Weird electrical problem with a well pump

[Tim The Tool Man]

So on Thanksgiving my buddy calls me in a semi-panic. He has a well and no water and wonders if I'll stop by and take a look at it. I tell him to check the usual things like the beaker, tap on the pressure switch, and such before I come out. Everything checked out so off I went.

I arrive with my big work truck full of tools and ring his door bell with only a little current tester and a pair of reading glasses. He asks me if he should go grab my tools. I told him I wanted to just test a few things first. I suspected it was a bad pressure switch.

Well I checked current on the line going into the switch. Both lines were hot. "Good" I thought. Then I checked the lines going to the pump. Both lines were hot. ****, a bad pump!

So my buddy sees and hears my tester lighting up and beeping, and he asks is that a good thing? I am about to tell home, no, not so much, just as I rest my hand on the water line from the pump. When all of a sudden it kicks on! My buddy is telling me I'm a genius while I'm thinking WTH??? He then asks where he can buy one those beeper tools!

So what did I do? I'm not the Fonz and snapping my fingers and saying ayyye usually doesn't work. I checked for a broken wires and looked for bad wire connections. The pressure switch works fine. I pulled the cap on the pump and it all looks fine. It wasn't cold so there were no frozen pipes that just happened to thaw. I am at a loss.

I was happy to receive a very large plate of home made chocolate chip cookies from his wife as payment. The kids love them!

 

[jhelrey]

Bad ground? Ha!

No clue but I have had fluky stuff happen like that before. I just laugh, shake my head, and go on my way.

 

[Chevy-SS]

Good story, haha! I hope my well pump is that easy to fix when it eventually shits the bed.

 

[OccupantRJ]

My bet is the contacts in the pressure switch are bad to the point of passing some voltage, but not enough amperage, or just lightly touching when the switch is engaged. My old pump did this a few times until I changed out the switch. Have him thump the switch next time, and I bet it fires up.

 

[Oggy]

Do you think it could have been a thermal switch that might have overheated, and by chance when you got there it had cooled enough for the pump to kick back on?

I'm assuming that it's a submersible, as a jet pump would be easily accessible and you could have more easily diagnosed/repaired if needed. Subs also are more common nowadays...

How old is the pump, and what brand?

 

[Alchymist]

Could be that one of the points is sticking open on the pressure switch. If one makes, and the other doesn't, pump won't run, but you will see 120v on each leg. If, however, you read 240 across the pump side of the switch, that is not the case. Did you read each line to ground or across both lines?

 

[Tim The Tool Man]

Could be that one of the points is sticking open on the pressure switch. If one makes, and the other doesn't, pump won't run, but you will see 120v on each leg. If, however, you read 240 across the pump side of the switch, that is not the case. Did you read each line to ground or across both lines?

Yup, I read both lines. I got 240 across the pump side. My buddy tapped on the pressure switch before I arrived. (I didn't want him opening it up. He would electrocute himself!)

It is a submersible pump about 75' from the pressure tank, so leaning on the pipe didn't knock the pump at all let alone enough to break it off a dead spot...

Just weird.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I use to work on well pumps.

U mentiond that u checked the cap so i assume this pump has a starter.

As oggy brought up, it may have been the overload. Did u check it? Most overloads are manual reset.

 

[Tim The Tool Man]

I use to work on well pumps.

U mentiond that u checked the cap so i assume this pump has a starter.

As oggy brought up, it may have been the overload. Did u check it? Most overloads are manual reset.

No, I peeked down the well cap and looked at those wires for as far as I could see. It was working and so I decided not to take anything apart aside from the pressure switch which looked fine. (BTW I had replaced the pressure switch switch just over a year ago)

 

[wyliesdiesels]

So does it have a starter?

 

[Jess]

A common problem with in-well deep well type pumps is the supply wires drag on the side of the well bore from the torque when the pump starts. Proper multiple torque arrestor adjustment and taping the supply wires to the pipe can prevent this. I have helped fix a number of these, usually home owner installed. This may not be your problem but a damaged wire down the well bore could give you an intermittent issue before it fails completely. Hope that isn't the issue, especially if its a deep one...

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I bet you left out the part of the story where you laid your hand on it and said "be healed."

I'm with RJ on it might be the contact sticking.

 

[ard]

A common problem with in-well deep well type pumps is the supply wires drag on the side of the well bore from the torque when the pump starts. Proper multiple torque arrestor adjustment and taping the supply wires to the pipe can prevent this. I have helped fix a number of these, usually home owner installed. This may not be your problem but a damaged wire down the well bore could give you an intermittent issue before it fails completely. Hope that isn't the issue, especially if its a deep one...

Mine was 'professionally installed' 13 years ago. Poor job taping/securing the wires just above the pump. Wires rubbed through as a loop of the cable contacted the wall of the unlined bore over many years.

380 feet down on rigid Sch120 threaded pipe. $1350 in labor to pull, repair, reinstall. Just 4 weeks ago actually

There's not a lot of things this 'homeowner' didnt do or oversee on this home...this was one of them.