I have a submersible well pump and my circuit breaker keeps tripping. We have tested the wires at the top of the well along with the circuit breaker, we have replaced the pressure switch and it seems that the breaker continues to trip, not constantly but enough to tell us something is wrong. What could my problem be and who do I call now a plummer, electrician (again) or a well expert? :eek:

I just had a issue like you. Review the Inground Well post a little ways down. Anyway I had to call a plumber, and they replaced the electric wire from the pressure switch to the well head. There must have been a direct short somewhere in the electric wire on mine. Review the help I got below, and you may find other ideas.

KL, disconnect the wire running from the switch to the pump, then turn the breaker back on. If it throws, you know the problem is between the breaker and the switch. If it doesn't, then the problem is "after" the switch.

BTW, how old is this well and wiring?

jlisenbe & newwork_Admin, thanks for your reply... but here is where we stand now since the plummer came this evening. He put in a new holding tank, t-valve and valves hooked up a new pressure switch 40/60. At first the breaker start tripping almost instantly but then he did some tweaking to pressure switch and it stopped tripping our issue now is the pressure goes up to 60 then down to 40 then it may go up to 50 start falling then all the sudden it falls fast down to 0 then after a bit it goes back up to 50-60ish. Do you have an ideas what could be happening now. We had a tremendous amount of rain this past weekend and it seems to have all started now long after that. The plummer did pull the cap of the well and said he here the pump pumping but then it gets to a point that it appears it sucking for water... he mentioned that he may need to come back tomorrow and lower the pump does this sound right to you? By the way the well and wiring are 15 years old. The original well was put in 1961 and we had a new one placed in late 1995.

KL, try this. Let the system pump up to 60 and cutoff. Does it hold that pressure, or does pressure bleed down even though no water is being used?

Also, it sounds a little strange that the switch seemed to be the source of the breaker throwing, but I suppose it's possible, especially since it did seem to fix the problem.

Sounds like a bad check valve to me. Suspect the well is less than 100' and probably has only one check valve -- perhaps in the pump itself. The drop in pressure is the water running back after the pump stops. The breaker problem is the pump starting while it has water flowing back through it. The dynamic pressure may be sufficient to stall the pump. Fixing the pressure switch just dropped the start pressure to the point where the pump did not stall. The plumber will probably sell you a new pump since this seems to be the direction he's heading. Most check valves in pumps can be repaired - or you could just put a $25 check valve somewhere above the pump. It doesn't have to be at the pump.

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Originally Posted by klf326

The plummer did pull the cap of the well and said he here the pump pumping but then it gets to a point that it appears it sucking for water....he mentioned that he may need to come back tomorrow and lower the pump does this sound right to you? .

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Lowering the pump may help, all depends on your well. IF the plumber heard the well run dry, this would explain the tripping of breaker. If well runs dry, pump overheats and draws over amperage causing breaker to trip. Your plumber will need to gauge the well to see if it is a good idea to lower the pump(dont want pump to close to bottom of well, usually between 5 and seven feet is max). If indeed well is running dry, I hope you have room to lower the pump, if not, look forward to some spendy upgrades(well cleaning, or worst case, complete new well.

My case is: When I turn on the wall switch for the submersible pump, the main circuit breaker trips after 2 to 10 seconds. Sometimes the pump can run for a minute before tripping. When it trips it cannot be reset instantly. I tried to connect the pump to a cooker circuit and tripped as well. So this implies the problem starts to the Plug running down to the pump controller system (where there's big capacitor) and further down to the pump itself. I am working hard to find out the exact problem and will come back later with the answer.

Are you using buried cable to get to the pump?

My problem is that my water will turn off ill go to the well and flip the switch it works for an hour or so then trips off and I've got no water again I've had to flip my switch 3 times today and its only noon. Any thoughts?

My cables are all buried it's a shallow well maybe 25 feet deep then the water runs about 500 feet flatground to the pressure tank. I don't know if I should just replace the switch or what

"flip the switch". Do you mean the little lever on the side of the switch? When you have to pull that lever, if that's what it is, what pressure does the gauge read at that time?