I am not an expert on well pumps, have worked on a few, both jet and submersible, grew up with a jet in the home and at 12 years old knew how to prime it. Have nearly an EE degree and experience equivalent and my expertise is troubleshooting and computer programming. The troubleshooting on this is 100%. I have not seen anyone do a video as good on that, just following the steps and thinking is great for someone to learn from, no matter what they are trouble shooting. He may not have ever read Kepner Trego Decision/Problem analysis, the best book on this but he follows the steps - did not cost the customer failed "fixes", did not jump to cause that causes failed fixes, and probably took less than 15 minutes longer total to get a good result. Any failed fix would have cost much more. The meter replacement when he questioned measurement is a GREAT step. Proceeding with bad information is heading to a failed fix. The only bad decision in this was using the old wire to pull in but quite frankly, I would have either done a resistance check of that or done what he did - probably done what he did. The resistance check would have told me the wire was shorted but I still may have tried to use it as a pull. I was vacillating on that when I was watching. I have nothing but respect for his work. If I needed his services he would be on the top of the list for being called.

Hi. The way you teach makes things easy. Thank you very much.

That breaker box is scary. Edited; after seeing the rest of the place, wow, just wow.

Excellent diagnostic troubleshooting. There will always be armchair generals who doubt what you say, but you solved the problem and got the water going. Now, whoever was running those electrical lines, they need talking to.

EXCELLENT critical thinking and problem solving. I tend to agree on the lightening strike theory. I mean what are the odds of having not only one but TWO bad spots in a wire. Well done.

I noticed that at the very end of your video analyzing the problemthat a pop-up blurb "Or was it [lightning bolt symbol]" appeared. A lightning strike is what I was anxious to suggest, but you beat me too it! Very unusual to have two burnt spots 30 feet apart on the same wire and circuit. Fine videos, great work ethic, nimble mind at work - more fun than watching sporting events on TV. Thank you.

Measure resistance to ground and between the wires. That will tell you if you have a short.

I agree with a lightning strike since there is a big lightning attractor just behind the well that is 75 feet high. Great video, you divided and conquered the problem.

That's excellent troubleshooting. I don't envy professionals like yourself, who have to work on disasters like this. There are dozens of electrical code violations at that house, and you somehow need to get the guy water without having to tear down the whole house and redo everything. A pro electrician would not be allowed to overlook some of the egregious errors like poor routing, no fittings for wires going into the panel, loose coils of live Romex dangling where animals move, and inadequate wire protection until it gets to the 18" deep level. An electrical inspector might condemn the whole house. Great decision to redig a new path. He needs at least 18" with overlying pressure treated wood, or more if vehicles drive over the run.

Good job! I am not a electrician, I just wondered if you could have just done a continuity test to find broken wires..

good diagnostics, I agree on the lightning strike as the cause, and the metal pipe was "ground" in several spots, lightning always goes to ground and that opened the insulation allowing the direct shorts you found and that makes sense to me......again, you do a great job explaining things.

I can't believe you don't have more subscribers. These are the very best well pump videos on KZfaq, in my opinion. I just signed up!

Yeah buddy, it was most likely a lightning strike especially if the conduit was copper. For two imperfections in one spool of wire is pretty rare not saying it can't happen, most of the times when you have a nicked wire it will be in the well from not having a torque arrest and it's usually within the first 15 to 20 ft. In this case I think your spot on it could have been some slag in the pipe or most likely lightning. But like you said there's no way of knowing unless you thoroughly check everything. And besides the point you would not just fix what you see at your own house you would go through the whole system because you have to sleep there. Just good quality craftsmanship and professionalism. Great video! 🍻

Good job. The only thing I was waiting for was an early ohm reading on the wires both switch to panel and switch to well area with the ends disconnected of course. This would have ascertained the short was in the underground wire early in the video.

Before anyone jumps on it the wire he used is rated for direct burial/sun light resistant, you can tell by its dark gray insulation color.

The way you explained the troubleshooting in this video was terrific. I feel like this pretty much covers most electrical troubleshooting. I have learned so much about my well on a property I purchased.

