Holding tank was empty this morning...

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Jfharper

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Hi,
I think my holding tank went empty this morning. We ran out of water, and I manually flipped and held the switch to the booster...the booster came on but sounded funny, as soon as I released the booster switch it shut off. My guess is the switch has a safety thing where it will not turn the booster on unless there is enough base pressure.

So if there was not enough base pressure, my guess was there was no feed water from the holding tank. My holding tank is on a platform 15 or so feet above the ground...so it is not easy to climb up and look inside.

I have a manual switch to turn the submersible pump on and that is what I did...the tank began to fill up and the tank sounded like it was low...lots of echoing going on...I left the manual switch on for about 10 minutes, then flipped the booster switch on and the booster sounded like it was running some air through the system, then it sounded normal...I took my hand of the booster switch lever and it stayed on...the pressure went up to 60 psi and booster turned off...so it looks like the booster and booster switch are both working normally (along with the pressure tanks...I have two of them, one of them is new).

So my guess is a problem with the float, sending unit or relay switch...since I have not, to date, fixed anything with the holding tank, relay switch or float mechanism I thought I would ask for help here on what to test first. I'm guessing on the components that make up this part of the system. Since it is hard to climb up to my holding tank, is there a check I can do at the electrical box first, perhaps running a volt meter or indicator light at the relay switch to see if is getting a signal back from the float, or determine if the relay switch is not sending a signal to the float? I'm hoping to start with the relay switch since this is easier than climbing up to the tank. Can someone offer a place or two for me to start?

Thanks for any guidance.
 

Ballvalve

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imitate the float being low by jumping the two wires that tell the relay to go on. Or you can do the same with a meter if you know the program.
 

Jfharper

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are those high voltage wires? where might they be found...do they go into the contactor?

I have another electrical box that has some sort of thing in it that has some tabs that plug into another thing...OK, let me back up, I have 3 electrical boxes, one that has breakers for the submersible pump and for the booster pump...two separate breakers.

A middle box that has the contactor in it (black thing with big points that has a button in the middle) and just below this box there is the manual switch to turn the sub on and off...

The last box has this thing, looks like a coil that has some metal tabs that plug into another thing...I'm sort of lost on what that box does.
 

Jfharper

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OK, here are some images of my electrical boxes:

Picture-001.jpg
1 goes to my booster pressure switch.
2 I think comes from my shop which brings in the power.
3 I think goes up to the holding tank float...I think...not sure.
4 goes to an old pressure switch which I think was for the sub...I think there was an old system without a booster pump and holding tank...not sure, just guessing...but I don't think this pressure switch does anything now.
5 goes to the sub
Picture-002.jpg
A I think is the power to this connector...2 black and 2 white wires, both black go to the top of the connector, 1 white goes through D which grounds to the side of the far right box (I think this is the relay box), the other white goes into 3...maybe that is the neutral wire for the float. There are 2 more wires coming out of 3...a black which goes to the side of the connector and a white which goes to the top of the connector switch...are these the two wires that need to be jumped? How should I jump them, take them off first (obviously remove after I've turned off the power at the breaker) and jump them with a wire with some alligator clips?

There is another white wire coming from 4 (the old sub pressure switch) that connects to the side of the connector....my guess is the old sub switch would trip the connector this way...once again just guessing.

There is another white wire on the other side of the connector which routes from the side to the top of the connector...not sure what this does.

Red wires are for the manual switch to turn on the sub, one red goes to the top of the connector the other goes in 4, has that yellow wire nut on it and turns into that white wire going in 4.

BTW, there is some sort of copper coil thing behind this connector...maybe power goes through that coil creating a magnet and pulls the connector closed.

Picture-003.jpg
5 has three wires going to the sub, red, yellow and black...these are the 3 screws on the right...the 2 screws on the left have two black wires which I come through D from the bottom of the connector switch in image 2...there is one white wire in there too grounded to the side of the box.

Picture-004.jpg
here is the relay switch that is mounted to the box door which plugs in once I close the door.
Picture-005.jpg
here is my pipes and things and some numbers corresponding to the other images to give you an idea of the setup.

I'm guessing I need to focus my attention on image 2 and the wires that go to the connector...I'm guess there are a couple wires there that route through the float that I can jump to test the float without having to climb up to the holding tank.

If anyone can offer some more guidance, I would really appreciate it...thanks
 
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Ballvalve

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If you dont have a meter and know the theory behind this system and electricity you are over your head.

Find and test the transformer that runs low voltage to the float and see if its working, then if not, try a new transformer. but it may be line voltage, and then see if the float is sending a signal to the relay. often a relay has a 24 volt coil, but can just as well be 120 volts.

And dont call a plumber or electrician, call a pump and well guy. You may have a bad control box - see if there is power at l1 and l2 right now.
 
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