A couple of years ago I had my well pump replaced. I had someone replace it for me. Then on my own, I replaced the pressure tank, pressure switch and one way valve. My well and pressure tank are located in a pit that is in a small building outside of the house. After I had all of these things replaced, I will occasionally loose water pressure. Could be a couple of times a week. Could only happen once every 2 or 3 months. Very erratic. I replaced the pressure switch again, thinking the new one was bad. It didn’t help. I have lowered the pressure in my pressure tank thinking it was too high. When I do loose pressure, I go to my breaker panel and turn the breaker off that feeds the “well house”. I then turn the breaker back on and my water pressure is restored. For some reason, the pressure switch will not kick on when the pressure drops. Tripping the breaker will make it kick on and start working again for a time. Any thoughts on what I’m overlooking here? Thank you.
Intermittent pressure switch
- Thread starter Rbtbeach
- Start date
-
- Tags
- pressure switch
Help Support Plumbing Forums:
Sounds like you are in the last stages of the normal failure mode for a submersible pump. The only thing that shuts off the water erratically like that is the overload in the motor is tripping. It is an auto-resetting overload. So, the water just seems to magically come back on by itself after a couple minutes. Cycling on and off is the number one cause of this problem. However, if the pump has a control box, the start cap and relay could need replacing, or the voltage could be low. But most likely it is a cycling problem even though the pump is only a couple years old. Pumps are made to run 24/7/365, it is the cycling on and off that destroys them.
Thank you for replying. Would it matter if the pump never comes back on by itself? If I don’t reset the breaker it will never come back on. I was in shower once and the pressure was so low, that the water completely stopped. I have also gone out and took the cover off the pressure switch when it wasn’t coming back on and the breaker points inside the switch was not closing. That’s originally why I thought the switch was bad. I thought the gap was too wide the allow the electromagnet to pull them together. I don’t think I have a control box anywhere. Is that common? I believe it leaves my main breaker panel in the house, to a sub panel in the out building and the pump is connected directly to a breaker in the sub panel.
If the pressure switch isn't closing at 40 psi the nipple to the switch is most likely clogged.
