Earlier today (Christmas day), I decided I would change the whole house water filter. It's a Big Blue carbon cartridge type. I've done this twice before without incident. Today, set the valves to bypass, changed the filter, switched things back to going through the filter, and then decided to do one thing differently. I hooked up a hose to the hose bib installed immediately after the filter, and set the end of the hose in the floor drain. I started to run water through, in order to clear out the loose sediment from the filter, but after about 30 seconds, the water stopped flowing.
I have spent the rest of the day trouble-shooting, but I am way out of my depth. Unfortunately, being Christmas, I don't have other options.
I checked the breaker. I checked that there is power to the pressure switch, and that there is power to the control box on the wall nearby. The "control box" appears to be a capacitor and a relay (This is a submerged pump in the well 50 feet from the house, and the pressure tank and the electrical components I'm describing are in the crawlspace. The pressure tank is a Well-x-trol (Amtrol) wx-250, which has a bladder, and it is supposed to have 38 psi. I attached a bicycle pump guage to the top of the tank, and the pressure is 22 psi, (with the tank drained and zero pressure reading on the guage attached to the water line). The previous owner apparently replaced the pump, pressure switch and control panel, as the old parts were sitting on a shelf right next to the pressure tank. I tried installing the old switch, just to see. No go. No pumping. The old switch has a lever on the side to force the pump to run. Tired that. No go. I'm a little confused about which switch was the installed switch, because it looks like the previous owner changed from a 30/50 to a 20/40, but he may have replaced the original cover (which has these specs written on it). The switches themselves don't have any markings, so, I'm not absolutely sure which is the 20/40 and which is the 30/60. In either case, though, I think holding the "force" lever should have made the pump come on. I suppose that I can also try letting some air out of the tank, so it is below 20?
And that gets me as far as I can get. My plan tomorrow is to see if I can find a new pressure switch and control panel (relay/...capacitor? Word escapes me. The little motor that starts bigger motors), and I have a call in to the well pump guy. He won't be back in the office until Monday. The thing that I can't understand is if the water filter change is somehow connected, or a coincidence. All the troubleshooting steps I've done are things I have found on the net. I really am not sure what I'm doing. Is there something else I should check? Is there some way to bypass the switches altogether, to see if the pump works?
Any help would be appreciated. House full of people who would like showers and to use the bathroom in other ways.
I have spent the rest of the day trouble-shooting, but I am way out of my depth. Unfortunately, being Christmas, I don't have other options.
I checked the breaker. I checked that there is power to the pressure switch, and that there is power to the control box on the wall nearby. The "control box" appears to be a capacitor and a relay (This is a submerged pump in the well 50 feet from the house, and the pressure tank and the electrical components I'm describing are in the crawlspace. The pressure tank is a Well-x-trol (Amtrol) wx-250, which has a bladder, and it is supposed to have 38 psi. I attached a bicycle pump guage to the top of the tank, and the pressure is 22 psi, (with the tank drained and zero pressure reading on the guage attached to the water line). The previous owner apparently replaced the pump, pressure switch and control panel, as the old parts were sitting on a shelf right next to the pressure tank. I tried installing the old switch, just to see. No go. No pumping. The old switch has a lever on the side to force the pump to run. Tired that. No go. I'm a little confused about which switch was the installed switch, because it looks like the previous owner changed from a 30/50 to a 20/40, but he may have replaced the original cover (which has these specs written on it). The switches themselves don't have any markings, so, I'm not absolutely sure which is the 20/40 and which is the 30/60. In either case, though, I think holding the "force" lever should have made the pump come on. I suppose that I can also try letting some air out of the tank, so it is below 20?
And that gets me as far as I can get. My plan tomorrow is to see if I can find a new pressure switch and control panel (relay/...capacitor? Word escapes me. The little motor that starts bigger motors), and I have a call in to the well pump guy. He won't be back in the office until Monday. The thing that I can't understand is if the water filter change is somehow connected, or a coincidence. All the troubleshooting steps I've done are things I have found on the net. I really am not sure what I'm doing. Is there something else I should check? Is there some way to bypass the switches altogether, to see if the pump works?
Any help would be appreciated. House full of people who would like showers and to use the bathroom in other ways.