Did I burn out my well pump?

Today I changed the whole house filter. Now I no longer have water.

First I shut off the valve for water going into my house. I shut off the valve going out of the pump before the filter, and then I open up some faucets to drain all the water left over in the system. I then unscrewed the plastic housing to replace the filter and replaced the filter.

I turned back on the valve after the expansion tank, but I forgot to turn the valve back on going from the well into my house.

At first everything worked fine, but eventually I completely ran out of water.

Later I realized that I had forgotten to turn that well to house valve back on. When I finally got around to turning that on. I had zero pressure displayed on the expansion tank pressure display, and now the pump doesn't seem to be pumping any water into my house.

All valves are open again. The well pump breaker did not trip.

Did I burn out my well pump?

Is it safe to keep my radiant heat oil heat system going when I don't have water?

Any idea on a fix?

Anything is possible. Pictures of system will help. If the valve you turned off is before pressure switch then you might have blew apart water line somewhere or I guess you could burn it up if pipes held together and it ran a long time.

also pressure switch may need to be reset...if pressure switch is old it may be stuck...open cover and make sure contacts on switch are together. sometimes you have to manually push together to make pump run again

There should never be a cut off valve between the pump and the pressure tank/pressure switch. If you left that valve closed for more than about 10 minutes the water in the pump started boiling and either melted the pump, or got the plastic pipe so hot it blew the pump off. Check it with a clip around amp meter. If it is drawing any amps the pump is running and the pipe is the problem. If the pump is not drawing any amps the overload has tripped or the motor wires are burned.

Valveman said:

There should never be a cut off valve between the pump and the pressure tank/pressure switch. If you left that valve closed for more than about 10 minutes the water in the pump started boiling and either melted the pump, or got the plastic pipe so hot it blew the pump off. Check it with a clip around amp meter. If it is drawing any amps the pump is running and the pipe is the problem. If the pump is not drawing any amps the overload has tripped or the motor wires are burned.

Click to expand...

Any idea how much it would cost to replace the pump or repair the blown off plastic pipe?

That depends on depth and location but close to $1500 with new pump. Blew the pipe might be more. Might have to fish out pump. That takes a minute. I can’t follow what you done to which valve. I maybe looking at wrong but yeah it looks like pressure switch is after filter. ? Double check that. If correct call a well drilled to replace pump.

De power the pump for about fifteen minutes. Some have thermal breakers, which only rest when they are powered down.

FishScreener said:

De power the pump for about fifteen minutes. Some have thermal breakers, which only rest when they are powered down.

Click to expand...

Apparently mine does not have thermal breakers.

Is it safe to keep running my radiant heating system?

Radiant heat may as well be off. The pump will burn up. But I dunno. Off is safe till hear otherwise

JoeBloe said:

Apparently mine does not have thermal breakers.

Is it safe to keep running my radiant heating system?

Click to expand...

Your radiant heat might work for a while if you have a buffer tank. If the well pump doesn't come back on and pump some water when you turn on the breaker, I would turn the well pump and the pump to the radiant system off.

Case closed.

Pipe blew off well head. Heat was applied and fitting reattached. Luckily it was an easy fix.

Valveman said:

If you left that valve closed for more than about 10 minutes the water in the pump started boiling and either melted the pump, or got the plastic pipe so hot it blew the pump off.

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting us know. Pipe blowing off saved your pump.