I have a well at my cottage with a water pump. It is an above ground pump. I have never had any trouble with it and then yesterday it started running continuously. It’s keeping pressure, I have all the water I need in the house, but the pump will not shut off. I suspect that it is the pump itself, because when I unplug it to stop it from running, there’s a small clunk and then a click click click click click before it stops. Never done this before. I’m having a new drilled well put in in a month so I don’t wanna run out and buy a new water pump. Any suggestions to get this thing working temporarily?
The pressure switches come in 30-50psi or 40-60psi.
On at 30... off at 50 or on at 40... off at 60.
That means the water pressure would have to get to at least 50psi for the pump to shut off.
At 32psi.... the pump will not shut off.
Is your gauge working? Do you see the needle move up and down as you use water and the pump cycles on and off? If not it is possible your gauge is broken and stuck in position.
Turn off the circuit breaker to the well pump. On the pressure switch shown in PJmax's photo, loosen the silver nut on top and lift the plastic cap off. Inside look at the contacts shown circled in yellow. If the little pads are touching each other then the switch is closed and sending power to the pump. If there is a gap between them the switch is open and the pump should not be running.
If your switch is closed (making the pump run) have someone open a faucet in the house while you watch the circled area closely. When the water pressure drops you should see the contacts snap open with a click sound. If the switch never opens (pump runs continuously) it means either the switch is bad or it or the pipe nipple connecting it to the house's piping is clogged with rust or mud.
Last edited by Pilot Dane; 07-31-22 at 10:19 AM.
Reason: removed duplicate photo
I can only tell you that it has never ever ever been at 50. It’s usually somewhere between 35 and 40, and it
always shuts off at that. I took another picture. Is the small piece attached to the pump the pressure switch? That is where the clicking comes from when I unplug the pump
Not positive, but: If you shut off water valve to house (valve in your picture). Pump should build pressure and shut off.
1. If it does, your pump is working and you may have a water leak some where between pump and end of line.
2. If it doesn't, your pump isn't able to build enough pressure to shut off OR faulty pressure switch.
Pilot Dane, I will try that. The funny thing is when you ask about my gauge, in the picture you can see in that dial that there is a piece of paper behind the needle and the paper seems to be folded a bit so it could be stopping the needle from moving. However I cannot figure out how to get the face off that or the gauge off to try to fix that
Trying2help, I did try that. I turned the valve off and the pump still keeps running. We have found no leaks anywhere including at the well, and we actually just replaced the hose and connection about a month ago going to the house
Reading on gauge is just a user indication. Doesn't matter if it is working or not (not saying it shouldn't work). Kind of like a gas gauge in your vehicle....
In your second picture.
The blue box is your pressure switch.
The small 1/4" black line at the bottom is your pressure line, that controls your pressure switch. If it clogs, it will not allow switch to operate correctly.
Do what I mentioned. Shut off water valve, see if pump shuts off.
If not, disconnect power to pump.
Remove cover on pressure switch.
Check contacts to ensure they have not "welded" together.
Remove 1/4" line and ensure it and where it connects is free of debris.
You may, momentarily, connect power to the pump while having 1/4" disconnected from pressure switch to see if you get water out of it. BE AWARE IF YOU DO THIS, THERE IS GOING TO BE WATER UNDER PRESSURE COMING FROM TUBE!!! Water and electricity do not mix, only do this if you are confident in do so!
If pump shuts off in step one.... You have a leak downstream....
Do not remove the gauge unless you have a plug for the hole or a new gauge to install. Don't worry about the gauge too much. It's helpful to diagnose problems but it doesn't make anything work or not work. It's a nice to have feature.
Easy way to see if your gauge is stuck... with power off to pump, open faucet. You should see the gauge drop in pressure. Shut the faucet and apply power to pump, gauge will show increase in pressure. This is what Pilot Dane was referring to in his first post.
Gauge may stick at 32, but actual pressure being applied will be higher, as PJMax noted. There are preset off and on values, depending on the system.
This is why it would be nice if the gauge works, so you can see what is going on. But it is not necessary for the gauge to work.
