Well stops pumping water

[LexLuther61]

My house well pump will normally work fine, cycling between 40 and 60 psi. If I use too much water, the pump goes into a "mode" where the amperage drops from about 8A to 7A. When in this mode, no water is coming in as the pressure gauge no longer moves. It will sit in this mode seemingly forever. If I shut off the pump and come back in 8 hrs, I can turn it on and it will start pumping water again, usually enough to cut the pump off at 60 psi.

My thought is the well water level is going below the pump level, and with the pump not being submerged its going into some kind of reduced power mode, but only drops an Amp (this is a 3/4HP pump).

Does anyone know if this description sounds like a low water level ? and should the pump behave this way ? I would think that if there is a thermal shutdown it'd be more than an amp.

 

[Valveman]

The thermal overload only shuts the pump off on high amperage. When you pump the well dry, the pump loses prime, and sits there running but is not moving any water. When the pump loses prime the amps will usually drop more than 50%. Only dropping from 8 to 7 amps is unusual, but possible. To protect the pump you need a device like the Cycle Sensor that shuts the pump off on low amperage. The Cycle Sensor current adjust can be set to 7.2 amps. Anytime the amps drop below 7.2 the pump will be shut off. Then the restart delay on the Cycle Sensor can be set for like 20 minutes to restart the pump.

Cycle Sensor Pump Monitor – Cycle Stop Valves, Inc

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cyclestopvalves.com

 

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[raymason]

I am very happy with my cycle sensor