I'm having some problems with the pressure switch on my irrigation well
pump. I live in Florida and I have a 1hp pump on a shallow well
(50ft). Everything has been working just fine until I went away for a
week and noticed the yard was dry when I returned. I ran through the
zones and the pump wouldn't turn on. I had the person that installed
the well/pump come and check it out and he said it worked fine, but at
the time I had power secured to it so he ran it off a generator. This
past weekend we went away and the check valve coming from the well
broke, and I replaced it. When I applied power to the pump, the pump
came on and one of the irrigation zones was on, but the pump would
cycle. The pressure switch was turning the pump off at about 35-40
psi. I adjusted and lubricated (WD-40) the pressure switch today and
ran all my zones without problem and the pump shut off by itself. When
I went out to check it a few hours after the last zone ran, the
pressure read 0 psi. I can manually trip the relay on the pressure
switch and the pump will pressurize to 55-60 psi. For some reason the
pressure switch won't kick the pump on. Any idea what could be causing
this? Could it be a problem with the sensing line going from the pump
to the pressure switch? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Mark

if the line to the switch gets clogged with dirt or sediment it will
make the pump very erratic

wrote:
if the line to the switch gets clogged with dirt or sediment it will
make the pump very erratic

And they aren't expensive enough to lose sleep over, try another. That
is something every well owner should have one as a spare anyhow. They
do wear out.

Eric in North TX wrote:
wrote:
if the line to the switch gets clogged with dirt or sediment it will
make the pump very erratic

And they aren't expensive enough to lose sleep over, try another. That
is something every well owner should have one as a spare anyhow. They
do wear out.

Yep.

1. Pull the 'line' (1/8" riser pipe) to the pressure switch and see if
it is plugged, if so clean it.

2. If the pipe riser is clear, replace the pressure switch. They only
cost a few lattes

Harry K

They do get old, and do wear out, but also temperature can play havoc at
times.
I had a case where the temperature here in the Mojave desert got over 100
degrees and caused the pressure in the pressure tank to rise due to the air
heating up in there. It is usually set 2 psi below cutin. If the switch
started to cut in when the temp was high, it cycled, sometimes to the point
of tripping the breaker due to high starting current making the average
current draw larger than usual.
I solved the problem by installing a gate valve in the pipe inlet to the
switch, and barely cracking the valve open. This created a dampening effect
kind of like a shock absorber and worked well for me. Always have a gage
attached to the pressure switch line; it will help you diagnose many
problems quickly.
--
don paolino
"Harry K" wrote in message
oups.com...

Eric in North TX wrote:
wrote:
if the line to the switch gets clogged with dirt or sediment it will
make the pump very erratic

And they aren't expensive enough to lose sleep over, try another. That
is something every well owner should have one as a spare anyhow. They
do wear out.

Yep.

1. Pull the 'line' (1/8" riser pipe) to the pressure switch and see if
it is plugged, if so clean it.

2. If the pipe riser is clear, replace the pressure switch. They only
cost a few lattes

Harry K

On Oct 5, 5:06 pm, "desperado" wrote:
They do get old, and do wear out, but also temperature can play havoc at
times.
I had a case where the temperature here in the Mojave desert got over 100
degrees and caused the pressure in the pressure tank to rise due to the air
heating up in there. It is usually set 2 psi below cutin. If the switch
started to cut in when the temp was high, it cycled, sometimes to the point
of tripping the breaker due to high starting current making the average
current draw larger than usual.
I solved the problem by installing a gate valve in the pipe inlet to the
switch, and barely cracking the valve open. This created a dampening effect
kind of like a shock absorber and worked well for me. Always have a gage
attached to the pressure switch line; it will help you diagnose many
problems quickly.
--
don paolino"Harry K" wrote in message

oups.com...





Eric in North TX wrote:
wrote:
if the line to the switch gets clogged with dirt or sediment it will
make the pump very erratic

And they aren't expensive enough to lose sleep over, try another. That
is something every well owner should have one as a spare anyhow. They
do wear out.

Yep.

1. Pull the 'line' (1/8" riser pipe) to the pressure switch and see if
it is plugged, if so clean it.

2. If the pipe riser is clear, replace the pressure switch. They only
cost a few lattes

Harry K- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I suspect something else was going on. The pump would only try to
start at the low pressure (cut-in) setting, not the high (cut out)
setting.

I don't think an air temp of 100 degrees is going to raise the
pressure in a tank more than a pound or two.

Harry K

I don't think an air temp of 100 degrees is going to raise the
pressure in a tank more than a pound or two.

If the ground water temp was 55 or so, then the "air soak" would raise temp
by 45F. On an "absolute" scale, that's about 10%. IOW: it could be as
much as 3 or 4 lbs.

John Gilmer wrote:

I don't think an air temp of 100 degrees is going to raise the
pressure in a tank more than a pound or two.

If the ground water temp was 55 or so, then the "air soak" would raise temp
by 45F. On an "absolute" scale, that's about 10%. IOW: it could be as
much as 3 or 4 lbs.

How do you figure that?

Nick