Hey Spectre.. remember the 'hunky ranch hand' ??

[Cam]

Can I trade that wish in for a handy well guy/??     

[Cam]

OK mister plumber man,  I've replaced the fuses  (12amps and a 20amp, with two 30amps fuses)  in the pressure tank house.  I've drained the water lines.  I've replaced the pressure valve.  I've rewired the wires the mousie chewed or whatever..   I've traced down and by both fault and error, discovered that my pressure tank and the well are both wired directly to the main power box on the main power pole.  Not thru a breaker box.  I've made three trips to hardware stores, irrigation stores and the gas station.,.. been to zootown, lonely town and downtown!!   

Still dry..,.,  I've tried to use two pair of pipe wrenches and vise grips to loosen that dadgum pressure switch box from the pipe running up from the t connector.   I've gotten it lose from the t not from under the switch ..  So I can't install the new switch.  No matter how hard I try laying in the mouse poop and hay ~ I still can't break it lose.   

So I ran back into town and picked up a brass nipple (plug) for the pipe from the t connection and will pop that little sucker in tomorrow.  Then I will take that frackin' switch to my neighbor's and put it in a vise !!  If I make it 'twisted' then I guess I'll buy an 8" piece of brass pipe and put that dadgum switch on!! 

If that doesn't get me water.. is there anyything else I can replace or do before I have the boom truck come out and check my pump?    I am a dirty desperate cranky woman... and I really detest those little beady eyed furry frackin' creatures that poop in the pressure tank house! uckie uckie uckie ...   

[Bosco]

Sorry you're having pump problems, Cam....probably a little chilly for bathin' in the crick.....

Check out this site for some good trouble shooting info.
http://inspectapedia.com/water/WPControlsb.htm

If you know you have power to the pressure switch, pull of the cover and manually push the contactors together (be careful not to touch the metal parts or your hair might get curly). If the pump starts up (might take aminute to hear it), the problem is in your switch. Either the cut in/cut out pressures are set wrong, or the switch id faulty. If the contactors are closed and you still don't hear the pump start up, your pump relay switch might be bad. It should be in a separate box nearby with conduit running in and out of it. Don't mess with this one without turning the power off...lots of juice in there. With submersible pumps, the relay switch is what provides the power to the pump, so even if the switch is working, the pump won't kick on if the relay is bad.

Hope that helps. If you end up replaceing the switch, put some silicone on the pipe threads so they don't corrode up. Or...try some of that EVO you're always talking about....

Let me kow how it goes.

[Cam]

I didn't bathe in the crik, the ice was too thick and I couldn't find my ice auger, so I got in the overflow from the well and let me tell you what!!  I'll either have hair growing out my ears or I'm gonna be bald from the frostbite to my scalp!1  Dadgum wind picked up too!2  Dadgum nails are a little longer than usual and sure makes it hard to type. 

Well my fuses were good and yet we replaced em.  My switch points were melted so we replaced it again after the small fire in the hay was set off by the sparks from the relay ( really does have a lot of 'juice' running thru it) and after the fuses literally blew up once, twice oh yeah three times we shut her down,   Unhooked all the wires and traced em done to make sure there wasn't any breaks or chews there.. so far so good.   

The electrician is coming out to check the pump before we pull it to make sure that one leg isn't bad ..  doesn't make sense if that is so then would it really short out all the way to the pressure tank and spark there? 

So if I do replace the pump, I won't need a horse and a half just a 3 quarter horse instead.  Which means if I replace the relay today and the fuse box I will have too large a system for my pump and a waste of money.  So I am waiting for the electrician to send a surge down the well 200' and see what comes up!!

I am sooo tempted to head to zootown and pick up the parts and install a new relay box and fuse box and see if it works ... aahhggg no nono  walk away from the 2' of water that now surrounds the pressure tank and all the lovely bright colored sparks that resemble diamonds in the night sky !! 

So much for my first real date in a year and getting to blow some holes in the snow... now I'm bald and I stutter even worse ... thank you and if you've got any ideas send em my way... 

the fuses were not blown at first ... if the relay is bad will it spark?? 

