Elec Sys Water well pump 'on strike'...

[RememberGoliad]

Water quit flowing this morning. Found burnt terminal in capacitor box, which was damn near in an inaccessible location. So, had to 'back burner' that for the day and get to a job, while I was in town picked up a new pump controller. Pulled all the wires off the old one with burnt stab-in terminal and wired in new one. Before putting the lid on it, I checked the resistance between the three pump wires and all 3 were at the high end of where they should be, according to the chart on the back wall of the mounting box. I then checked all three to the ground and they're all showing dead short to ground (zero ohms). That's not normal, is it? (answer from vid in later post: No it is not normal.) Sounds to me like pump's fried or wire's got a real live break in all three sleeves of insulation.

Thoughts?

(I'll add that this is kinda urgent, as we have family coming in this weekend and no water and Mama is gonna get stressed....and when Mama's stressed, everybody's stressed!)

 

[John Deere Girl]

No idea, but you certainly have my prayers for a quick, simple and cheap fix!

 

[RememberGoliad]

Youtube surfing got me a believable answer to my question about being shorted to ground: It's not supposed to do that. This is where I found that answer:

I'm going to do a blow-by-blow here, as I do what I see as the logical next step, with my sources, if any, for deciding that next step. I hope that it might be a help to someone on down the road if their well pump messes the bed on them.

 

[Millwright]

Wouldn't expect a short to ground.

What did it do when you connected the new controls?

Mainly amp draw, if it fired.

Could be a leak in the connections to the pump wire? Maybe push some slack down on them?

I've had compressors run ok with funky readings.

 

[etdeb]

Fireant ate insulation off our wires down hole

 

[RememberGoliad]

Wouldn't expect a short to ground.

Run, start, and common all dead shorted to ground. I wasn't expecting that either. And I mean dead short, not just winding resistance-to-ground. If neutral was grounded that's what I'd expect: it to be dead short and other two to be their winding resistance-to-ground. Either start or run shorted, would give two dead shorts and the resistance of the not-shorted winding on the 3rd.

Mainly amp draw, if it fired.

Yep. High amps and clicking start relay.

NONE of what I wanted to see or hear when hooking up the new controller. Today's fixing to get fun. Pullin's probably gonna happen with old Scoop, 8 ft at a time and tie off. Hit the ball and drag Fred.

 

[West]

Best of luck pulling it out. Hopefully you have help.

I've mused setting up a system that I could have a big pulley and the truck to just pull it out in one long go. Of course would need to use a good pex and a good safety line tied to pump.

Right now we have a PVC drop line. May use PEX if I pull it any time soon I think.

 

[RememberGoliad]

May use PEX if I pull it any time soon I think.

I have a roll of 3/4 pex. Didn't think of that! I'm going back in with a solar pump and they suggest 3/4 poly pipe for the riser. My only concern with PEX was the barb and crimp ring at the bottom. I suppose using a metal barb instead of the black/nylon ones would give that a good enough physical connection...?

Hopefully you have help.

I hope so too. This could get to be fun. Supposed to be a bit warm today, silver lining is I won't have to worry about the bulk of a jacket and so forth.

 

[West]

I have a roll of 3/4 pex. Didn't think of that! I'm going back in with a solar pump and they suggest 3/4 poly pipe for the riser. My only concern with PEX was the barb and crimp ring at the bottom. I suppose using a metal barb instead of the black/nylon ones would give that a good enough physical connection...?



I hope so too. This could get to be fun. Supposed to be a bit warm today, silver lining is I won't have to worry about the bulk of a jacket and so forth.

Better talk to a well guy. I'm a Jack of many trades and master of none.

Would muse, as long as you have a good safety line attached to new pump to support pipe, pump and the water column in pipe. Should work. I was thinking to use 1 inch PEX though, for a conventional electric system.

Yes just use the 3/4 polly for the solar pump system.

 

[Millwright]

I've pulled hung pumps on PVC without undoing every joint.

Was lucky, had tree limbs to loop them over and keep from bending sharp.

Takes 3- 4 people, 2 to lift, others to drag wellhead across yard,

Broke one fitting, just replaced it on the way back down.

Used a pipe wrench to hold it when I needed to grab my beer.

 

[RememberGoliad]

I've done 'em with nobody but DW. It was a real workout though. And pump was only at 80 ft. I pulled, tied wellhead to her power wheelchair, she slowly backed away while I pulled. Same "pause" system with a pipe wrench. But that was 20 years ago, I was 30-something, and I had more beer on hand than I do today.

