On Aug 22, 4:04*pm, "Aaron Eel (Ehrin)"
wrote:
On Aug 22, 2:21*pm, dpb wrote:





Aaron Eel (Ehrin) wrote:
On Aug 22, 9:26 am, dpb wrote:
Aaron Eel (Ehrin) wrote:
On Aug 22, 2:15 am, mm wrote:
On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:14:56 -0700 (PDT), "Aaron Eel (Ehrin)"
wrote:
... 1-1/2hp submersible pump...and the well is about 90 feet deep.. ...
Just this morning the problem started. The shower was running and it
just stopped. I waited about 2 minutes and I heard the pump kick on,
and the water returned (with comparable pressure). Then after a minute
it stopped again. ...
The readinf with the power on, points closed and pump off was 45psi..
The kick-on psi is 40. The hose was turned on and the holding tank was
emptied. 0psi. Nothing for a minute or so. Poits still hot but closed.
Then the pump motor kicks on until about 45psi is again realized.,
Then it shuits off. Points STILL closed. I guess it would repeat this
over and over but I didn;t want to mess up my new points.
This whole time the pump had power but did
not come on at all. Then it finally came on after another minute. It
ran the pressure up to about 45psi and suddenly stopped. It sort of
fizzled out instead of the normal kick it puts down when it stops.. And
the points still remained closed!
I went ahead and installed a new pressure switch just to be sure. The
same thing happened. I checked to see if the lines were all hot and
they were. The pressure in the holding tank was at 38psi. Just where
it should be. The only thing left now is the control box (which was
installed new with the pump) or the pump itself. I have some water now
to get me by, but I only turn the power on at the breaker and only if
we really need it. And only for that time. Any ideas?
Is it overheating, or oversomethinging, and then resetting itself a
few minutes later?
Question: What is the cylindrical 'thing' in the control box (the
electrical box between the switch and the pump motor)? It looks like
some kind of capacitor or something. Could it be some sort of fuse
that has gone bad?
That's because it is "some kind of capacitor" -- specifically, the start
cap. *Generally submersibles will have both a start and run external cap
* so think that it's likely there is more than one.

Possible is weak cap; have you ever had issues of lack of water supply
in the well itself? *
Has it been unusually dry this summer or have you
used more than normal amounts of water recently?

Not that I know of. It's been raining here for weeks now. We never had
a dry season here this year either. The local water table is way up
there.

A relatively new pump _shouldn't_ have developed a bearing or motor
problem, but certainly stranger things have happened. *Is this a 240V
pump I presume? *Is it 2- or 3-wire to the hole?

Yes. 220 thre wire (including ground)

Need to check motor
currents against nameplate while it is running to determine condition there.

Sounds like the well service people are in your future.

How do I check the capacitor? I don't see how you can get a tester on
it. It's inside that little steel box and inaccessible unless I open
it (thereby disconnecting it). *Logic would dictate that I check to
see if 200 volts is exiting that box but the lines disappear down into
the well. I could just buy a new capacitor but they’re 40 bucks.

If it runs on occasion, it's getting power; I doubt that is the
intermittent.

When the water is on in the house, it turns on and off in 28 second
cycles. It never brings the pressure up to the old cut-off point
(60psi). It always cuts off at about 45. So the water eventually stops
before it kicks back on again. You have to wait and then it comes on.
The whole time though, the points are closed, so I only use it for
brief moments when I really need it and then turn it off. The points
still look fine, BTW.

Can't envision the setup where the enclosure door would disable anything
other than the manual start/stop/reset buttons.

What is an enclosure door?

Again, I'd start w/ checking the motor currents on each leg while
running; to do it you need a clampon meter. *If you don't have I still
think the well service folks are in your future...

A new wrinkle... The 220 leaving the house runs underground in a steel
pipe to the pump (about 30 feet away in my yard). The ground around
the pump area has dropped over the years to form a bowl around the
pump area. A pretty good size area. When it rains (like it has been),
the bowl sometimes fills with ankle-deep water. It may stand for a day
or two at times before it evaporates. I just went poking around where
that pipe comes up to a small on-off switch box (which I have never
used). The pipe is rusted thru at ground level. I dug around it and
pulled on it to see where it went and more rusted pipe came up. In
other words, that standing water has had a chance for who knows how
many years now to fill that pipe. The wire still looks good visually.
The part at the ground-level break that I can see. But could the water
have played a number on that wire inside and up the line? There have
been no bends in the pipe, so the wire sticks up straight coming out
of the ground pretty good. It's just that the water has had a chance
to enter (and I'm quite sure that it has). Maybe when the water table
is up, it causes the current to arc from one insulated wire to the
other? I call the pump people tomorrow if I can't get to the bottom of
this today. I just don't have the time now to dig that mess up myself.
I only hope my new pump is okay. Like I say, it still runs with really
good pressure and the lines all show hot.

Thanks for everyone's input, BTW. Especially your’s.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Also, anywhere I dig around that entire area I hit water after about a
foot. I dug around where the wire comes up next to the holding tank
and there's nothing but water. The ground here is almost saturated. I
really don't see how that wire could be compromised just by being in
the water. It's single stranded wire, 3 seperate lines, wrapped in a
sort of plastic-type paer or something. Likely it's rusted for quite a
ways, being that it's been down therer since 1987.