Water Pressure/Pump Mystery

We are having a problem with water pressure in our house - I will try to provide a timeline of issues and symptoms we've experienced and detail the work that has been done to date to try to solve the problem. I am not a big DIY'er, so I am looking for things I need to tell someone I want to have investigated when I place a service call.

The house is 26 years old and is on a well. We have lived in the house for 1.5 years. There are 2 adults in the home, with occasional guests. In addition to the well and pump, we have a whole-home filter installed (Whirlpool Single-Stage Whole House Water Filtration System Model # WHKF-DWHBB; see-through housing). There is also a big blue bladder tank in our well house that is downstream of the filter.

The pump was replaced in March 2017. It is a submersible pump in a well that is 75-100 feet deep. New wiring was also run to the pump so that it is hardwired directly from the electric panel in our garage. No issues with water pressure after the pump was replaced until December 2017.

In early December 2017, we had our home pressure washed - it caused a big draw on the water. At the time, we also had just installed too small of a replacement filter (5 microns). During the pressure washing, and for the next several days afterwards, the water pressure continued to decrease until there was no more than a trickle. We figured this was because we pulled so much water through the small filter, which subsequently clogged the filter prematurely. We replaced the filter with one that had a 30 micron rating, and everything was back to normal.

In early January, we had a deep freeze (for South Carolina). Temps stayed consistently below freezing at night, and just barely above freezing during the day. We have a heat lamp in the well house that was running the whole time during the freeze. To our knowledge, we never experienced frozen pipes, and water ran normally during that cold snap.

About a week after temps returned to somewhat normal (near or below freezing at night, but warm during the day), we experienced our first interruption - no water was coming out of any faucets at all. I called the company who performed the installation of our pump, and his suggestion was that there might be frozen pipe, so we turned off the pump (at the breaker - our only way to turn off the pump) until the temperature rose. A few hours later, we turned on the pump, and water was back on.

Ever since that first instance in January, we've experienced a weekly water outage. I notice that if we use a lot of water in a short amount of time (a couple loads of laundry, dishwasher, showers), then we will see no water from our faucets. I check the breaker to see if it has tripped (it never visibly trips), then I reset the breaker, and the water comes back on.

Last week on February 26th, we had the pressure switch in the pump replaced thinking that the switch was being tripped and subsequently turning off the pump. The serviceman recommended that if we still have problems, then we should get the breaker in the electrical panel replaced.

After the pressure switch was replaced, water was fine for a week until this morning, when we had no water coming from the faucets. I reset the breaker, and then everything was back on.

I do not know what to do next - I don't understand why the pump shuts off when we need water (again, this seems to happen after we have a big draw on the water system through laundry, dishes, showers, etc) and then won't turn back on unless we reset the breaker.

I am looking for advice on what to do next by the way of placing a service call. I'm not convinced that this is a problem with the breaker, but I'm willing to call out an electrician if needed. I just feel like there is something else going on, but I'm not sure where to start - I would like to have some concrete suggestions of what to work on when I place the next service call based on the collective expertise of the folks on this board! I have read through many past threads on similar topics but didn't see one that fit my problem specifically.

Any advice is much appreciated! And if there's anything I can do to gather more information, please let me know - I'll do what I can.

Thank you!

If your breaker is tripping, you either have too big of a load going through your wires, or there is an issue with the wiring. I'd first get an electrician to determine the load going to the breaker. Then again, this is way out of my league but we have some great experts with wells, and when they pop in here for a visit, I hope they can provide you more help.

Water from the pump just stopping like that can be from one of two reasons. I would first guess you are pumping the well dry during heavy use. When the pump loses prime, you have to shut it off and let it burp before turning it back on and having water. OR the automatic overload in the motor is tripping on high amperage. These will cool down in a few minutes and reset themselves automatically and water is supplied again. Usually turning the breaker off and on in these situations is just coincidental to the pump re-starting.

You need a clip around amp meter. You didn't say what HP pump you have? But a 3/4 pulls 7 amps, a 1HP pulls 9, and a 1.5 HP draws 11.8. If the well is being pumped dry, the amps will be at the maximum as long as water is flowing, then when the well pumps dry the amperage will drop instantly by about 50%.

