I suspect you have a low quality contactor.

Either upgrade or do this:
Another thing to try is putting a small condenser across the points
to supress arcing. AC condenser, twice the voltage than your supply.







On 02 Oct 2004 20:37:53 GMT, ojunk (BGBevill) wrote:

Hiya, Bobby.

Without thinking about it too hard, I would suspect the check valve
between
the tank and well head is not holding--this causes leakage at this point
and has the effect of spinning the pump turbines backwardes and at
startup
the cooresponding hi amps draw ( yes in this situation its acting as an
unregulated alternator untill connected ) is very hard on the pressure
switch contact points.

HTH


Thanks for your response. I have let it sit and watched the pressure
gauge and
it does seem to be holding pressure just fine. We did put in a new check
valve
when we changed the pump for what it is worth.


Did you replace the controller too???--the caps or relay might be bad......

Also, any possibility you have the windings mixed up ???

Suggest disconnect the pump and get ohms readings, and post them here--also
voltage drop and current readings on startup and run.....with this info
others might chime in.

=====

I had a similar problem with our old tank, it has the old snifter w/ bleeder
type of air volume control.....

The tank kept waterlogging and burning up the pressure switch points, as
well as occasionally exploding the start capacitor, etc.

I had a pro in and he pulled the bleeder out of the well head and replaced
with new.......he gave the system a clean bill of health, and this has fixed
the problems so far--but he did suggest that if it continues to burn up
points I should probly use a magnetic contactor to switch the pump load so
that the pressure switch will then only see the load of contactor
coil........

As a point of referance, this is a 3 hp pump and from the weight of the
steel pipe he estimated it at around 200 ft depth--also note that with the
snifter, ours only starts out under head pressure, tank pressure being
essentially unloaded on startup via the check and bleeder valves.

Sorry I cant be of more help.

--

SVL



Thanks for the replies. Ours is a two wire pump, so no controller. Before I
posted here yesterday, I added a magnetic contactor to handle the pump load as
you mention with the pressure switch only handling the load of the magnetic
coil. I am thinking this will solve my immediate problem, but was still
looking for ideas as to why I am having the problem.

thanks everyone,
Bobby