Got a call in to a couple neighbor kids, see if these all-district football boys might want to come show off LOL

 

[West]

I've pulled ours several times now. This cheap tool was handy..

https://www.amazon.com/Shop-D4095-2-Inch-Pipe-Capacity/dp/B005W1716I/ref=asc_df_B005W1716I?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79920869208764&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583520395648565&psc=1

Not made to help pull like a real well clamp or slip tool, but it's bigger than the well head and works great.

I usually had at least my wife's help too. Other times my adult sons are around to help.

 

[cowboy]

You all need to have the proper elevators, or you are going to go fishing down that whole one of these days!

 

[West]

You all need to have the proper elevators, or you are going to go fishing down that whole one of these days!

That's why I have a good safety line tied to the pump or brass cylinder. And pull that tight and off every 10 feet or so.

But point taken. That's a huge concern.

 

[BornFree]

Water quit flowing this morning. Found burnt terminal in capacitor box, which was damn near in an inaccessible location. So, had to 'back burner' that for the day and get to a job, while I was in town picked up a new pump controller. Pulled all the wires off the old one with burnt stab-in terminal and wired in new one. Before putting the lid on it, I checked the resistance between the three pump wires and all 3 were at the high end of where they should be, according to the chart on the back wall of the mounting box. I then checked all three to the ground and they're all showing dead short to ground (zero ohms). That's not normal, is it? (answer from vid in later post: No it is not normal.) Sounds to me like pump's fried or wire's got a real live break in all three sleeves of insulation.

Thoughts?

(I'll add that this is kinda urgent, as we have family coming in this weekend and no water and Mama is gonna get stressed....and when Mama's stressed, everybody's stressed!)

What you are saying makes no sense at all. If they all have a dead short to ground then they would all have to have a dead short to each other as well. Think about it.

 

[West]

Yes

What you are saying makes no sense at all. If they all have a dead short to ground then they would all have to have a dead short to each other as well. Think about it.

I noted that too.

Guess I should of asked when he says dead short, does that mean there was full continuity to ground?

 

[BornFree]

Yes

I noted that too.

Guess I should of asked when he says dead short, does that mean there was full continuity to ground?

Well he goes so far as to say "Zero Ohms" So he indicated a true dead short. Maybe he is using a high range on his meter when doing the check to ground. That would throw off the accuracy of low readings. initially all readings should be taken on low range.

 

[cowboy]

How much back-feed are you going to get thru the controller? It would be a shame to do all that work over a Cap going bad.

 

[BornFree]

How much back-feed are you going to get thru the controller? It would be a shame to do all that work over a Cap going bad.

Yeah the pump is still under water. The connections to the pump are under water. Some times water gets in those connections. On a higher meter range then you may find resistance to ground due to that. But I imagine it would be in the K ohms and not really effect operation. It is important to know what the actual resistance to ground really is.

Also as you indicate, he seems to indicate checking the resistance after the wires were hooked to the new controller. I would think that he would want to take those readings with the wires disconnected from the controller.

 

[RememberGoliad]

Well he goes so far as to say "Zero Ohms" So he indicated a true dead short. Maybe he is using a high range on his meter when doing the check to ground. That would throw off the accuracy of low readings. initially all readings should be taken on low range.

Short to ground on the high ohm range. All should be completely isolated from ground, and even on mid-range checking is way more-conductive than it should be.

How much back-feed are you going to get thru the controller? It would be a shame to do all that work over a Cap going bad.

None at all. By "connected to controller" I mean the wires are all screwed to the half mounted to the wall. There are 5 stab-in connections that make when you install the lid. All the working parts are on the lid, and when you remove the lid the relay and capacitor come off with it. So testing the windings etc. is done without the capacitor and relay connected, impossible to do it otherwise, as one cannot physically get to the terminals with the lid on.

I found Franklin's (mfr's) troubleshooting flowchart and followed it precisely. Zero ohms showing to ground on the 20k setting is indicative of either a burnt-up motor or a skinned spot on the wire. Either situation dictates pulling the pump at least part way.

 

[RememberGoliad]

I would think that he would want to take those readings with the wires disconnected from the controller.

Effectively they are disconnected from the controller, as the 'guts' are removed to access the terminals.