Sorry for some reason these answers just came pouring in now. Trying to help, as I mentioned, I already have switched the valve off and the pump still continues to run. If the gauge doesn’t truly matter, my next step will be taking the pressure switch apart and seeing what’s going on in there. Thank you everyone for all your help. Stay tuned! Lol
By the way… Unplugged the pump and turned on the faucet. Pressure dropped like it should. Turned off the faucet. Plugged the pump back in and it climbs right back up to 32 but won’t go any further. Pump won’t shut off though so I’m guessing the gauge is stuck at 32. Next I will look at the pressure switch
OK we took it all apart. The contacts never opened and the pump runs continuously. We took that short line off and it does not appear to be clogged. However when we unplug the pump the pressure switch does open and close and click a couple times so apparently it’s able to Open and close, but it’s not doing it when it’s supposed to. Any new suggestions? I should also add that we did try turning it on while that little pipe was off and it did shoot water madly out of it
Yes! With the cover off the whole thing shudders and the contacts open and close sometimes six or eight times before it stops when we shut the pump off
I'm going to base my response on: The pump runs continuously, even when valve to house is shut off, there is water pressure present at pressure switch through 1/4" line. I will assume the pressure gauge is probably working and giving correct reading (doesn't really matter if it is).
Going to ignore the switch shudder issue, may be a problem, but not associated with main issue of pump running continuously.
Your pump is not building enough pressure. This would require you to disassemble pump head and see if there is any defective parts or debris in the pump jet. It has been several years since I have done this, but it is doable if you are familiar with pumping and have the tools. If you look your pump model number up online, you can usually find a diagram and parts breakdown for it.
We had to stop messing with it last night. It got too late. Will start again but I’m still wondering now if it is that pressure switch that’s not working properly. I don’t really feel knowledgeable enough to take the pump apart, but I have to figure something out to do from now till our new well is drilled. For now I guess we’ll just plug and unplug the pump as needed. Thank you all for your replies. If anyone else has any further advice I will check in and out of here
This is a kitchen sink/ dishwasher dedicated dry well, ten feet away from the house. Backyard slight downward pitch. I have only seen the cement top, which is about 3-4 feet diameter. (Looks real heavy.) I don’t know how deep it is. House was built about 1950, I have lived here 23 years and never had an issue.
I am thinking about avoiding any investigation and digging a separate new Dry well, 20 plus feet away from the house. This may be easier to redirect the copper drain coming about a foot from the house with a new connection, thus also avoiding the older style nonmetallic black pipe which is what connects it to the existing dry well.
Do I need to vent or try and leave a future access to new dry well? The PVC pipe will be about 1 foot or deeper slight pitch and the dry well about 3 plus feet deep by 3 wide with black mesh under rock base to prevent dirt build up.
Any suggestions or confirmation would be welcome. THX
In my basement I have a Kenmore washing machine which drains to a large sink, which then outflows water to a Little Giant 6-CIA-ML sump pump contained within a WRSC- 5 or 6 housing. After completing a medium load of laundry I came upon a wet floor. I noticed that the washing machine cycle was complete with some water still remaining in the tub. The sink was almost full of water to where the washing machine outlet pipe ends. The sump pump was not running with water dripping out slowly from the cord grommet at the top of the housing containing the sump pump. In short, a dreadful sight, see attached pic. My son and I drained the water from the sink manually via a bucket and mopped up the water on the floor. Since not all the water was pumped out of the washing machine, I wrung the clothes by hand and put them into the dryer. Now the dryer wouldn't run. Immediately, I looked at the GFCI, which I noticed was tripped. The GFCI controls outlets to the washer, dryer and sump pump. I reset the GFCI and the dryer started working. Also, the sump pump went into action and pumped away the residual water.
At that point I put the clothes back into the washing machine to rerun the spin cycle, because manual wringing doesn't wring out all the residual water from the clothes. The machine operated normally. Even in the spin cycle, it draws water into the machine and pumps it out. The sump pump successfully disposed off this water like nothing had happened before.
However, now I'm left with the question as to what sequence of events took place, what caused the GFCI to trip and why was water still left in the washing machine even though the washing cycle was complete. As to the last point, is it possible that the machine indeed pump all the water out but the rising water level in the pump caused a backflow enabling water to be drawn back to the machine? However, if the sump pump was not running due to the GFCI trip, why would the washing machine run and still complete the wash cycle? Or is it that the washing machine was close to the end of the cycle but had not actually completed it yet? I don't know. Could it be that the sump pump caused the GFCI to trip? I should mention that I replaced the sump pump switch 3 months ago and it had been operating normally since then.
I'm afraid that if I don't get to the bottom of this, disaster can strike again and I'll be left with another mess and aggravation. Any insights that this forum can provide and my next course of action, will be appreciated.
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07-31-22, 09:45 AM
