no water

New here . Hope someone can help me.
We have no water. Electric to switch and well is on. How do I test to see if the pressure switch is bad or test the well pump. With and without the power on I moved the magnetic ( i think ) switch and nothing happened. No arc no snap nothing.
Thanks
BillT

The switch works off water pressure . Is your pump down in your well ? Are the points in the pressure switch open or closed ? When you moved the points in the switch did you push them together or apart ?

BillT said:

New here . Hope someone can help me.
We have no water. Electric to switch and well is on. How do I test to see if the pressure switch is bad or test the well pump. With and without the power on I moved the magnetic ( i think ) switch and nothing happened. No arc no snap nothing.
Thanks
BillT

Click to expand...

You need a multimeter to measure the voltage. Inside the switch are four terminals layed out something like xx|xx. The outer ones take power from your breaker box and the inner ones send it to the pump's motor. Measure the voltage across the outer two. You should get about 120V or 240V depending on your setup. If the switch is open, turn off the power and open a faucet to drain the tanks until the switch closes. Close the faucet and turn the power back on to the switch. Now measure the voltage across the middle two terminals. It, too, should be approx. 120V or 240V. If not, the switch is bad. If the switch doesn't close, it may be bunged up. You can remove the switch to clean the small section of tube that connects it to the main water pipe. If you are getting power on both sides of the switch then you need to measure the voltage across the terminal leads going to the pump itself. The wire from the switch may be directly attached to the pump motor (in which case you already know if the motor is getting power) or it may go through a splice/pigtails (in which case to need to confirm the integrity of the connections) or you may have a 3-wire system that goes through a controller. If you confirm a voltage is being applied to the motor and the motor isn't starting, you probably have a motor problem (or another problem with the control box for a 3-wire system). I'm assuming you have a deep well setup.

Fingers crossed it is your switch. I had a bad motor