red wire concerns me, but I’m not sure how the capacitors in the control box change things.

Pumptec is tripping off, red flashing, “over voltage”. If I bypass the pumptec the pump runs fine and water flows strong. I’m thinking the pumptec is failing but I want to confirm that voltage first so I don’t mess up my pump.

Running pump? Yellow-black 240 volts. Red wire is the start winding, and once the pump is started, I would not worry about that voltage. The start relay pretty much has one end disconnected once the pump starts.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[s10010001]

I did some more reading and mostly came to that conclusion as well. Thank you for confirming! I am seeing 244 hot to hot (yellow:black, 122 each leg)

So onto my problem and potential solution. Does that mean my pumptec is failing? Seems to be common for folks around here to have 2-3 of the dang things dead in their well house collecting dust (I helped many folks fix pipes after the 2021 snow-mageddon in Texas). They seem prone to fail sure.

Is it time for a Cycle Sensor Pump monitor? I like that I can run longer wait durations (5 hours I think) than the pumptec.

 

[s10010001]

I did more diag, my pumptec is tossing an over voltage even though I’m well within spec for the setup.

I went ahead and ordered the cycle sensor monitor from my boys up in Lubbock. Should match my cycle stop valve set up real nice.

For now, I’m just manually cycling the well pump in the morning and in the evening to get some water going into. Just turning it off when the water stops flowing.

 

[Valveman]

Over and under voltage are just some of the extra things that some devices look for and give nuisance trips. The Cycle Sensor doesn't look at anything other than amperage and run time. It will not cause a nuisance trip for unnecessary reasons.

 

[s10010001]

Nice! I already had my eye on that one because it allows for a pump timer of up to 5 hours. So things a great excuse to get one!

Basically my well is pretty low yield these days, at 500’ in hill country, I’m pretty shallow and it’s like 40k to drill more. I have been building up my rainwater collection, goal is full roof and shop collection to a 20k tank out back. Not done, but it’s been seriously helping out.

What I found is I get about the same amount of water from the well pump if it’s been off letting the well recharge for 12 hours as I do if it came on every hour 12 times. So I love the idea of letting the pump cycle even less. 5 hours seems like it might been the sweet spot.

 

[Fitter30]

Pumptec model number and brand /model of pump starter?
With a clamp on amp meter/ volt meter can test the capacitor with this formula.

The MFD Calculation Formula​

You can use the formula below to determine the MFD rating of your capacitor accurately:

(159,300 + Hz) x (volts + amps) = MFD

This formula simplifies to just one number if the Hz parameter doesn’t change.

 

[s10010001]

My voltmeter has the capability to test capacitors, both passed. This whole control boxes is less than a year old, or near there, I just had a new pump put in last year