Hello, I have both a well and public water to my home. The well water is mostly used for garden, car wash etc. Recently I found no water coming from the well connected outlets.

I did change the well pump maybe 6 years ago. I have a coyote system with a cistern tank. I am trying to find out how to troubleshoot this system to isolate and test the components.

I would really appreciate some help.

Ed

 

Is the cistern tank full?

You would need to test both pumps to check for simple voltage first. If both pumps have voltage , are they running?

If not running then the pressure switches would need to be checked,

Also in the cistern there would be a float switch to check. This would activate the ground pump to the tank.

 

I know all the fuses are intact. no sounds of pumps running.

I think the well pumped dry in the summer watering the garden. I usually would then put a hose from the city water in the cistern, fill up enough that I could go to the expansion tank and flip the "arm" on the tank control until I heard water filling the pipes near the tank.

I tried that this time and nothing.

Many wires in the "control center". Don't know what is what

 

Next verify that power is getting to the pumps. If it is you likely have a bad pump.

 

Happy Spring ! Now that the weather has turned, I have returned to my well project. We use the well water for car washing, lawn watering, etc.

Since my last post I have some progress. With no power anywhere except to input side of the switch on welltrol tank...nothing else had power.

Today, I mehanically pushed the contacts closed on that switch and suddenly everything came to life. The pressure guage began to climb until it reached about 60lbs. then the needle swung fully to its limit and sat there.

I checked the pump outside, it had power. I went to the cistern, serviced by the coyote system and could hear water refilling the cistern tank.

the air pressure in the well trol tank was 52Lbs.

when I flipped the external lever on the welltrol switch, to the right ( the "off position",? the contacts opened. when i flipped the external lever the other way, the contacts stayed open. In this position, I could go outside to the cistern and still hear water being pumped in.

Does any of this make sense? Does this mean the switch at the welltrol tank is defective?

I would appreciate any help.

Ed

 

It's hard to diagnose a system like that as it was home brewed. The pressure switch on the tank should only control the booster pump that is fed from the cistern. The pump that fills the cistern should be controlled by some type of mechanical switch that actually senses water tank level. Typically it would be a float switch.

Do you have some type of float switch ?
Check that for operation for tank fill.
If you don't have a test meter..... all your doing is guessing.

What limit ? At 0 psi or all the way at the highest psi ?
If you were holding the pressure switch in.... then yes..... the pressure could go to the max reading. This is not something that should be done as the pressure is too high.

Off.....would always open the contacts. If the water pressure was at or above the set point..... turning the lever on would not cause the pump to run. The pressure is already too high.

 

is it possible it has a low pressure cut out switch that does cut power to the pump when pressure falls below a certain point, used to protect the pump if you do pump the well dry, usually have a lever on the side to manually close the contacts to get pressure back to within normal range and it returns to normal operation also can occur if your using water during a power outage and drop the pressure to low.

 

yes, there is a low pressure cut out. the switch has two adjustable nuts. the system used to work so that if I ran out of water from the cistern, I would have to put fill the cistern with some amount of water, before the system would re-start.

I presume there is a float switch in the cistern. when I look down the access pipe to the cistern (6inch pvc), I see a couple of wires about three ft. down, but I cant see a float switch.

I have, and can use voltage, amp, ohm meter.

the pressure switch needle would slowly build to 60lbs then immediately swing to max pressure....not a continued slow build of pressure.

does the air tank pressure being 52 and cut off 60 lbs enter into this conundrum?