Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Karl

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?



First thing I usually do is is look for a blown start capacitor in the
controller box, most of these have a fusable link in them these days and so
when they go out it's pretty obvious....

If you do find a bad cap, replace it and go on about finding out if / why
the pump has been short-cycling--usually, you'll find that the tank is
waterlogged for some reason.

Other than that, bad contacts on the pressure switch are fairly common...and
if the switch has a lever on it, then it could simply be that the power went
out overnight and so you'll need to hold the lever down till the system
develops ~30 lbs or so--a pair of vise grips makes a pretty good "handle
extension" for this as the lever is generally too short to provide enough
leverage to comfortably hold in position by hand..

Don't condemn the pump without checking winding continuity ( suggest check
it AT the wellhead--because this eliminates any bad above-ground connections
that would otherwise skew your readings )......you should have continuity
between all three wires and your actual resistance reading is generally
going pretty low--if it's someplace between about 4 and 10 ohms then I would
suspect that the pump windings are probably okay. Also check for shorts to
ground...

Good luck.

Karl Townsend wrote:

Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Have you looked at the pressure switch?

-jim




Karl

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:22:12 -0500
Karl Townsend wrote:

Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Karl



I had this link flagged because the pdf had some
troubleshooting info in it (Red Jacket Water Products):

http://completewatersystems.com/wp-c...viceManual.pdf

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

Sorry to hear that. Saturday, too. Check the usual
electrical, make sure the well pump is getting power. Best
wishes, good luck.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Karl Townsend" wrote in
message ...
Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts
because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit
breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody
on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Karl

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:20:16 -0400, Leon Fisk
wrote:

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:22:12 -0500
Karl Townsend wrote:

Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Karl



I had this link flagged because the pdf had some
troubleshooting info in it (Red Jacket Water Products):

http://completewatersystems.com/wp-c...viceManual.pdf


Thanks, this will do it. I checked all the common stuff, no joy.

So I went to town and made up a coupling adaptor to hook the
irrigation pump to a house hydrant. I can run the irrigation and have
house water. This will get us till Monday or so. Run it one hour twice
a day. No way I don't have a broken part. I'll ohm out the pump next
to determine if its control box or pump.

Karl

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:49:16 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:20:16 -0400, Leon Fisk
wrote:

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:22:12 -0500
Karl Townsend wrote:

Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Karl



I had this link flagged because the pdf had some
troubleshooting info in it (Red Jacket Water Products):

http://completewatersystems.com/wp-c...viceManual.pdf


Thanks, this will do it. I checked all the common stuff, no joy.

So I went to town and made up a coupling adaptor to hook the
irrigation pump to a house hydrant. I can run the irrigation and have
house water. This will get us till Monday or so. Run it one hour twice
a day. No way I don't have a broken part. I'll ohm out the pump next
to determine if its control box or pump.

Karl

http://www.franklin-electric.com/med...IM_Catalog.pdf

for the record, here's the manual I was looking for. About the same as
Leon's link.

On 10/29/2011 12:15 PM, jim wrote:


Karl Townsend wrote:

Just got in for lunch. My better half is all out of sorts because we
have no water. A quick look showed its more than circuit breaker,
motor overload, etc.

I remember a trouble shooting guide on the web that somebody on RCM
pointed out. Can't find it right now. Any suggestions?

Have you looked at the pressure switch?

-jim

I had trouble with bugs in the contacts on the pressure switch,

Bill K7NOM

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:49:16 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:

Thanks, this will do it. I checked all the common stuff, no joy.

So I went to town and made up a coupling adaptor to hook the
irrigation pump to a house hydrant. I can run the irrigation and have
house water. This will get us till Monday or so. Run it one hour twice
a day. No way I don't have a broken part. I'll ohm out the pump next
to determine if its control box or pump.

Karl

For the next time this happens, do you have a place in the orchard or
a nearby ridge about 100' (or a bit more) higher than the house?

You put a gravity water tank up there, and you'll have ~45 PSI at the
house - and running any of the well pumps can fill it (reverse action
float switch to start the pump) and give you a healthy reserve - No
more waterlogged captive-air tanks when it's all running on gravity...

Or call it your Fire Tank, run a 6" main down the hill and put
hydrants near the house and the various barns and outbuildings, and
write it off.

Next time - a Pump Pallet in a pickup, or an old Pumper.

-- Bruce --