Im sure that 30amp breaker didn't help. 12/2 shouldn't be on a 30 but on a 20amp

Me and my wife were at a remote cabin and the well pump died on us first day of a seven day stay. Your videos taught me enough to get the pump back up an running and helped us out tons!

Great video and real world experience! I agree with you 100% I think when the wire was originally pulled it must have got nicked and between corrosion, water, and age it started to slowly Arc until it got out of hand. Thanks for taking the time to video it. And you're one Brave man to go down in that basement alone with that dog LOL

Thanks for the video. Just bought a small ranch property and the well system is 20 years old I had the local guy do the inspection and give us info on what it needs and I’m going to DIY the updating. Your videos have shined some light on things for me. 🤘🏼

Make that 1501 who is dedicated , I am watching one video after another and i don't do that to often , and learning alot I might say !!

Thanks! Just invested in property that has well. No one has lived in twenty years. The home is on 111 acres and the well is on top of the highest hill next to home. I watched about twenty of your incredibly informative clips and did the pebble test drop . After 4 seconds heard a bump hitting something , then kaplunk of hitting water. About 5 or six seconds. No power turned on at house yet so waiting on getting a professional involved. I sure wish you lived near. Thank you for being so thorough in your videos I’m learning a lot and enjoying seeing how hard you work. “ it’s fun to watch folks work hard!” :) hope you make your 100k subscribers … I’m amazed you do this video work most always by yourself. Prayers for your safety and success. Peter

I love it! This is pretty EPIC. My wiring looks like that going all the way down to the pump. Only 3 years old. Looks like a scene from a horror movie. I was told a surge or lightening caused it.

Do you ever use a megger to test each winding to ground, each supply wire to ground, and to each other?

as a mechanic of 50 years working on trucks i have seen the same problem in d c circuits my way is to always shroud or put the wire in conduit and if ever most likely not you could pull a new circuit through a conduit thank you and you have had a fantastic teacher as i have had my father james fauth thank you i enjoy watching your videos

Excellent job as usual. I'man old electrician and am very impressed how you diagnosed this, have a steak and a beer on me. Check's in the mail.

I have learned so much from you in such a short period of time. I sure wish you were located in South Carolina. I feel like the well company here local to me lied to me not once but twice. They took my money and I still had to call another plumber back to finish the job.

Thanks for your videos they are so enlightening. I have been binge watching for the past week.

The fault detection method used I called "Bob the tail" , keep shortening the "tail" from load to breaker. I also used a method I called "½ & ½" , when you have multiple loads go to the one in the middle and break the circuit, test, if still bad go to the middle of what's left and repeat. If 1st test is good, reconnect half of the untested half, if still good, repeat. I've done this with pole lamps around a complex and it saved me a lot of digging with the "Bob the tail" method.

Good logical trouble shooting and explanation.

My opinion you have sound trouble shooting skills. Just a guess on the wire fault an indirect lightning. would have not used that conduit either. You do good work sir.

As an old electrical contractor, one of two things, lighting by asking the customer if they had one and well stopped after, if not that wire got nicked and took water this long for it to find it.. It's a nice fix. , not in going back in the pipe...

Another great video. Love your content and the fact that you use the "KISS" logic on everything you do. Becoming one of my favorite channels.

It's possible that when the wire was on the reel, it was damaged some way, which is why it is damaged in relatively close proximity, then it was pulled through the underground pipe without the damaged being noticed. I assume there can be no movement of the wire in the pipe. If there was intermittent water infiltration into the metal pipe, then the power could have been shorting out in those areas, and since it IS a metal pipe. The water would leave the pipe, but over time as the scenario repeated itself, the wire became more and more compromised, then finally went to a dead short to ground. Where I am it is mandated that only schedule 80 PVC pipe can be used to run underground wiring through. The same type of pipe is used to carry the water. You use excellent procedures in your videos. They are most informative and helpful.

