Well Pump wont come on.

[jody]

Help! We were disinfecting our well just like we always do. And now for some reason we cant get the well pump to come back on. We have never had it go off before. Of course I can't find any paperwork on it so I have just been guessing. Help I have no water.

[mysticokra]

Originally Posted by jody

Help! We were disinfecting our well just like we always do. And now for some reason we cant get the well pump to come back on. We have never had it go off before. Of course I can't find any paperwork on it so I have just been guessing. Help I have no water.

By disinfecting do you mean you pulled the top off and poured some bleach in?
Check to see if there is a kill switch on your top that requires that the top be on before the well pump can work again?

Did you check the breaker at the box?

[aaatraker]

Originally Posted by jody

Help! We were disinfecting our well just like we always do. And now for some reason we cant get the well pump to come back on. We have never had it go off before. Of course I can't find any paperwork on it so I have just been guessing. Help I have no water.

YOU DIDN'T SAY IF IT WAS ELECTRIC, I'LL ASSUME IT IS NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU HAVE TRIED I'LL START AT THE BEGINNING.

CHECK THE ELECTRIC PANEL FOR TRIPPED BREAKER OR BLOWN FUSE

TURN BREAKER OR FUSE SWITCH OFF AND CHECK FOR LOOSE WIRES IN ANY CONNECTION BOXES BETWEEN THE POWER PANEL AND THE WELL MOTOR

CHECK ALL CONNECTIONS AT THE WELL PUMP

IF THERE IS A FLOAT SWITCH CHECK THAT IT IS NOT STUCK

ALL THE ABOVE ASSUMES THAT YOU HAVE CHECKED FOR POWER AT THE PUMP WITH A VOLTAGE TESTER AND NO VOLTAGE

IF THERE IS POWER CHECK THAT YOU DIDN'T STEP ON SOMETHING OR BUMP OR MOVE IT OR SPILLED LIQUID ON IT SO THE INSTALLATION IS NOT THE SAME

THATS ALL I CAN THINK OF I HATE TO EVEN TYPE THE WORD ASSUME WHEN IT COMES TO FIXING THINGS

GOOD LUCK



KURT

[Ken Scharabok]

Every so often my pressure switch gets stuck. I just tap the side of the swtich and it starts.

Ken

[moopups]

Plus the things above, turn off the circuit breaker, go to the pump and open the control pressure switch box. Itwill be about 2 inches high, 3 wide, and 2 1/2 long, with wire or wire tubeing attached. They are usually grey in color, inside you will find 2 pair of contact points, that work in tandum. Check where the contacts touch, it should be clean and shiney; if the contacts are corroded, burnt, or or other than shiney - take a slim piece of fine sandpaper (or ever an emory board nail file) and pull it over the surfaces until they are clean. Turn the curcit breaker back on and report back here if that does not work.

As long as the curcit breaker is turned off there is no electricity within the system, therefore no shock hazard.

[jody]

Originally Posted by moopups

Plus the things above, turn off the circuit breaker, go to the pump and open the control pressure switch box. Itwill be about 2 inches high, 3 wide, and 2 1/2 long, with wire or wire tubeing attached. They are usually grey in color, inside you will find 2 pair of contact points, that work in tandum. Check where the contacts touch, it should be clean and shiney; if the contacts are corroded, burnt, or or other than shiney - take a slim piece of fine sandpaper (or ever an emory board nail file) and pull it over the surfaces until they are clean. Turn the curcit breaker back on and report back here if that does not work.

As long as the curcit breaker is turned off there is no electricity within the system, therefore no shock hazard.

i even went so far as to completly replace the switch box, thinking that was the problem. Absolutly no luck. I don't hear it kicking on once I turn the breaker back on. Everything was working fine until we took the well head off poured in the bleach waited the 12 hours, got up this morning opened all faucets to clear lines water ran for about 20 minutes the the pump just stopped.

[jody]

Originally Posted by jody

i even went so far as to completly replace the switch box, thinking that was the problem. Absolutly no luck. I don't hear it kicking on once I turn the breaker back on. Everything was working fine until we took the well head off poured in the bleach waited the 12 hours, got up this morning opened all faucets to clear lines water ran for about 20 minutes the the pump just stopped.

Someone I talked to said something about a loss of prime. Does anyone know anything about priming the well head.

[fordy]

.............You need to give more specific information about the type of Pump , depth , etc. If you have a conventional submersible pump , and it it is set sufficientially deep in the bore hole it should be completely emersed in water. Prime won't be a problem .....fordy...

[moopups]

Next step is if your pump is above ground and accessable, turn off the breaker first, look at the pump motor; if there a cylinder shaped thing attached to your pump, it would be about the same size as a short flashlight and mounted on the actual pump itsself, normally with 4 screws in the cover. If such is present it is a capasitor, a short term storage battery that collects electricity to dump a lot of electricity into the motor at start up, usually working for maybe half a second per cycle. Inspect the wire attached end, there should be two wires on spade clips and a 'weep hole', look clostly at the weep hole. Is there moisture or indication of anything leaking? Any wetness or indication of leaking indicated defective and need for replacement. Also the odor of burnt is an indicator, do not breath in any more than necesary, there are nasties inside.

The fact that you pumped for 20 minutes indicated not a prime loss, if your pump is underground within the pipe it is out of my area of knowledge. Do not handle or touch any thing that comes out of the weep hole. Have you established first that there is currant available to the pressure switch?

[aaatraker]

Originally Posted by jody

i even went so far as to completly replace the switch box, thinking that was the problem. Absolutly no luck. I don't hear it kicking on once I turn the breaker back on. Everything was working fine until we took the well head off poured in the bleach waited the 12 hours, got up this morning opened all faucets to clear lines water ran for about 20 minutes the the pump just stopped.

the motor could be going off on overload { working too hard } if you let it sit will it restart? could anything you did plug up the inlet of the pump? we need more info on the pump above ground? submerged? how deep is the inlet or pump any problems at all in the recent past? can you turn the shaft of the pump freely? maybe it was ok but the bearings were going and shutting it down was enough to change the load i've had equipment do that before run great until shut down for maintenance then won't restart right was it making any new noise or different noise ?
kurt

[Oilpatch197]

on our Wayne 1/2hp deep well pump it has a red Reset button on the back of the motor, I think if the motor overheats, it kills the power, and you have to manually reset it.

also on above ground pumps, if it wasn't getting prime, it would run constantly.

[Oilpatch197]

Originally Posted by Oilpatch197

on our Wayne 1/2hp deep well pump it has a red Reset button on the back of the motor, I think if the motor overheats, it kills the power, and you have to manually reset it.

also on above ground pumps, if it wasn't getting prime, it would run constantly.

and if yours is like mine....



the power goes from the Breaker to the pressure switch once the Pressure is low it makes contact and sends power to the motor, you COULD bypass the switch and flip the breaker and the motor should start, that will eliminate the switch, now if it don't start, it could be the motors capacitor, or a thermal overload(read above) if the PUMP head was frozen up, the motor should at LEAST HUMM.