In any event, I double checked the resistance readings after removing the new controller, and they were still shorted to ground enough to make the meter show zero ohms on all three power leads (Run, Start, and Common) in the 20k range. A good system won't do that

 

[knowzone]

I've pulled ours several times now. This cheap tool was handy..

https://www.amazon.com/Shop-D4095-2-Inch-Pipe-Capacity/dp/B005W1716I/ref=asc_df_B005W1716I?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79920869208764&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583520395648565&psc=1

Not made to help pull like a real well clamp or slip tool, but it's bigger than the well head and works great.

I usually had at least my wife's help too. Other times my adult sons are around to help.

110' x 4" hole, sub finished 10' off the bottom, water was 45-50 down. I did 4 sections of galvanized on the pump head, transitioned to pvc out of the hole to my water center. Nothing available overhead, I used a couple of visegrips.

​

Hand over hand, a couple feet at a time. Well digger was so impressed when he came back out of curiosity, he ended up gifting me the new submersible pump.

For the topic at hand on this post, I'd guess a seal failure on the pump, water seeped into the housing, seizing the rotor, causing the "short". Electricicles dahling, are flowing, but the pump, shes a not turning, (I believe).

As a public service, I offer this guide:

2:01
Green Acres appliance # system
​

kz

 

[RememberGoliad]

110' x 4" hole

That'd be nice, I'd love to be dealing with a 110 ft hole. Talked to previous owner earlier, he said either the pump's at 300 or it's a 300 ft hole. I suppose I'll know more in about 12 hours, as I talked to the guy who installed this pump later this afternoon (that's why I had called previous owner, was to get that guy's name) and he remembers the job but not the details. Said he'll bring a copy of whatever paperwork he might still have on hand when he comes. Said he thinks he might even have copies of the original drilling log from back in the 70's.

 

[West]

Musing..


You can find the static level by simply dropping a small rope with a good size fishing weight or alike down the hole, with your ear listen for the splash. If its not to far down.

Usually the pump is about 20 feet plus or minus below static level. At least the two I deal with.

 

[BornFree]

Effectively they are disconnected from the controller, as the 'guts' are removed to access the terminals.

In any event, I double checked the resistance readings after removing the new controller, and they were still shorted to ground enough to make the meter show zero ohms on all three power leads (Run, Start, and Common) in the 20k range. A good system won't do that

That may be, but you cannot say it is zero ohms if you are reading in the 20k Range. You need to work down to the lowest range you get a reading in and take that reading. Otherwise your reading is inaccurate and not comparable to your readings between the windings. But yes I agree that if you get any reading to ground in the 20K range then you have a problem. One thing to check. If your power runs into a connection area at the top of the well casing then remove the cover and check those connections. If any wire there is shorted to ground then it would give you this problem. This is another reason to take ground readings on each wire using a low range. Because if one is actually zero and the others are a few ohms then it tells you a bit more about the short and where you might look for it. I would want to check any easy stuff before pulling the pump.

Also if you can un-hook the power at the the top of the well casing(If this is the style you have) Then unhook it completely and then ring the wires at the control again to make sure there is no problem with the wires.

 

[RememberGoliad]

There was maybe a foot of wire that came out of the seal when I was monkeying with it. No bad or obvious kink there, and same readings when I stretched it out.

There is a well guy in the area who for a very reasonable price will come with his truck and pull it. Said we might find a glaringly obvious problem and fix it and drop it back in while he's already here. I suspect knowzone is correct with his theory of water intrusion through the shaft seal. This water has a LOT of lime sediment in it, among other things, and overall it's kinda abrasive. Ten years of living in that well would irritate my seals.

 

[knowzone]

That'd be nice, I'd love to be dealing with a 110 ft hole. Talked to previous owner earlier, he said either the pump's at 300 or it's a 300 ft hole. I suppose I'll know more in about 12 hours, as I talked to the guy who installed this pump later this afternoon (that's why I had called previous owner, was to get that guy's name) and he remembers the job but not the details. Said he'll bring a copy of whatever paperwork he might still have on hand when he comes. Said he thinks he might even have copies of the original drilling log from back in the 70's.

Yep, and this was my third well for the house, over the course of 20 years. First hole was 32', 2nd was down 55' third, 110' then sold the house! Went thru 2 septic drainfields on the outflow as well.

kz

 

[RememberGoliad]

Ok. Pump's out. Made a deal with a well guy down the road to come pull it with his pole truck. Good thing I did. It was a mix of 1 1/4" and 1" galvanized schedule 80, in 21 foot joints. No way I'd have done that with a tractor loader. He had it out in an hour or so, and the pump and its motor are paperweights. Pump was assembled in the spring of '04, so it had a good run in this hard water. Wire's still good, some of the sections of pipe are not. Some of it could be chopped into foot-long sections and sold as really pitchy flutes. No wonder it worked so hard to fill the tank to pressure....and with that in mind, it's a wonder it lasted this long.