They probably Chaffed the insulation off that wire by pulling it through the Galvanized pipe from day one it was only a matter of time before it failed completely (which shouldn't have been done). UF wire AKA Underground feeder wire is direct burial. That house is a wiring nightmare home owner electrician special. Great job diagnosing.

In the situation as in this video you should isolate the well pump feed at the tank pressure switch- if the breaker trips again u will know which part of the circuit is shorted - another thing you can do without tripping the breaker which is dangerous - you will know that when one of those breakers blows up in your hand - I am a retired master electrician and have seen all kinds of electrical accidents ... so since the breaker is open you can go to the tank pressure switch and take your meter - set it to ohms and test the wires to see if they are shorted together - when you test the pump you should get an ohm reading through the pump - since you only work with a couple of sizes of pumps you can easily find the ohm reading for the pumps ... if you have a hard fault you should be able to find it without testing by tripping a breaker .. since that breaker has already been closed into a hard fault probably 10 times it should be changed out...

The reasons the contact was closing into the fault - so that's why the breaker should changed also

Love this! Working on my well today!

yes, it was a lightning strike. probably to that tower. i bet there is a pipe from the well to the tower pump.

Excellent video! We have well water so I'm subscribing to your channel.

Great job of diagnosis & fixing the two problems! 🤩🤩

Great video, It's great that you find the problem and not just patch it for the next guy, which in your case would be you most likely. the problem might have been the wire got scraped thin while being pulled through that water pipe (not conduit). have a great day

Excellent explanation and details on video. Job well done. 👏🏻

Great job!!

That was very good! Great job!

Love your vides, so informative! Thanks for uploading them, it sure helps a layman like me to understand thing a little better.

Good process of elimination. Always enjoy your videos.

great job as a lic plumber i love well work and good people how know what there doing !!! hello from leak master plumbing in ct

Good work !

This was a great tutorial to folks that say "WHY" , why did it just quite now just while I was working around the electrical panel , or the yard ... The inside of the pip may have a joiner in it that was THE CLOSE ground to short with water / lightning . Keep up the good videos and have a safe time working !

awesome..I'm trying to learn so I can't get ripped off. Pump runs constantly if power is on, when I noticed I flipped the breaker. It's just for sprinklers thank goodness but my grass is dying.

Great video Thank you!!

I would guess that the wire was damaged even at initial installation, over time the conductors began to arc to ground, which will build heat and lead to failure. Electricity does not like to jump, when this happens it's much like welding, and obviously it doesn't take long for the circuit to fail. Your diagnostics planning was spot on, by isolating each circuit you can find the problem fairly quickly. Nice work.

Great video my man

Great attitude and spirit. I subscribed thanks from Sc

Awesome video thank you

Why don‘t you run conduit from the house to the well and place your cable inside the conduit? If case of maintainance it‘s easy to pull and replace.

An interesting case....Cheers!

I'd put odds on a lightning strike too. The tower is a big ole lightening rod.

Much love Phil.

Have seen this twice, one was lighting the other power surge was caused by the power company working close by which , it also fried the pumps on both occasions.

You deserved 1M subscribers.

good work

Thanks!

Excellent reason to run your wire thru a oversized conduit and never leave exterior wiring exposed anywhere animals can't tell you how many times the failed could have been avoided

Nice troubleshooting bro

I use a old credit card cut down to go in between the switch points to open the circuit then test with ohm meter.

My money is on the copper tubing wearing through the UF wire. Everyone knows you should deburr the inside of copper tubing when you cut it with a tubing cutter to prevent turbulence. But I guess it's even more important when you use the copper tubing as conduit! Lol. Also, you could have avoided crawling under the house in the dogspace if you had disconnected at the switch and re tested. Break the circuit up into smaller pieces to test and narrow down the problem.👍

Thanks good info

WHOA! 😳😳😳 Did they have a lightening strike that charged the pipe and fried the wire!??? If so, it just goes to show how you should have plastic conduit!

