Grump's Lemony Shiznits Grow 🌱

[GrumpAzz]

I know some stuff about this maybe I can help.. When your RO is filling for two days is your well pump still cycling on and off at the controller? Another wards is your RO filling off of your bladder tank and that fils and empties normal? You mentioned getting a new controller, it just points inside like an antique car right? Did you adjust these at all? When I get home later I can post ya some pics.

Yeah the pump kicks on normally at 48 psi on the pressure tank and off at 68. Pressure switch is working fine. It's smoking the capacitor in the pump controller. Here's the controller...



I checked the windings with my meter. R/Y - 58 ohms, Y/B - 72 ohms, R/B - 22 ohms. That's telling me there's a short in the motor winding. To my knowledge, they should all read about the same. (That's wrong - the lower two values should add up to the larger number, so I've recently read). Each leg has 1-3k ohms to ground, though. There should be nothing there.

 

[Stoneyluv]

Yeah the pump kicks on normally at 48 psi on the pressure tank and off at 68. Pressure switch is working fine. It's smoking the capacitor in the pump controller. Here's the controller...

View attachment 79708

I checked the windings with my meter. R/Y - 58 ohms, Y/B - 72 ohms, R/B - 22 ohms. That's telling me there's a short in the motor winding. To my knowledge, they should all read about the same. (That's wrong - the lower two values should add up to the larger number, so I've recently read). Each leg has 1-3k ohms to ground, though. There should be nothing there.

something doesn't sound right man.. those pumps are pretty standard when it comes to colors. common is normally black. yellow is run, and red is start. run to C (y-B) should be the lowest one, it takes the least to power. the next one should be the start wire (R-B) this should just be a little higher maybe within 10-15 ohms, it takes a little more juice at start up. (hence the controller needing the capacitor) and run to start should show you a pretty high reading. i've never relied on the adding the two to equals the third, maybe with some but not all.

your run wire reading so high has me really concerned and would in fact cause a load Cap to stress!! not totally shorted that it won't work but probably just enough windings shorted to cause problems.

do you happen to know what name pump is in there? manuf and size? i know it's very tough when buying a home, not everybody passes that info along. almost all companies list what the exact measurements should be.

 

[GrumpAzz]

do you happen to know what name pump is in there? manuf and size? i know it's very tough when buying a home, not everybody passes that info along. almost all companies list what the exact measurements should be.

No idea on the brand and I am assuming it's a half-horse by the controller nameplate. It shouldn't have any ohms to ground on any of those leads, though, so the motor is toast. I don't know how deep the well is either. I tried to pull it up and could barely budge it, so I called somebody. They're gonna try to get out here tomorrow.

 

[Stoneyluv]

No idea on the brand and I am assuming it's a half-horse by the controller nameplate. It shouldn't have any ohms to ground on any of those leads, though, so the motor is toast. I don't know how deep the well is either. I tried to pull it up and could barely budge it, so I called somebody. They're gonna try to get out here tomorrow.

that really sucks man, i've replaced mine three times in thirty years. first two were cheapos and then i got talked into buying a high quality all 304 stainless model and buying the better one was the best thing i did. i was in my late 30's when this one was last changed. i helped, but there is no way in hell i'd be able to do it myself.

i'm curious how deep yours is, mine is 165'

 

[GrumpAzz]

i'm curious how deep yours is, mine is 165'

I'll hang around and find out. We've got a really high water table out here but I couldn't make an accurate guess.

I gotta get up in the morning and go buy another controller so they don't need to go down into the basement. I'd rather them not set eyes on my setup.

 

[GrumpAzz]

@Stoneyluv
So she's like 25-30ft down
The rope was looped around the flange from when it was last replaced. That's why I couldn't budge it.

It's quite a bit older so I'm guessing it was just on its last leg and sat unused for so long that it only lasted us a month. Surely my RO has nothing to do with it, right?

 

[GrumpAzz]

Leaking discharge and a hole.in the motor housing. They got the water on but they'll have to come back tomorrow with a backhoe.

My dumbass digging that hole yesterday saved us. They wouldn't have known the discharge was leaking if it didn't fill up the hole that I dug... that there is THE definition of dumb luck.

 

[Max]

What is that grumps.is that a water pipe that down to the water table or something.excuse my dumb head

 

[GrumpAzz]

What is that grumps.is that a water pipe that down to the water table or something.excuse my dumb head

Yeah that's my well pump. Water's pretty high around here. Don't worry Max. I'm dumb too.

Looking at the picture now... I can see that discharge valve is fucked from here. Big dent in the bottom side of it.

 

[Max]

I see it.

id b too scared to sleep , thinking it’s a sink hole..that’s not far down at all.

 

[GrumpAzz]

We're in a basin not far from the river. This whole area has a high water table. Agriculture everywhere. Alfalfa across the road and milo behind the house.

 

[Stoneyluv]

It's quite a bit older so I'm guessing it was just on its last leg and sat unused for so long that it only lasted us a month. Surely my RO has nothing to do with it, right?

yeah i'm chalking it up to a coincidence that it went bad right when you filled your RO. ive seen people leave their water on all week by accident. so i don't think it caused it.

damn though only 30ft?!?1? no wonder your water sucks, it never has enough space and filtering to clean itself.

good news is glad you were able to get it fixed so quickly!!

did they have to go in your basement?

 

[BlueCollarBob]

I had to pull mine one time. Ours is pretty shallow, too. It jumps a bit when the pump starts and stops. Insulation on the wires wore through rubbing against the casing. I just replaced the wires and added more cable guards to prevent the rubbing. The pump is a dinosaur. I figure it will die during the blizzard of the century or some other horrible time to replace it, lol.

I can't tell from your photo if you had the cable guards securing the wires to the pipe. If not, it might be worth taking a look and seeing if they make sense for your system.

Good luck and I hope all of this fixes your issues.

 

[GrumpAzz]

did they have to go in your basement?

They did. I turned everything off so there wasn't any lights or sounds so hopefully they didn't pay too much attention. I was down there with them and only noticed one little glance towards the grow. I tipped them 20 bucks before finding out they had to come back. Told my wife it was to "pay for their silence"

 

[GrumpAzz]

So I've got 9 of these...

... and my plugs came in today, so I planted them all. I didn't presoak them like suggested, only because I never have. Should this round fail (I don't think it will), I'll presoak the next ones.

My RO tank is coming in at 40ppm for some reason. I'll use it but I'd like to get that back down to zero. I'll use what's been made for the H202 run to clear out all the bleach. Hopefully I just had a dirty tank from the move. All that was a blur and who knows what steps I missed in the excitement.

Anyways.. here's to a successful germ ratio. I only need 4 keepers