I now know more about this well. The pump was 189 feet down to the top of the pump. Nine, 21' sticks. The static level is about 125 ft....that's about where the appearance of the joints changed as far as rust etc. Couldn't base any estimate on wet pipe/dry pipe, as each section drained down into the hole as it was unscrewed. Typical for around here, the hole is probably 240 ft. Probably has the top 50 or so feet cased, then unlined from there on down. Also pretty common for around here for wells dug in the late 70's through the 90's. I'm going to sound the bottom of the hole tomorrow, since I am now the proud owner of a 600' spool of poly rope and a 3/4" hex nut or two. Wonder if that poly rope is too buoyant to be pulled down with a single nut. I'd like to know what I can find out about this well while the seal is off. When the nut splashes, I'll mark that level with a couple wraps of electrical tape, then keep going to see how deep the hole is. Might only be 200 ft, if the guy who commissioned the hole was a tightwad. We'll soon see.

Going back with that solar pump only, since I have all the parts here to do it tomorrow and don't need a truck to run black poly back down into the hole. (Nor, more importantly, get it back out when it might need to be gotten out.) It's a soft-start DC pump from RPS, and from what I've read they're one of the best. And I'm not reading only their literature LOL.

DW is thrilled at the prospect of having water available on site tomorrow afternoon. Won't be pressured up quite yet, still lacking a booster pump but I'll rectify that when I go into town first part of next week. I've got an IBC tote, a 330 gallon one, to use as a holding tank for time being, and fill buckets/jugs from that for a few days. Not a problem.

You need to work down to the lowest range you get a reading in and take that reading. Otherwise your reading is inaccurate and not comparable to your readings between the windings. But yes I agree that if you get any reading to ground in the 20K range then you have a problem.

You're exactly right, and I apologize for being imprecise. More accurately I should've said I stopped when I got indications of ground in the 20k range. I just didn't feel like standing in the sun in 109 degree heat and getting all Sheldon on it LOL.

If your power runs into a connection area at the top of the well casing then remove the cover and check those connections. If any wire there is shorted to ground then it would give you this problem.

There weren't any more connections I could access without lifting the pump. Wire from pump came out with no connections until the terminals in the controller. When I 'cleaned up' the pump to prepare for pulling, is when I re-checked using the closest known connection to the well pump. My suspicions/fears were confirmed when I got the pump out in the sunlight, cut the wires off of it, and checked it again. Also took off a screen and the rotor is locked. Probably won't go deeper into it until after I take a shower with running water

 

[BornFree]

Ok. Pump's out. Made a deal with a well guy down the road to come pull it with his pole truck. Good thing I did. It was a mix of 1 1/4" and 1" galvanized schedule 80, in 21 foot joints. No way I'd have done that with a tractor loader. He had it out in an hour or so, and the pump and its motor are paperweights. Pump was assembled in the spring of '04, so it had a good run in this hard water. Wire's still good, some of the sections of pipe are not. Some of it could be chopped into foot-long sections and sold as really pitchy flutes. No wonder it worked so hard to fill the tank to pressure....and with that in mind, it's a wonder it lasted this long.

I now know more about this well. The pump was 189 feet down to the top of the pump. Nine, 21' sticks. The static level is about 125 ft....that's about where the appearance of the joints changed as far as rust etc. Couldn't base any estimate on wet pipe/dry pipe, as each section drained down into the hole as it was unscrewed. Typical for around here, the hole is probably 240 ft. Probably has the top 50 or so feet cased, then unlined from there on down. Also pretty common for around here for wells dug in the late 70's through the 90's. I'm going to sound the bottom of the hole tomorrow, since I am now the proud owner of a 600' spool of poly rope and a 3/4" hex nut or two. Wonder if that poly rope is too buoyant to be pulled down with a single nut. I'd like to know what I can find out about this well while the seal is off. When the nut splashes, I'll mark that level with a couple wraps of electrical tape, then keep going to see how deep the hole is. Might only be 200 ft, if the guy who commissioned the hole was a tightwad. We'll soon see.

