We bought the home a few years ago and since have replaced the bladder tank due to a leak about a year and a half ago. Have a submersible pump 1 hp no idea what breaker controls it due to no labels on the breakers. Not sure of the depth or specs of well. Tuesday afternoon water was working properly, Tuesday night nothing was coming out of the faucets. Examined pressure switch and gauge and found corrosion. replaced both, still no water. Took control panel apart today and it looked horrible, took it to an electrical supply store, they tested it and suggested a new one. New one installed, still no water. The pressure gauge is reading nothing, there is 38 psi in the bladder tank and no water in tank. Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance. Will add pics from computer

 

To the back left of your tank is a switch. From that switch is a small pipe going down to a PVC pipe fitting. Remove power from your system and remove the wires from that switch, taking a picture of it before you begin so you can put it back together again. That small pipe has crud in it and is not letting the pressure drop and tell the switch to turn on. Replace the small pipe and wiring, then turn it on and let us know what happens.

 

Thank you for you response, I am feeling slightly stupid as i cannot locate a switch anywhere on the tank.

I believe you meant the pressure switch so will be looking at that next.

 

Yes, not ON the tank, but on the pvc piping with the smurf tubing on it. It is your pressure switch.

 

You need a way to check for current or voltage. Check to find out if power is being sent to your well/pump. If it is then you might have a dead pump. If no power is being sent to the pump then I'd start tracking back to find out where the power stops. At this point is sounds like you don't have a clue as to the cause and are just throwing parts at it. The control box and pressure switch won't do any good if your pump or circuit breaker is dead.

 

On the side of the pressure switch see if there is a small lever that will turn the pump on. The pressure switch I have has the lever so that the pump will not run once it goes off.

 

No lever on pressure switch. No buildup blocking water. I'm not sure how to go about determining if power is going to the pump.

 

Go to a box store and purchase an analog multimeter ($10 - 15). Dial it to 200v scale and touch one lead to the grounding wire and the other lead to each of the incoming wires. You should have 120 volts. Move to a higher scale and measure across both incoming wires and you should have 240 volts.

 

At this point the purchase of a small analog meter would be very advantageous. Maybe a neighbor has one you can borrow. Maybe you can borrow the neighbor. I'm called on all the time to check things for people.

Two inexpensive meters from the Depot.....

Commercial Electric Analogue Multimeter-M1015B - The Home Depot
GE Analog Multimeter-50952 - The Home Depot

 

Stop throwing parts at it. Verify voltage is indeed making it across the pressure switch. If you have voltage no no water, then you need to measure the resistance of the pump windings from the control box. You should get readings under ~100 ohms.

I'm betting your pump went.

 

The parts I am throwing at it all needed to be replaced anyway. Found the right breaker. Voltage going across pressure switch. Located pump motor and will be testing for power shortly. How difficult is it going to be to replace this myself if it is indeed the problem?

 

Are your contacts staying closed when you apply power? How deep is the well?

 

Depth of well unknown. Contacts are closed when power is on. All voltage measures what it should which leads me to believe the pump is indeed dead since I can't imagine the well would be dry. Now that we have narrowed down the issue, it is time to replace the pump. I have watched multiple videos on how to get the pump out of the ground but they don't explain much about the cap and what the setup is supposed to look like before hand. I'm not sure what I'm looking at here.
Forgive my ignorance in advance and thanks again for all the help.

 

Is the line to the top of the well head metal ?

 

Take a good look at the last taped connections to colored wires going down hole.
From my chair here in Texas they look to be questionable. Might just solve your problems there.

Good luck!

RR

 

The contacts of your pressure switch are mechanically driven by the water pressure. Wheter the power is on or off has nothing to do with them being open or closed. You need to verify that power is being sent out of the switch which I'm assuming is what you were saying. Then check at your control box just to make sure it's not defective even though new. It's above ground and easy to access so even though it's a long shot I like to check just to make sure.

Now that we're certain power is being send to the wire leading to the pump I'll follow Rough Roosters lead... first make sure the circuit breaker for the well is turned off. At the well head unwrap the electrical tape and spread out the wires and expose the conductors and make sure they are not touching anything. Turn the circuit breaker on. Since you have no water the pressure switch should be closed calling for water and sending power down the wire to the well. At the well head check to verify that you are getting power from the wire. If not you've got a broken wire. If you do have power then it's time to pull the well. Oh, and don't forget to turn the well pump breaker off.

The first problem is the pipe. If you can rent a pipe threader you only have to dig back a bit further and can cut the pipe. Or, you dig back until you find the end of that pipe section. Cut the pipe in the middle somewhere and use pipe wrenches to unscrew both halves from the fittings. When it comes time to re-install you'll need new threaded pipe and a union fitting.

Then loosen but don't remove the bolts in the well head. Wiggle, tap and curse until the well head breaks free from the well casing. In Florida I expect the well is shallow but if its deep a helper can be very helpful. Grab the well head and pull up. Let us know if you have black plastic pipe or more galvanized steel.

 

Clearer photo with more dirt cleared out. Will be checking lines to pump shortly and come back to update. If the pump needs to go, and looking at the clearer picture, is there anywhere particular point one would suggest to cut the line? Pressure switch and control panel have both been tested.

 

Ok so I'm out here taking tape off and realize this green wire is just hanging out on its own... I imagine this could be a problem as it isn't feeding into where the other wires are going. Any thoughts?
Additional Edit:
The green line tested with any other line gives no reading on the meter. The test between the other lines gave a reading that jumped up to about 3.0 and quickly fell to 0.

 

[QUOTE
Ok so I'm out here taking tape off and realize this green wire is just hanging out on its own... I imagine this could be a problem as it isn't feeding into where the other wires are going. Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Most likely it is not connected anywhere. When you get the tape off, look at the incoming cable and see if it has a green wire. If it does, then connect the greens together. It should be a ground wire. Many installers don't connect the green thinking the pump in water will be sufficient ground.

RR

 

Yep. My green wire is hanging out like that also.

 

Here's where we're at, the well cap refuses to budge. He's been tapping and cursing but it just isn't moving. It has 4 9/16 bolts and one 7/16 bleeder bolt. Any thoughts on a way to get this thing off?

 

Loosen the four bolts. There is probably a round rubber seal sandwiched between the top part you can see and a plate on the bottom. When the bolts are tightened it squeezes the rubber causing it to squish out and seal against the wall of the casing and the rubber loves to stick to the pipe. You can tap down the loosened bolts with a hammer to help get the steel plate to pop free. Just be careful to only loosen the bolts. Don't remove them as you don't want the steel bottom plate falling down into the well where it might jam when you try pulling the pump.

Any guess as to how deep your well is? All the weight of the pipe, wire and the pump is hanging off the cap. If the pipe is steel and full of water and if the well is deep it can be a good deal of weight. You might have to think like an ancient Egyptian to apply more force than simply grabbing it and pulling up.

You tie a strong rope or strap around the cap squat down over it and wrap the rope around your waist or shoulders. Then stand up using your stronger leg muscles do the pulling.

If you can find a long piece of wood tie the cap to the board so you can get two people pulling up. You can also use a long board as a lever if you can make a fulcrum point with you either pulling up on the board or see saw fashion with your body weight working.

 

So someone came and pulled the old pump, installed new one, wired everything up and I have water. But... Two of my faucets and one shower has little to no water pressure. Any fixes for that?