[Cam]

Irrigation and Electrician are headed out!!  I think they have some minor concerns over the hay, water, sparks, dirty old women, stinkn''' rednecked dirty ole wimmin'''' and possibly the fact I will head to town and drink myself into a dirty ugly stinknnnnn stupor or I might break a 'nail'  ( I do love the length ) 

bored dirty bored dirty bored dirty     ooooo that's right I did take a mountain shower in the freeeeezzzzin  cold water from a deep well of 585' and the mini blizzard ... I'm not sure if it froze my wrinkles in place and deepened the lines in my elephant butt or if it tighten the folds surrounding my dowager's hump~~  either way I must be fetching in thru the dim frozen film covering my glasses,.,,,  I must find those lense wipes in the jeep !!  the things we really need water for ~~ 

I guess we could call it frozen chunky dunking 

[Cam]

K  it's the pump, it broke a leg and shortened itself out..    So I have/had a horse and a half and now they are recommending a horse.  Well most here run the household on a half horse including watering around 50+ head of cows.  I don't have such... I am down around 200' with the current one legged pump and the well is 585' with 9' of water from the top of the casing.   So would a half horse work itself to death pumping water that far??   I will save $300 up front between the horse and horse/half horse.. so if I install a half horse will I double my savings on power as well as initial cost?   

wimp frozen stupid woman who will always haul water in to heat up to bathe rather than the short cut in the supposed to be 63 degree weather that turned into a snow storm after she was just a tad wet and frozen in the all nethers of the Big Sky !!  at least boogy wasn't buzzing my house at that point.. alto there was still google..aaahhgggg I do kinda like the look of 'frosted ' hair tho 

[Bosco]

New pump...what fun for you....yikes. I was afraid of that. What size you need depends on the water column pushing back, in your case 585' ft of column. That's quite a bit, so 1/2 HP seems small to me. Do you have someone who can pull it up for you? No easy task, that's for sure.

[Cam]

They're bringing a boom truck tomorrow at 8am.  I have it currently set at 200' and wonder if mybe I could do with a smaller pump?  At least a full horse?  Rather than the horse and a half I have now?  Yeppers my b-day present instead of having the bags under my eyes that keep my belly button warm at night, lasered into nothing ness .. I will be able to have 'unfrosted' hair 

[Cam]

This just gets better and better!!     The poor guys sunk the boom truck up to its axles and it took them more than an hour to get it unstuck.  They had to fill in the holes with rocks and boards.   

Apparently the whole thing was wired wrong.  There are two legs on the pump and only one was ever wired in.  So the other had no shut off which is possibly why it went out.  So we had to find wire for that and thank goodness I keep stuff just in case.. Then their was a short at the main power box, which was shorting out in the pressure tank room and blowing sparks all over the hay...   SSOOOOOOooooo

We tracked it down to the breaker in the house to the dryer was shorting out the main power box... hmmmm So when we thru that breaker off it stop bleeding into the box.  Now we have to see if that breaker has to be on to run the pump relay.

LOTs more.. If I ever needed a reason to be happy my x was gone I have more than enough to congradulate myself !! 

[Bosco]

Wow....how's your fire insurance ?    Sounds like you need an electrician more than you need a plumber....can't help ya there, I know just enough to be dangeraous. 

I do lots of fire restoration though, so if your place burns down, give me a buzz..... 

[Cam]

I drank a bottle a complete bottle by myself of chocolate wine last night and tonight I have nothing except

CYBER SPACE TOOK MY POST AAAAHHGGGG I CAN'T TYPE ALL THAT AGAIN WITH OUT A LITTLE HELP FROM JD AND i JUST AIN'T GOT ANY !!  I'll type it later


for now I'm after a hot shower and who knows what the hell kinda broke ass trouble I can find !! 

I do have water ....  tho good thing .... 











water and hot water !!     no more Clorox wipes for me !!  I'm a big girl now !! 

The horse pawed at the power line, which was buried only an inch or two underground.,.  to the well and cut thru the casing.  No conduit... and that shorted out a four inch chunk .., yeppers a great day it was.. really we found the problem.. well that one any way. 

So they spliced it and ran it thru some pvc pipe I happened to have  and rewired the relay, replaced the 10th set of fuses (bless fuses ) and the man who developed them    Then we found the short was from the dryer and so long as the breaker is off to the dryer there aren't any 'fire' causing sparks..

I HAD AN ELECTRICIAN OUT YESTERDAY