Going back with that solar pump only, since I have all the parts here to do it tomorrow and don't need a truck to run black poly back down into the hole. (Nor, more importantly, get it back out when it might need to be gotten out.) It's a soft-start DC pump from RPS, and from what I've read they're one of the best. And I'm not reading only their literature LOL.

DW is thrilled at the prospect of having water available on site tomorrow afternoon. Won't be pressured up quite yet, still lacking a booster pump but I'll rectify that when I go into town first part of next week. I've got an IBC tote, a 330 gallon one, to use as a holding tank for time being, and fill buckets/jugs from that for a few days. Not a problem.


You're exactly right, and I apologize for being imprecise. More accurately I should've said I stopped when I got indications of ground in the 20k range. I just didn't feel like standing in the sun in 109 degree heat and getting all Sheldon on it LOL.


There weren't any more connections I could access without lifting the pump. Wire from pump came out with no connections until the terminals in the controller. When I 'cleaned up' the pump to prepare for pulling, is when I re-checked using the closest known connection to the well pump. My suspicions/fears were confirmed when I got the pump out in the sunlight, cut the wires off of it, and checked it again. Also took off a screen and the rotor is locked. Probably won't go deeper into it until after I take a shower with running water

The black Poly is the way to go. Was around in the 70's too. Hard to believe that anyone would use something else. Besides the weight it would be mighty expensive to use Galvanized pipe in this day and age. One inch diameter Galvanized pipe is about $40.00 per 10 feet. Glad you got it all figured out.

 

[West]

This is the storage tank or cistern tank I got for our solar well pump system...

Norwesco 46 Inch Wide 305 Gallon Plastic Vertical Water Storage Tank in Green

Solve your residential water storage needs with these cylindrical tank. It is made of food grade polyethylene, also have a 16 inch manway and 1 1/2 inch female inlet and a 2 inch female outlet. Comes in black.

www.tank-depot.com

Still need to set it up on a stand and build some kind of building around it for winter use.

 

[RememberGoliad]

RPS Systems pump made water for about half a day. This pump has been sitting on the shelf for ~3 years while the saga of DW's health unfolded. Called their tech line and discovered that the seals in it are probably dry-rotted and binding the rotor occasionally. They're sensitive to heat over 120 degrees, and I'm sure they've spent parts of three summers at or above (WAY above) that number. So, pump comes back out to replace the wear parts. It appears to be a ten minute job with a couple of wrenches. Their whole system is designed to be put in, pulled, and maintained by one healthy, energetic person on the tailgate of a pickup truck in a cow pasture. This time of year, I'd suggest some sort of shade LOL. They actually suggest that, when laying out your system, use the solar panels to make a shade to work under. Works for me.

Wear parts are a lifetime warranty item, they're sending out replacements in today's mail. Tech said it won't hurt it to leave it on and if it pumps a little, so much the better, so I'm going to pull the pump when the parts come in and see how it all goes.

I said replacements. Yep. They're sending one for me to put on the shelf, if I promise to store it inside the house and not out in a 120+ degree shed. Makes sense. I'll report back later with what it's doing. As of right now, when it's making water, it's making LOTS of water. 3/4" pipe with a smooth flow out of it, and it filled a 5 gallon bucket in about a minute.

Looks to be very promising for a completely in-house, self contained system. Their pump controller also has a 48v lead-acid charge controller in it, so with 4 marine type batteries in series, it could keep them charged and run an RV-type booster pump for the house. Since I have a pole and meter at the moment, I'm going for Harbor Freight's shallow well pump to use as a booster. I think I'll eventually obtain a 12 volt pump and a step-down 48v-12v transformer just to have a complete system for having faucet juice. (Links for an idea of what I'm thinking...)

Anyway, I'll report back when I see what the new impeller and seals do for its performance.

 

[BornFree]

It sounds like you are using a special needs pump. But for a standard submersible well pump there is simply nothing that comes close to the quality of a Goulds pump. Pricey though.

 

[RememberGoliad]

It sounds like you are using a special needs pump. But for a standard submersible well pump there is simply nothing that comes close to the quality of a Goulds pump. Pricey though.

It is a 48VDC solar pump. Bought their 'complete kit' in 2020, came with the solar panels, the pump controller which also has a built in charge controller should one desire to pump water at night or on a string of cloudy days, the pump, and two sensors: one for low water level in the well and one full-tank cutoff. I never got around to putting it down the hole til...well, til I needed water! (Something along the lines of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it ) A year turned into three with wife's health problems, and it still didn't need fixin'...until last Thursday.

