Submersible pump mystery - where to go?

200' deep 1hp [1.5?] 8' to 200' drawdown. 6" with 4" pvc liner, saw slotted, 1/8" minus.

Pumping it daily maybe 5] 40 gallon pulls.

WAS pumping muck and fine clay before the liner. Worked fine for 6 months after. No noticeable junk in the water now.

Pump has a full size control box with reset. resets kicking out.

On application of power, pulls locked rotor amps, about 35. Jog it a few times and you get the pump to run clean at 11.5 amps per line. red-yel-black wire ohm tests in range.

So I have a apparently in-spec pump that is locking up when idle.

Bad bearing? rock in impellers? Pull it out or?

Since ohms check out and no shorts to ground I would suspect the start relay in the control box.

Thanks, I'll try a swap today.

Porky said:

Since ohms check out and no shorts to ground I would suspect the start relay in the control box.

Click to expand...

I agree. Never pull a pump until you have tried a new control box. Could be a loose connection to a capacitor or relay or something that is hard to find.

Thanks, I installed a used 25 year old identical box, and now its been starting up at 10 to 11 amps with no locked rotor amps at the beginning.

And been working for a few days. The book says about 9.3 [?] amps FLA, so maybe this pump is a bit tired or not spec'd correctly? [1HP] 13 or more stages.

I would guess the local driller would have a new pump in someone elses hole right now.

Low amps would mean the pump is worn. High amps means something is dragging. Most likely the windings have been hot and have swelled to grab the rotor. With a canned stator, once it has gotten hot and swelled up, it will never "un-swell" back to the right size. One day in the near future, it will just lock up completely. But there is no fixing it, so run it until it quits.