HELP! Submersible pump inoperable after 3 days; Ideas?

[Alpine_Junky]

Grundfos SQ Flex Submersible Pump – 6SQF-3 installed 300' deep with schedule 120 pipe and wired for 240; no controller as pump has internal. Worked for a few days; abruptly quit. Power going down the well, no draw, no instances of a breaker tripping.

-Schedule 120 pipe; did not use a torque arrestor per advice from supply co and instructions; but did take extreme care threading everything together and tightening. Is it likely the pump fell off? The pump weighs like 30 lbs. Putting it together, I was uncomfortable with the plastic pipe and heavy pump but it seems this is common practice from what I have gathered.

-I bought this pump model because I am off-grid and have an inverter / wanted a low electricity use pump. The well is only 6 GPM; so I went with a soft starting pump that wasn't fussy about input voltage & used little electricity.

Any ideas before I pull? Are there any above ground tricks to test to see if pump is still connected (multi-meter?) or to get it running?

The directions stated that upon initial start up, it sometimes takes the pump hours to get going, especially if it has been sitting on a shelf for some time. I did not experience this; within just a few minutes, it was pumping water. Prior to it stopping, everything was what I would have expected.

 

[Valveman]

Always check the voltage and amperage before pulling a pump. If you have voltage but no amperage, a wire is broken or the overload in the motor has tripped. The overload should reset itself in a few minutes and you would have water again, a broken wire will not. High amperage means the pump is locked down. Low amperage means the pump is clogged, shaft is broken, or has run out of water.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Alpine_Junky]

Always check the voltage and amperage before pulling a pump. If you have voltage but no amperage, a wire is broken or the overload in the motor has tripped. The overload should reset itself in a few minutes and you would have water again, a broken wire will not. High amperage means the pump is locked down. Low amperage means the pump is clogged, shaft is broken, or has run out of water.

I checked and have two legs of 120v at top of well casing. The inverter monitor shows its not drawing anything; I gave it hours to reset, monkeyed around with turning the breaker on and off and retesting voltage, and applied generator power (inverter has a generator assist - not that this did anything the inverter wasn't already doing).

It is a brand new well; drilled in August. No special things were done after the driller left / their last pump out, to clear the well. Pump is 20' off the bottom. I had just a few minutes of dirty water before it cleared when I started the pump; does it sound plausible that the pump could be blocked or some ill effects as a result of this? Have you ever heard of a submersible pump going south so soon after install? Thanks for the reply - grateful!

 

[Valveman]

Yeah they can be bad right out of the box. But you can have 120V on both terminals and still not have 240V as needed. Check for 240V. Could still be an open leg or the overload tripped.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Inverters may not produce a clean sine wave. I'm sure there are many pumps working off inverters without problems but it's just something to consider why the pump might have failed. The problem with a two wire pump is the control circuit and motor part are self contained and no way to tell which part failed. Please check this other post comments by Jadnashua.
https://terrylove.com/forums/index....erator-throwing-error-code.96819/#post-696695
https://terrylove.com/forums/index....erator-throwing-error-code.96819/#post-696695

 

[Reach4]

Those SQE pumps are designed to accept a range of voltages.
https://product-selection.grundfos....x/6-sqf-3-96834840?tab=variant-specifications

Rated voltage AC 90-240 V
Rated voltage DC 30-300 V​

Nominal 240 will sometimes go 10% over that nominal voltage. I have not looked into the actual tolerance.

 

[Alpine_Junky]

It is hooked up to my inverter; its a Schneider with a max of 4400 watts and is a pure sine inverter (vs the mod sine wave inverter that gives sensitive electronics a bad time). I have about 305' of 12G wire down the well, 241.4V at the panel, 240.3 at the top of the well connection, so I assume that the lower pump (running though 305' of 12G is experiencing some voltage drop), but did not fuss with the calc since the pump is supposed to run on a very wide range. In researching and settling on this pump, that range was a consideration as it allows for the less expensive 12G wire to be used with less start up demand as it is a soft start.

We wired it as 2 hots and a ground (3 wires coming out of pump). Ground is bonded in the box. The specs say: "1 x 90-240 V" -- and did not give any particular instruction on wiring; I asked around and we concluded 2 hots and a ground. It did run so I suspect that is not the culprit. I am going to try DC before pulling the pump but even if it runs on that, its going to have to come up seemingly. Thanks for the help!!

 

[Valveman]

Amps. amps, amps! How many amps is it pulling?

 

[VAWellDriller]

I have installed a bunch of these....they are pretty bulletproof in my opinion; have some pumping some really nasty water from state monitoring wells on solar setup with no problems. Couple thoughts; are you sure the well has water in it? They have a low water sensor on the motor lead that needs submergence. As Cary said, amp draw will tell a lot. Without waiting for any reset feature the Grundfos has, it's easier to cut power and re-start with an ammeter on the leads. If/when a Grundfos gets sandlocked it will only try to start for about 2 seconds....then it usually shows 0.1 amp draw (which I guess it what it takes to run internal smart features). Couple times I've had this happen I've pulled pump and cleared the sand from the pump by running water through it from the top (holding check valve open) and they have gone back to running. No need to worry about PVC drop pipe, that depth is fine. Hopefully you feel good about your splice and did a good job securing wire along the way.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Those SQE pumps are designed to accept a range of voltages.
https://product-selection.grundfos....x/6-sqf-3-96834840?tab=variant-specifications

Rated voltage AC 90-240 V
Rated voltage DC 30-300 V​

Nominal 240 will sometimes go 10% over that nominal voltage. I have not looked into the actual tolerance.

DC powered motors run cooler thus more efficient. This seems to be a perfect motor for solar panels.

 

[Alpine_Junky]

Amps. amps, amps! How many amps is it pulling?

At present, zero amps, per the meter, not even registering anything for the 1st instant when I turn power on (as if it were asking and then a fault cuts it out). Prior to, the monitor was bouncing around 6. Thanks for the sandlock cleaning tip!!

 

[Reach4]

240.3 at the top of the well connection,

At present, zero amps, per the meter, not even registering anything for the 1st instant when I turn power on (as if it were asking and then a fault cuts it out).

A fault cuts what out? Are you saying that the 240 to the well cuts out?

So symptoms have changed, right?

 

[Valveman]

At present, zero amps, per the meter, not even registering anything for the 1st instant when I turn power on (as if it were asking and then a fault cuts it out). Prior to, the monitor was bouncing around 6. Thanks for the sandlock cleaning tip!!

Ok then ohms, ohms, ohms? Do you have continuity between the two motor wires or any short to ground?

 

[VAWellDriller]

Is this a real multimeter or are you relying on the inverter display?
Continuity check is next step.....if that's bad I would suspect bad connection but bad pump is always possible. If that tests good you should try pump direct wired to a 100% known and trusted power source and check amps with separate meter right at well head.

 

[WellHose DIY Drop Pipe]

Hey Alpine Junky.
Sorry to hear about this problem. I once saw a new pump get blocked very quickly with drilling mud that had not been all removed from the well. I am just thinking about this because you say this is a new well. Good luck and I hope you work it out. Please share the knowledge as it helps us all.
Cheers