Well Pressure Switch won't cut out.

James Riley · Oct 30, 2020

My well pressure switch would not cut out so I replaced it with a brand new one (on at 40 lbs, off at 60 lbs) and made sure my pressure tank was at 38 lbs. No Joy. I tested all wires and found that all connections except one were 120v, as they should be. The cut off switch wire is at 48v. Since everything above ground that I can test seems good, should I assume there is a short down the well hole? Attached is a photo of the inside of my control panel. As stated, all is 120v except the red wire on the far left of the relay (SW), and the white wire on the right side of the little box in the upper left of the panel.

Second question: My pump motor has been running constantly this whole time, even when there is no draw of water. Isn't that going to hurt the motor, or is it okay? Pressure is at 75 lbs, which my lines can handle. A well guy said my pump moves enough water by the motor to keep it cool even though there is no draw, but I don't understand how any water is moving at all if there is not draw up the hole.

snowhead · Oct 30, 2020

Have you got a picture of the presure switch and where it's fitted?

If the lines are at 75 and the pump setting is 60 then the pressure switch is not seeing the 75 pressure.
Not on a well system, but on a pumped system, I've had it before where there's a blockage between the main line and where the switch fits in.

James Riley · Oct 30, 2020

Okay, I've been out there trying to trace everything and I think I figured it out. I tried disconnecting each pressure switch wire, one at a time, both at the pressure switch and then again up in the control box. No joy, the pump did not stop.

When I saw the BX cable was broke, I ran a wire from the control box ground directly to the pressure switch ground and got the white wire back up to 120v from 48v. However, the red wire was still 48v. I figured it must be missing a ground somewhere too (don't forget, I'm a dummy when it comes to electricity). I started following the red wire, switching to white, back up into the Line Contactor Coil. When I had continuity between all the connections in the Line Contactor Coil I thought something was wrong. I was looking for a connection from one of the hots going in to that little white wire on the right side and could not find it. So I took and old control panel out and started taking it apart to figure out how it worked. I found it had two spring-loaded deals inside the go in and out.

I took the cover off the Line Contactor Coil that's on my service and found those little *******s stuck in the "in" position. When I got them to pop out, my well cut off. I then drew some water down and the pressure switched kicked my pump on at 40 lbs. I waited and it would never fill up my pressure tank to see if the pump would kick off at 60 lbs. So, I drained it down, opened my cycle stop valve up, ran the hose at 2 1/2 GPM and set the cycle stop valve at 57.

Everything worked. On at 40, off at 62 or 63. YEA!

My only question is, what happens if those stupid little contact bars get stuck in again? I'd have to go out there all the time to make sure they aren't stuck on. So, is there a lubricant or something I could put on them to stop them from sticking in?

I want to thank you all for holding my hand on this.

Megawatt · Nov 1, 2020

James Riley said:
My well pressure switch would not cut out so I replaced it with a brand new one (on at 40 lbs, off at 60 lbs) and made sure my pressure tank was at 38 lbs. No Joy. I tested all wires and found that all connections except one were 120v, as they should be. The cut off switch wire is at 48v. Since everything above ground that I can test seems good, should I assume there is a short down the well hole? Attached is a photo of the inside of my control panel. As stated, all is 120v except the red wire on the far left of the relay (SW), and the white wire on the right side of the little box in the upper left of the panel.

Second question: My pump motor has been running constantly this whole time, even when there is no draw of water. Isn't that going to hurt the motor, or is it okay? Pressure is at 75 lbs, which my lines can handle. A well guy said my pump moves enough water by the motor to keep it cool even though there is no draw, but I don't understand how any water is moving at all if there is not draw up the hole.

First off that’s pretty high pressure for a well for a hose but under no circumstances should that motor running constantly. It’s the pressure switch which controls the pump and no don’t put anything down the whole the hole there’s nothing wrong with the motor. As stated above you could have a blockage in the pipe preventing that much pressure to build up. If I was you I would back down on the pressure of the switch, which will not make the pump work so hard. Are you sure you have the switch wired correctly?