Hi everyone. I have a 1hp Franklin submersible well pump.

Bought a 3,250 watt generator with a 3,750 surge rating.

Didn't think it would start the well pump but it did (wired into the breaker panel with an Interlock Kit by an electrician.)

Seemed fine. Had let pressure run down to no water before starting generator to see if it started. All fine, generator off, back to regular power.

Later in the day refilled my hot tub.

There was a lot of silt in the water, whole house filter was full of dirt/sand, changed the filter. Silt in the toilet bowls. Next day and the new filter is still clean.

Is there a chance that I damaged the well pump or casing when it was started up with out a bigger generator? The generator did not stall or surge when the well pump came on.

 

Another thought from my googling just now is that I did something else I've never done.

While filling the hot tub I had the end of the hose submerged for a while. Maybe the silt was caused by back-siphonage?

 

Where is your hose attached? You should have some type of vacuum breaker on any outdoor hose bibs that will normally have a hose lieing on the ground.

Yes with no water pressure in the home the hose could have siphoned water back into the houshold plumbing.

Mike NJ

 

I fill the tub from the bathroom faucet. Since we have hot water off the furnace I use hot water to fill the tub. It's a 110 hot tub without a heating element, so this gets it ready to use a lot faster then waiting for the motor to heat up the water.

Would the silt have been in my pipes then? I still think it came from the well.

 

Wells can change over time and with the seasons and possibly all the pumping required to fill your hot tub drew the well down lower than it's normal level, disturbing some sediment in the process. My money is on the large draw of water to fill your hot tub.

When was the last time you changed your water filter cartridge? If large amounts of sediment made it past the filter I wonder if it had been silting up over a long time and finally clogged to the point where the back pressure ruptured the filter causing it to dump some of the accumulated sediment.

 

i change the whole house filter every 4 months. It's an aqua pure and I think 29" long.

The filter and area it goes had probably a cup of sand in it, it was disgusting. Since then the water and new filter seem fine.

 

I change the hot tub about the same, and never had this happen before.

So it could just be due to recent rainy summer and as you say changes in the well.

I'm primarily just concerned that I could have damaged my well pump or casing, with the low powered generator starting it up.

 

If it makes you feel better so27ma, my parents just ran into the same issue with silt from their well while running on generator power. I couldn't quite explain it other than maybe emptying the pressure tank. Since the pressure tank is before the filter, I was thinking that over time silt builds up in the tank, and since you ran it down completely, that silt made its way out of the tank.

Regardless, I don't think anything you could have done electrically to the pump would have caused silt build up.