Rookie with a question

Bought a house about a month ago. This is my first experience with a well.

Well
Franklin 1.5 hp submersible
webxtroll 90 gallon pressure tank.
I believe the well is drilled to 400' and the pump is pulling around 160' (I think).
running 35/55 psi
the model for the controller box is 2823008110

Here's the problem I'm having.
I'm having to hit the reset button at least once a week.

The first time I had any issue, I checked the wiring in the control box and at the pressure switch. Lots of corosion. I reconnected with terminals and clean connections. That seemed to work for a little while, but now I'm back to the reset button.

Sometimes when I hit the reset, it will click back off within a couple seconds without the pump starting.

I appologize for not getting all the terminology right, I new to wells (but pretty excited about learning something new).

Any and all information is greatly appreciated.

By the way, this site is great. I've spent two days trying to find information on wells etc. I've learned more in the last hour than the previous 48 hours combined.

thanks to everyone who posts here.

That's really not enough info to do any diagnostics with.

You might be further ahead to call a Well/Pumpman to check it out. He will need to put a few meters on the wires etc to see what's going on. It may save you the cost of a new Pump if you do it quickly.

bob...

Sorry, I didn't give all the info I should have.

We had a well/pump guy come out about a week ago. He checked the voltage etc. and said everything looked good. That was right after I cleaned up the connections etc.

What I'm really wondering is should I look at replacing any of the capacitors or relay? What else would cause me to have to hit the reset button?

Cycling on and off!

You could have corroded connections just inside the well cap where there's usually wire nuts used.

You could have a bad cable from wearing on the inside of the casing or well. Or a pigtail water proof connection going bad. You could have a bad motor or wet end of the pump.

If it isn't the wire nuts I think you'll need someone to do more than the voltage test the guy did and then to probably pull the pump. You could replace the lid of the control box which gives you all new parts in the box but if something else is wrong, that won't last long and you could ruin the pump.

Pump problems

I'm not a pro but was just wondering how bad the contact points in the pressure switch might be corroded . Have you checked them ?

Anybody checked to see how many amps the pump is pulling at start up and run?

valveman said:

Cycling on and off!

Click to expand...

Valveman, Not sure what you are asking.

I checked the contact points where the power comes into the well house, in the control box, and in the pressure switch. I've cut the coroded ends off the wires in all three, and re-established clean contacts. that lasted for about a week before I had to start in with the reset button again. That's why I initially thought it was something electrical.

I haven't looked inside the well cap.

I will end up calling the well guy out again. I just wanted to get some info before I did. I don't like calling out a repair guy and not having any knowledge of what they are there to fix.



Thanks for all the ideas.

Pump problems

I asked about the contact points in the pressure switch . I don't mean where the wire connects . Inside the pressure switch there is a set of points that closes to start the pump & opens to stop the pump . These points are controlled by water pressure . Sometimes they will get pitted or corroded & cause problems . Actually the wires do connect to the contact points but the screws the wires fit under isn't what I'm talking about .

An overload tripping occasionally is sometimes your first indication that the pump is cycling on and off too much. Your pressure switch, contacts, capacitors, and relays can be fine, and the overload will still trip once in a while. A few years of hearing the click, click, click of the pressure switch turning the pump on and off takes it's toll. Pumps are designed to take about 7 years of this abuse on average. The more it clicks, the less time it last. The less it clicks, the longer it will last.

I often ask people how often it clicks while they are using water. They have never timed it, so I ask is it every few seconds, every couple of minutes, or every 5 minutes. The normal answer is usually 5 minutes or less. Then they are shocked to find out that every 5 minutes is still 288 times per day, and every 2 minutes is 720 times per day the pump has started. While using water, ANY clicking is bad. It adds up to a burned up motor much faster than you would think.

The reset trips because of excessive heating. There are 3 possible causes of overheating.

1. The pump is pumping too much water because of (a) a leak in the pipe between pump and tank, or (b) The pump has too much pressure capability and it is pumping too much water into your tank. You can check this by getting someone to measure the current when running using a clamp-on ammeter. Compare the measured current to the expected current for a 1.5 HP motor.

2. The pump is cycling on and off too frequently. That is caused by inadequate air in the tank. When the tank is empty of water there should be 33 psi of air (2 psi less than the START pressure of the switch) when you measure the pressure with a tire gauge at the top of the tank. Also, when the pump starts it should run for at least one minute and preferably for two minutes. Check the run time to see if this is the problem. If it is a big pump you may not be able to get more than a minute or 90 seconds of run time.

3. The pump could be failed and the impellers could be dragging, requiring more torque (and therefore more current through the motor). Again, use the clamp-on ammeter.

If the pump has too much pressure capability (item 1b), or too much flow for the tank (item 2) you might be able to improve the situation by increasing the pressure setting to 40/60 or 45/65, or even 50/70; and reset the air pressure to 2 psi less than the START pressure. Increasing the pressure settings will decrease the drawdown but it will also decrease the flow from the pump which will decrease the motor current and increase the on-time of the cycle.

Thanks for all the info. I really appreciate it. I'll let you know what I find out.

I'm not sure if this is the same type of problem, but my well pump kept tripping the breaker. It turned out that the wires under the well cap were rubbed bare and made contact with the well casing. I had to replace the wires and get a better well cap.