Reading 310 volts on a 120 240 volt residential system

qcroanoke said:
I leave plumbing to those who know how.
My cousin is a master plumber. I call him with plumbing he calls me with electric. Easy peezy!
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That's sort of the issue that gets me involved. ECs do their thing, plumbers the other, but you really have to work both. What I find mostly is "pump guys" that sort of understand both, but largely lacking in electrical. Check valve on top of pump end, pitless adapter, pipe issues down hole, etc. Most common is pressure tank issues that certainly cause bad pump behavior, leading to pump failure, then never properly addressed.

Kinda have to know the full system to get them fixed up right. Generally if I end up on scene, it's 'after others', so that makes it worse, but my mission is always to first make the call if the pump has to come out or not. The cause is not always as urgent as making the pump pull plan. Usually I have suspects in minutes like "pump/motor coupler is likely blown". I guess I know what I'm looking for.
 
ActionDave said:
A domestic single phase pump can be two or three wire + EGC out to the pump. Some use a starting cap up at the well house (3 wire), others put everything in the pump.
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No, 'some' don't have a cap at all in the pump motor. I have my own preferences but I've seen plenty of 2 wires live a long life. their issue is nasty inrush currents.
 
I do a fair amount of work with residential well pumps. Around here almost all systems will have a separate pressure pump and well pump.

Mostly 3/4 and 1 hp single phase well pumps, with a start cap in the control box. Yellow wire in the riser cable is for the start cap.

I always have a low water shutdown wired in series with the pump, and the well
pump is activated by a float switch in the tank.

I discourage direct well pump to pressure tank setups. Even here on the rainy north coast of California, we will go 6 months with no rain, so water storage tanks are a necessity. And it’s far easier to replace a pressure pump in a well house than pull 200’ of pipe, riser cable, and pump, when it wears out.
 
ptonsparky said:
That’s where a planned VD can be helpful in making for a softer start. I never had to be involved with that, but the Franklin AIM manual has lots of good info.
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You have to be careful as you can blow the triac start circuit if the starting elements are in too long. I do need to play with some PTC tech to see if I can dial some 2 wires back. I can't go too far into a few things because I am actually 'very' deep in pump tech and working on some solutions to ongoing issues in the field.
 
fastline said:
No, 'some' don't have a cap at all in the pump motor. I have my own preferences but I've seen plenty of 2 wires live a long life. their issue is nasty inrush currents.
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They do have two wires + EGC run to them so in terms of how many wires go out to the pump it's the same as if it had a cap in the pump, ergo, everything is in the pump.
 
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