Well pump with Red, Black & Green wires - connection and cycling question

[James Miller]

Hello all,

I have bought a house where the well has been disconnected. It was working fine but due to a local code, to sell a house it has to be on street water. I want to get the pump into service to run an irrigation system. At present, there is a conduit coming into the basement with red, black and green wires in it. I have connected the red & black to either side of a dryer outlet to supply 220v and the green as a temporary neutral. This is purely temporary and as a means to troubleshoot / test what is going on - I plan to do it correctly once I have the pump working reliably. When I switch on the breaker, the pump runs for a couple of seconds, moves water successfully and then stops for a minute. It then carries on this process until the breaker is off. The pump is buried and I cannot find where it is, so unfortunately I dont have model numbers or anything to go by. So my questions are :

What could be causing the cycling ? - I assume some sort of safety shut off but unsure how to get past it.
What is the correct wiring set up - could it even be a 110v pump ?
Do I need an expansion tank / pressure switch / control box ? - I dont know why it would have been removed, perhaps in this set up, for irrigation only it is not required ?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and help. If any further information is required to help you all help me, I would be very happy to supply it.

JM

 

[Valveman]

Check the ohms between those three wires. Then we can tell if it is a 2 wire or 3 wire and needs a control box, which I am guessing. With the ohm readings we can probably even tell you what horsepower control box to get.

After you get it working you will need a pump start relay or a pressure switch and tank to make it work as needed.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[James Miller]

Hello,

The reading was 44 ohms between red/green and black/green.

I wired it up as a 2 wire pump, black hot, red neutral and green ground and it is working great. My question now is focused on the control side of things. Do some of these pumps have an inbuilt pressure switch ? If I leave the power connected and the water valve closed, will it shut off after a certain pressure is achieved or will it just carry on pumping and blow itself up ?!

Thanks for the help.

J

 

[Reach4]

The reading was 44 ohms between red/green and black/green.

You are saying that red to green and black to green were each 44 ohms? That would be considered a short. Could it be 44 Kohms???

That would still not meet spec, but not bad IMO.

 

[Valveman]

Yeah you will need a pressure tank/pressure switch to start/stop the pump or yes it will burn itself up.