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Water Pump Quit

3K views 49 replies 8 participants last post by  lenaitch 
#1 ·
I had such great help with my daughter's central air unit, I thought ya'all might be able to help with my well pump just dying...

Well pump died.. :(

I am fairly sure that I am getting power to the pump. There is a Water Softener attached to the electrical and I hear it ticking so I am pretty sure I have power..

There is a box attached to the well pump and that has been a problem in the past...



I cleaned the contacts and, as you can see they are in the CONTACT position... (RED BOXES)

The GREEN are the wires coming in from the ground. The BLUE are the wires that go into the pump..

Is it a good/bad/ARE YOU NUCKING FUTZ!!! idea to directly connect the hot wires coming in to the pump to see if the pump is working??

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I really REALLY need a shower... :^/
 
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#18 ·
OK I think I found the problem...



The impeller was half busted off when I pulled the motor out.. That indicates to me that it was probably wedged against the side which froze up the motor...

The motor turns freely so I am thinking (hoping) that, if I replace the impeller, all should be good and right with the world...

Is there a "trick" to getting it off?? Or is it just a matter of securing the broken plastic and turning that flat head screw in the center with a buttload of force??
 
#21 ·
Something weird just happened..

I heard a low rumbling like a jet airplane flying overhead...

It turns out it was my water heater doing something that caused the noise??

Figuring it can't be good that my water heater doesn't actually have any water going thru it, I shut down the water heater at the breaker...

On another, possibly related, note. Am I going to have a problem with getting the water flowing again once the new motor/impeller is in place???
 
#22 · (Edited)
#23 ·
I'm new to the pump stuff myself, but I just bought that sws50 to replace my very old sws50. I had a lot of trouble figuring the system out but, that was just me learning well/pump/pressuretank systems, not a problem with the pump:

http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/spent-week-my-well-tank-pump-system-complete-loss-389177/

I got the wayne sws50 to replace a really old wayne sws50. Tell you one thing I've learned. As much as I've had to fiddle and remove and replace, if that flotec isn't cast iron I wouldn't get it. I've had to put some real pressure on the housing..

I like Wayne products though. I have a sump pump of theirs too.

I did learn that purging the lines of air was a thing for me, so if you have a release valve on that water tank what *I* would do and have been doing during this little journey of mine, have someone by it with the valve open, and kick the new pump on. Wait for water to spit out, then close it.

Someone might chime in who knows more, again I'm pretty new to this. But it's been my life, my breath, my soul, for about 2 weeks now. Heh. Tell ya one thing I learned the very hard way. On my thread you'll see a picture of a honeywell pressuretrol. It took me a week with several troubleshooting steps to realize they (people who had the house before me) had bypassed the switch that comes built on the wayne sws50 in favor of that honeywell. Your setup could be different, these pumps come with onboard switches for a reason - but should you find yourself in the same boat I did (rapid on/off) make sure you don't have two switches trying to tell it what to do. :p

Edit: Oh, one more thing. I don't know about you - everyone's different - but for me ... as old as that pump looks (like mine was)... for 175 bucks just get the whole dern new thing and take the 3 year warranty wanye gives (bet that flotec is 1 year).
 
#24 ·
Great story, Phases. :D I ran into many of the same type of things when this forum helped me get my daughter Central Air Unit back from the dead.. :D

Turns out Store Availability is going to be the biggest consideration. The pump I had my eye on would take 5 days to get into my local store.. I doubt my wife would appreciate me after 5 days of no showers.. :D

The WAYNE series is going to be my best option apparently...

I just can't decide if I want to replace my .5 HP pump with a WAYNE .5 HP pump (160) or splurge a little and get the WAYNE .75 HP pump ($222)..

The extra water pressure would be nice.. Just not sure if it would be $60 nice.. :D

Thanx for the input.. Very much appreciated...
 
#27 ·
Yes it is. Because it may still not be a drop in replacement. I found the dimensions from intake and discharge to be the same, but the mount is spun the other way, it wants to lean, and it doesn't sit at the same height. So. I had to... adjust.. a little.

And yep. I chose wayne over Everbuilt because they were plastic housing, 1 year warranty, more money, lower rated reviews - and I knew nothing about them. At least I've had positive exp with my Wayne sump pump. So I was willing to wait.

Plus, it was far more drop in replacement than the EB would have been..

In my case, I had to cut my intake and basically redid that whole thing too. But yours looks WAY easier to deal with. I was cramped in a 1.5ft by 1.5ft box. You might have to do tiny adjustments but it looks like you have plenty of pvc to work with, plenty of room. You got this.
 
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