Hi,
I have been having problems with my well for the past few weeks. The well water level is good and I have replaced the pump and the pressure tank. I have a 30/50 pressure switch.
The switch has been working great for the first two days then today when I went to do the laundry it didn't kick in. It just went straight to zero. I have to manually override it to fill my tank. I am at a standstill. I don't know what to look for next. Does anyone have any idea what I should look at next. I have 28lbs of air in my tank. Thanks

Since you did not replace the switch, it sounds like that is your problem. You obviously have electricity since you could override the switch and make the pump work. Turn an outside faucet on, then look at/listen to the switch. You should be able to hear it cut on or off with a clicking sound. Better yet, you can see the breaker points open or close at the cut in/cut off points.

BTW, when you refer to a manual override, do you mean you held the breaker points together with a screwdriver or something?

I used the manual override lever that is on the side of the pressure switch. We did replace the original switch. We bought a new 30/ 50. The new 30/50 only had the one adjustment post so my husband put the old one back on. I have been watching it as the water is being used and you can see a slight bit of movement in the switch at the cut in point but not enough to make the contacts move, but if I don't override it right then it goes to zero. Is the two adjustment post switch better than the one adjustment post or will they work the same. I do know what the adjustment posts are for.

This is a tank with a bladder in it, isn't it? Didn't state that in the original post but I assumed that was the case since you said you had 28# of pressure in the tank. I assume the old switch was working before you replaced it, elsewise you would not have put it back on. One idea would be to call the manufacturer of the new switch and run the problem by them. This might be a fairly common problem to them.

Wish I had a better answer for you. Typically, I would look hard at the switch. I would check and be certain I had 110 volts at each pole on the switch (although if the manual override is working then you would think voltage was OK but I would still check to be certain) and that the pipe leading to the switch was open and clear. You might try adjusting the cut in pressure up just to be sure it was not set so low as to not function. All of these, I must admit, are long shots but can be done easily and quickly. Just for my curiosity's sake, I would ask you to post the eventual resolution of this problem.

Well my husband just changed the o ring on the pipe that goes from the pump to the line into the house and still no luck. He is thinking that there may be a break in the underground line that goes from the well to the house. He has exhausted all avenues that he knows so I guess it's time to get some help.
I do thank you for all your advise and will let you know how we make out.

Best of luck to you. I'm not too sure about going backwards from the tank to the pump looking for a problem. The question is this: Is the pump cutting on? It seems that if the manual override solves the problem (temporarily), then the pump, pipes, etc. must be OK. I cannot escape the feeling that everything still seems to point to the switch.

Hi,
Ok now where to begin. The problem was at the well itself. The threaded fitting that goes into the well for the pump to hook into and leads out for the pipe to run into the house was worn out. The threads were to the point you could see spaces through them and the end on the outside of the well where the pipe joines it had a hole in it. Therefore losing pressure and picking up air. A two dollar part, fancy that. Thank you for all your help. If I ever need any more questions answered I will be back. Now I have to go and clean all the screens in my facets. Thanks again.

Who would have thunk it? Thanks for letting us know the final resolution. Thankfully, the expense was not too bad.