If this is the case it is a wonder you haven't melted the pump down yet. A Cycle Sensor will shut the pump off in a dry well condition and save your pump. It can also be set to let the well recover for a set amount of time like 15 minutes, and will automatically re-start the pump after the time out.
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Thank you both for the input so far-

Regarding HP of our pump, I can't remember what it is, and the paperwork from when we had it installed doesn't specify it. I want to say it's a 1 HP, but I can't remember for sure.

We do have an electrician coming out today to check the wiring and see if there's a high amperage situation. Last night I was out at the well house (because we had water pressure issues again), and I was there when the pump was running, then I saw a flash of light, and the pump shut off. That scared me, and I didn't want to turn the pump on again.

I am concerned that we are destroying the pump - I think the Cycle Sensor is a good idea, and I'll mention it to our plumber when they come out tomorrow.

Again, thank you for your input so far - I really appreciate it! I'll keep this thread updated with what is discovered!

Have your electrician check a few things.

With the depth of your well, you don’t need any more than a 1/2hp pump. If your pump was replaced with a 1hp there could load issues.

If you had a 1/2hp before (I’m just assuming the original was properly sized) then you may only have 14g wire going down the well. A 1hp pump will spike a start amp draw of 25-30 amps. That wire size is not sufficient to run that pump. I always feed 1hp with 10g wire

I have also come across 1/2hp pumps on 15A breakers. A 1hp will definitely trip it

I wanted to post an update to this thread in case anyone has a similar issue in the future. And thank you to everyone who replied - your advice was read and taken, and at least for now we think our problem is solved.

The electrician we called checked all the wiring leading from the circuit breaker to the well house, and everything looked fine (no unusual draws, right-sized wire/breakers, etc). He couldn't check the wiring to the pump because he couldn't pull the pump, but if we continue to have problems with the pump shutting off, then that would be the next step. We did continue to have problems, so we started looking for well companies to work with in regards to pulling the pump and checking the wire. And during this timeframe, I also noticed that we had sand collecting in our toilet tanks, which I had not noticed before. We have a whole home filter, and because we would sometimes have intermittent issues with water pressure, we would change out the filter frequently. Sometimes we wouldn't have a new filter on hand, so there were times when we did not have a filter in place for a couple of days, and that's when I assumed the sand was entering the house.

I called the first company, and described the problems we were experiencing, including the newly discovered sand issue. He thought the wiring might be a problem, but he was more concerned about the sand. He suggested that we consider redeveloping the well to try to clean it out as the pump might be getting clogged with sand, and that could be causing the overheating and result in our breaker tripping. When he finally was able to come out to the house and look at our well and saw who originally installed the well, he immediately said we needed a brand new well. He said that the company who initially installed the well did not extend the casing far enough (well depth is 375 ft, casing extended to 70ft), and that the sand issue would not go away with developing the well. I was extremely disheartened, especially since he quoted a new well (including pump, cover, etc) at $7000+. He did not think the redevelopment approach would work, or provide a long-term solution.

My husband and I decided to get a second opinion with another company. They provided a 3-stage approach: 1 - pull the pump and inspect it for any issues; 2 - replace the wiring to the pump if need; 3 - redevelop the well. They ended up coming out to the house twice - they did stage 1 & 2 on the first day (they determined the wiring used was not the right kind for a submersible well). They determined that our water level was at 33ft, and it leveled off at around 66ft when they opened the well and let it run. The pump sits at around 70 ft, so they didn't think we needed to drop the pump below the casing. After they completed stage 1 and 2, we still experienced the pump shutting off/tripping the breaker, so we scheduled the redevelopment. They spent nearly a whole day setting up the system and airlifting the well - they saw two huge clumps of mud/sand/muck come out, along with some fine silt/sand. After they finished, they put everything back together, and we have been trouble-free for over a month now (which is the longest we've gone without having a problem since January). The pump has not shut off, and our filter is not clogged.

We know this is probably not a long-term solution, and we continue to monitor the sand in the filter, but we hope this will extend the life of our well so we can plan for the expense of having a new well dug (if needed) a few years from now.