Need some help with Well Pump question

[Qapla]

On a 4" submersible pump I was asked to look at today I took ohms reading of the wires that go from the controller to the pump. The controller has recommended readings listed inside the cover.

Red/Yellow wires should read 1.8-2.2 ohms - Pump read 6.8
Black/Yellow wires should read .68-1 ohms - Pump read 1.3
Red/Yellow wires should read 2.4-3.2 ohms - Pump read 7.7

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Carl_NH]

Qapla,

Attachdd find the manual for a Goulds pump and Franklin motor combo. Page 12 shows the widings resistance for the various motor sizes.

Without knowing the HP of your case it you cannot validate the readings. THis will at least show you what they are supposed to be.

Did you check these wires to ground? Also are you measuring with the leads disconnected at the control box or at the well head? IF they are still connected then the readings are probably not accurate,

What is the symptom or problem you are trying to solve? Wont start, high amperage?

I suspect at these readings with wires disconnected you may have a bad motor..

Carl

 

[Qapla]

The wires are disconnected from the controller. The readings are on the bare wires making sure that my hands were not touching any wire or leads so that the readings are indeed the ones from the well pump and only the well pump.

 

[davedj1]

Is the pump not working? Or not getting power?

 

[Qapla]

I will try to go by the property tomorrow and gather some additional info.

 

[Carl_NH]

Qapla,

Please look at page 12 in the attached PDF with a standard 3 wire setup.

M = Main Winding Black to Yellow should read for a 3/4HP Main = 3.0 3.6

S = Start Winding Red to Yellow should read for a 3/4HP Start = 10.7 13.1

Your readings are

Main Winding Black/Yellow wires should read .68-1 ohms - Pump read 1.3

Start Winding Red/Yellow wires should read 1.8-2.2 ohms - Pump read 6.8

For a 1/2HP 3 Wire 115 V Setup

Main Winding Black to Yellow = 1.0 1.3
Start Winding Red to Yellow = 4.1 5.1

This ALL depends on your motor and pump, symptoms/probems you are having - you need to provide more information and read the information already provided here for us to help you!

This begs the question - why were you "asked to look at a pump today" what is the problem? You havent looked at the provided information nor provided a symptom/issue to solve. What is Pump Size, Depth, HP, distance to water level, GPM usage, then issue/symptom.


Carl

 

[kebo]

Is the pump still down in the well??? If so, how deep, what gauge wire?? All wire has resistance. If the resistance measurement you are taking is through all of the wiring with the pump still down at the bottom, then it's likely the reason you are seeing higher readings is because the meter is also measuring the resistance of the wire, in addition to the resistance of the windings on the motor. That's just a guess without knowing anymore that what you have posted. If that is correct, then I think it's possible that the motor is ok, UNLESS perhaps the pump itself is frozen, but the motor is ok.

 

[Qapla]

...Please look at page 12 in the attached PDF with a standard 3 wire setup

Using the chart on page 12 the pump would be in the 3W with RunCap - 2 hp - 230/240 volt

Is the pump still down in the well??? If so, how deep, what gauge wire??

Yes, the pump is still down the well and there is about 75' of wire from the controller to the pump.

I will get more info tomorrow on the problem and just what the pump is doing and re-post with the info ...

Thanks to all who have commented so far.

 

[Carl_NH]

Qapla

Your resistance readings arent that far off spec but the main winding may be a bit low considering wire length and resistance factors.

Post when you have more detialed info like amperage draw, and depth etc. You may want to get a spare controller box or at least a run capacitor to have it on hand when you get there.

Could be a frayed wire too, just depends on what you find.

 

[Qapla]

I did get some additional info from the maintenance man today. The pump is NOT working. In fact, when I measured voltage, it only had 120. The system uses a pump-start and the side that actuates the pump-start relay works fine, the relay kicks right in. However, one leg to the pump is dead.

I asked him about this and he told me "Oh, yeah, it kept throwing the overload relay on the controller and then it tripped the breaker, so I disconnected it from the breaker."

There is 3 sections of drop pipe with the pump at the bottom of the drop. The controller is about 15' from the top of the well. That makes the wire about 75'-80'. It is the multi-conductor pump wire sold by Lowes (although it does not show on their website, they do carry it)

The irrigation clock uses the MV terminal to engage the pump-start when a zone is turned on. There is no pressure switch or tank on this system. If the pressure were to get to high, there is a high pressure safety valve that will dump so the pump will not overload.

The pump is only about 2 years old.

A little back history. The property owner has had this property for about 15 years. A couple years ago while digging for some other reason we discovered there was a well for irrigation. It wasn't being used and the top had gotten buried. (He had been watering with city water)

He decided he would like to use the well if it worked. I tried the old pump and we got it to run and pump water. However, though the flow seemed to be sufficient, it would not produce pressure. We pulled the pump and discovered that it was bad. The motor had some issues and the pump itself was not in good shape.

The owner, being the money-thrift he is, looked on the Internet for a deal on a new pump/motor. He found one that was less then any local supplier could match (shipping and all) and got it. We sent it down the well with new drop pipe, wire, pump-start and controller. It fired right up and ran the system better then we could have hoped for. (The pump we pulled up was a 5 HP - overkill for this property ... the one we sent back down is 2 HP)

It has been working fine for the past 2 years until recently. I just started back servicing this owners properties and was told about this pump not working (there are issues at some of the other properties, too)

That is where I am at for the moment.

Any ideas with this additional info would be appreciated.