I never could've gotten the steel pipe riser out of the ground in-house, so to speak, so I wasn't thrilled about putting it back down the hole even if it did turn out to be a busted wire. It's gonna cost me a holding tank, but that's worth it to have up to 1100 or 1500 gallons sitting at the surface to gravity into a bucket in a worst case scenario.

I'm not 'affiliated' with RPS in any way beyond being a satisfied customer. We have another one of these pumps running at my mom's and in six years, have had one time I've had to tinker with it. Based on that one call to their tech line and the one I made earlier today, I'm impressed with their responsiveness and competence. The link above might be of help to someone wanting water without the burden of grid power.

 

[RememberGoliad]

Well, (and no pun intended!), we have water, under pressure, in the house! HF finally got the booster pumps in and I picked one up and just came in from hooking it up. Mama got to come inside and pull the handle on the kitchen sink and draw the first bit of water into the kitchen sink since last Wednesday night.

Mexican word of the day is 'cheese'. Usage: Cheese a happy camper now!

Still got to clean the whole install up, things are laying here and there and plumbed to where they got sat. Tank, booster pump, and solar panels need to be moved where they're going to live, plumbing needs to be neated up from wellhead to the holding tank, solar mounting frame needs to be finished, but other than that, it's making water and pressuring it up!

Never mind that the solar panels are on the rafters of the old well shed, which is coming down to be built bigger to cover the IBC totes, wellhead, and booster pump, and they're facing west right now SMH. Got a frame about half built to face them south at a 30 degree tilt instead of facing almost due west at about 12 degrees. Only making water about 4 hrs a day now, should get it up to about 6-7 or even more this time of year, with them oriented correctly. I've got til the first cold snap to get all the plumbing the way I want it and the new, expanded pumphouse insulated and windproofed. Plenty of time, says the chief procrastinator ....WE HAVE WATER!

 

[RememberGoliad]

Since we got it going right at dark, and didn't have time to watch it or hang out outside with it to listen for it pumping, I decided to shut the system down for the night. It's running at a slightly higher pressure than I had the old submersible set at, and I didn't want it to pop a barb somewhere in the PEX under the house and run the 330 gallon holding tank dry and in turn dry spin the pump until it smoked its seals. Tomorrow I can go out and turn it back on and we'll just keep an eye on the tank water level all day as we go about our regularly-scheduled rat killin'.

Two things I want to do before deciding it's good to go are, 1) rig up some sort of pump saver switch at the bottom of the holding tank, to shut the pump down if it does pop a line and pump itself dry, and 2) tie into the pump side of the pressure switch and hang a bulb where it can be seen from inside the house, so that we have an indicator of whether the pump is on or not. If we haven't been using any water and the light comes on, we either have a slow leak or something cut loose. Or...a toilet's hung.

None of that's done yet, and I'd hate like hell to smoke a pump seal. It's worth shutting it down at night and if we leave, at least for a while, until I can reduce the pressure a bit. (Yes, I know, simple thing to do but it just hasn't been done yet.)

Still need to get more water storage, along with the other cleanup/straighten-up things mentioned earlier. But.... we have water!

 

[Millwright]

It's worth shutting it down at night and if we leave,

Pressure switch, photocell, contactor with the right coil voltage and a switch in the control circuit.

 

[RememberGoliad]

Keep forgetting to relate this little interaction between DW and me, the day we set the well pump and it started dribbling into the tote....


Me: Well, sun's gone down far enough the pump quit. But we DID get ~75 gallons into the tote already.

D: Geesh, at that rate it's gonna take ALL NIGHT to fill it up!

Me: .......<staring at her>..... No shit. Probably a good bit of time after sunup, too.

 

[night driver]

RELIC does carp like that to me all the time. And when I review and explain her comment is "Just Kidding!" which is a fib.
Married life!!!

 

[West]

Seems like simple float switches could make good safety switches to keep any kind of pump run dry?

Just wire it so that it either opens or closes a relay that cuts the power off to the pump.

 

[RememberGoliad]

Seems like simple float switches could make good safety switches to keep any kind of pump run dry?

Just wire it so that it either opens or closes a relay that cuts the power off to the pump.

Thinking one of these, anchored to the bottom of the "sump" (tote)...tied to a brick, maybe...when the "sump" empties, it's designed to shut off the pump.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMVNVH14/