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housetree64 · Jun 23, 2009, 04:27 AM

We live in the lower Hudson Valley of New York State where currently we're getting lots of rain. Is it possible that something happened to the wiring causing a short circuit? Water pump will trip 20-25 seconds immediately after being reset. Right afterward, it will trip again within 10-15 seconds after being reset the second time and then the same after 5-10 seconds.
Then, it will constantly will keep tripping. Should I change the circuit breaker itself?

tkrussell · Jun 23, 2009, 04:57 AM

Could be a defective pump motor, or a short in the wiring.

To check which is the problem, disconnect the pump from the wiring and try the breaker.

With the motor disconnected, if the CB trips, probably a short in the wiring.

If not, then the motor is bad.

Slim chance the breaker is bad, you can start by trying a new breaker.

speedball1 · Jun 23, 2009, 05:18 AM

I agree with TK. Sounds like a shorted motor winding to me. Tom

jlisenbe · Jun 23, 2009, 06:39 AM

If you have a buried cable running outside to the pump, then my money is on a short in the cable due to saturated ground. STill, TK's advice is very good. I wish our ground in Mississippi was wet enough to cause problems like that! I'm not sure I even know what rain looks like anymore! :)

BTW, is the pump inside (basement... crawl space) or is it a submersible pump in the well?

ZoeMarie · Jun 23, 2009, 06:57 AM

Did this happen at all before the rain? Or did you just get this all hooked up and realize that it's tripping? Also, is it a GFCI breaker?

Milo Dolezal · Jun 23, 2009, 08:21 AM

As said above, it looks like you have short somewhere. It is most likely caused by water inside pump's electrical system or it may be damaged cord.

But I would start with checking elec. Outlet first. I would plug the pump cord into another outlet just to make sure the GFCI receptacle is not malfunctioning.

jlisenbe · Jun 23, 2009, 10:18 AM

House, you really need to tell us two things:

1. Where is the pump located?
2. Is there a buried cable running to the pump?

And, as TK said above, disconnect the wire from the switch and see if the problem continues. If not, then disconnect from the pump (if possible) and see if the problem continues. All this is an attempt to isolate the short.

Milo raises a good point about a GFCI outlet. That is a simple matter to check and you should do it. However, unless I am mistaken (quite possible!), the GFCI would not trip the breaker. Rather, it would itself trip and have to be reset.

housetree64 · Jun 23, 2009, 12:38 PM

Thanks to all for your answers. To JLISENBE, it's a submersible water pump. Pump is approx. 280' under ground. The well is approx. 150' in front of the house. The cable is buried underground. How don't know how deep. To ZOEMARIE, it happened overnight. Last night everything was OK before went to bed. We had some rain during the night. This morning we were dealing with the problem.

jlisenbe · Jun 24, 2009, 05:18 AM

Follow TK's advice, then get back to us. With the wire disconnected from the switch, if the breaker still throws, then you can be sure the cable is the problem. If that is the case, replacement is not difficult. In fact, that is a much more simple problem to address than pump problems.

tomkinsong · Mar 10, 2010, 11:50 AM

I'm having the same problem as housetree. I have just finished some kitchen plumbing and an install of a new sink disposal unit. To facilitate the plumbing, I turned off the breakers to the water pump until I completed the work and then turned it back on again. The sink disposal is on a completely separate circuit. My issues started happening at the same time I had started throwing the breakers for the water pump.

My question is, do you think it would be more likely to be a faulty breaker (there are two linked together so it seems feasible that a faulty one would affect both). If it were a wiring fault I would have thought that the circuit would trip almost immediately but that doesn't happen, it stays up for a few minutes. The water pump IS providing pressure (while the circuit stays up) though of course it's not out of the realms of being faulty.

It just seems very coincidental that this started happening at the exact time I was turning the breakers on and off.

Any opinions would be very appreciated. BTW, my setup is almost verbatim the same as Housetree's.

Milo Dolezal · Mar 10, 2010, 12:26 PM

Did you flip the circuit breaker to the hot water heater OFF before you began the work ?

jlisenbe · Mar 10, 2010, 03:45 PM

Tom, first I would try using a screwdriver to make sure the screw holding the hot wire (black) to the breaker is good and snug. After that, check the connections in the switch and, if the pump is above ground, at the pump. Wires working loose can cause breakers to throw. After that, if you can't spot any problems with a visual inspection, I'd see if the problem occurs randomly or only when the pump is running. If it's random, then you suspect a short in a wire. If it's only when the pump is running, then you would look at the pump or possibly the wire leading from the switch to the pump.

Breakers are generally not expensive, so replacing the breaker is not a bad option if the procedure above does not seem to help. However, my understanding is that the breaker can be a problem but usually is not.

nitro169 · Jun 13, 2010, 06:21 PM

Similar issue happened today with me:
We had a thunderstorm followed by power outage last night, this morning I went to use the water and it slowly went dead.
I began by inspecting the pressure tank and pressure control switch, then found the outside water pump breaker was tripped, upon resetting the water was back on!
But wait, after about 1-2 minutes of use there was a small "POP" and smoke from the control switch and the breaker tripped again.
It seems now that every time the water pump kicks in I've got a 50/50 shot of the circuit breaker blowing. I'm not sure what to do now, I don't want to keep resetting my pump breaker, we really didn't get that much rain so I don't know what would be causing this issue?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Re

nitro169 · Jun 13, 2010, 06:21 PM

Similar issue happened today with me:
We had a thunderstorm followed by power outage last night, this morning I went to use the water and it slowly went dead.
I began by inspecting the pressure tank and pressure control switch, then found the outside water pump breaker was tripped, upon resetting the water was back on!
But wait, after about 1-2 minutes of use there was a small "POP" and smoke from the control switch and the breaker tripped again.
It seems now that every time the water pump kicks in I've got a 50/50 shot of the circuit breaker blowing. I'm not sure what to do now, I don't want to keep resetting my pump breaker, we really didn't get that much rain so I don't know what would be causing this issue?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!