A bit of history; 20 years ago my submersible pump had been abused so much by running dry and pumping heavily silted water that I bought a replacement expecting imminent failure. My first submersible, a Jacussi, had barely lasted 2 weeks.
Fast forward 20 years, the pump is still working but I am replacing the spring water box it sits in for the 3rd time; Stainless steel this time which I hope won't rust thru or rot thru have the termites feast on. I decide to install the new old stock submersible while i'm upgrading the rusty iron pipe fittings with brass.
First problem; the new pump is apparently 110 vac instead of 220 which I have been using. Fortunately I had a circuit breaker that tripped within seconds to alert me to the difference. Someone (me or Sears) made a mistake 20 years ago. I rewired the AC supply to 110 volts and tried again.
The pump doesn't work, not sufficient pressure out to get up to the house (80 ft higher and 400 ft as the pipe goes). A clamp-on meter showed 11 amps for a minute or so gradually dropping off to 8 amps, which I thought was the initial surge of the pump pumping into the empty pipe followed by settling down to normal flow. Not so, when I dumped the pipe at the pump it seemed like only a few gallons atlow pressure. I had been running the pump into an open pipe to flush out dirt and also because the pressure switch was not controlling the pump and would not shut it down at high pressure. If it were working properly the oipen ended pipe should have had 80 ft head (40 psi).
It's difficult to trouble shoot because of the diatances between the pump, the breaker box, and the outlet in the back yard. It's also difficult (not impossible) to test the pump 'on the bench'.
Possibilities I'm thinking about;
- Maybe the brief 220 vac damaged the 110 vac motor,not likely since my clamp-on shows reasonable current
- Maybe I put the check valves in backward, not likely since there is some flow and the pipe holds some pressure
- Airlock since the pump is almost horizontal, unlikely since the old pump never had the problem.
- Excess voltage drop in the supply wiring, maybe because 110 takes twice the current and has 4 times the loss as 220. But I operate motors over longer distances on the farm with no problem and a submersible is inherently soft start since it starts against zero pressure. This is obviously a loss of more than half the pressure & flow.
Any ideas ?