Wow good job

Do you think that wire could've been compromised on installation sliding it through the steel pipe a thought thank you again for a great video

When a new pressure switch is installed, how is the air remaining in that 4" 1/2: pipe purged out or don't you concern yourself with it. Remember, air can be compressed but water can not be compressed. I would think presence of air against the switch diaphragm would affect start and stop pressure.

Maybe pulling it through the pipe when new gouged out a few spots? Maybe also used wire was used.

after you disconnected the wiring at the pump and still had a short, the next logical step would have been to disconnect the wiring leaving the pressure switch that ran to the pump. other than than that, a good job diagnosing the problem. Thanks!

I've fixed a wire hit by lightning that was in the ground and it looked just like that wire. Any way you found the problem and got the job done. Also good info on checking the pressure on the tank. Thanks

More than likely when the cable was pulled in it was chafed against the pipe and got skinned exposing the cu conductors. Plumbing pipes are not reamed as well as electrical pipe.

I used long q tips to clean it because I knew that a screw driver may damage the bladder inside the where it goes to the switch , but turned out switch was no good any ways . So bought a switch from you . I had to buy that cheap square D one for now but will get the new one and put it on

I bet you come back 2 years from now and that wire still hasn’t been buried

They need to have breaker box changed out. You initially said the grey UF at well went to house and as i’m typing to tell you that’s wrong you then explained wire routing correctly while at pressure switch.

I want to check the air pressure in the tank for my well. Does the tank have to be drained? I read an article that said the pressure should be 2 psi below the cut-in pressure, but it didn’t say if the tank should be empty or not.

I guess I have hard water,just changed out pressure switch,fire ants got between the contacts and pitted them.Changed the nipple on switch from galvanized to brass.The galvanized was totally eat up .

when you started, was the initial problem is guage read0 and not coming on at all?

Hi I have power to pressure switch but not going out to well pump ...also switch contacts are open not closed! Does this mean my switch is no good or a wire could have come undone at top of well or it points to well wires or pump correct? Also I have a 30 50 pressure switch I'd need a diiferent tank to handle a 40 60 pressure switch??? & would a 40-60 give me more water pressure in our fauctets??? thanx in advance!!!

You aren’t supposed to put Romex wire in conduit. It will over heat. You should run separate wires in conduit. Or you can use direct burial cable in the ground.

Only a few question if lightening why was the pump not taken out ? I'd rather believe mice chewed on the wires and yes 1 man sucks on site but a snake thru the pipe and pulled a new wire been my choice. New switch for certain and why all the wire twisting needed ?

I think the windmill still standing, would be a good draw for lightning surges. Perhaps the old pipe from the windmill is still in the ground, I could not see you in your video if it is, that could be the problem.

Regular Romex in a metal pipe will rot the copper. Has to be a buriable wire with better insulation.

If the contacts burned out one leg and power through pump, back through ground wire then, 1 side ac through metal pipe becomes cal-rod. just like element on electric stove, that is where the heat to melt insulation and the wire inside pipe.

you da man

Great channel. I have a 30/50 switch and when I operate it, it will come on just fine. My bladder was a little low so I added pressure to it. I have a 1500 gallon tank which is empty. I don’t know if my well is going dry or if I have another problem. My well is about 350 feet and the water line is at around 180 feet. Do you have any suggestions?

Awesome videos. Do you have a video on pump troubleshooting? My breaker is tripping after 15 secs. No movement on the pump. It just humms. We had a freeze and the pump may have burned up trying to pull water from a frozen line. Thoughts?

another common thing. someone damaged the wire in install. see it allot with Cat and coaxial cable. over pulling the cable and or pulling it against a sharp edge of the pipe. or not de burring the pipe and connections and a sharp piece cuts it. allowing water to do its thing and for it to ark.

What pump would you recommend for 360 feet deep and 15 gpm . I am going to install according to your instructional videos !

Ohm setting on that meter ?

Wire dieing like that ussually means it pulled too much amperage for some reason, or roddent chewing... or like you said, sharp edge marked the sheething in just a small knick, and over the years, it slowly would corrode until it got to oxygen and started oxydizing and corrading with water (and snow there?), and would eventually fry up like that causing more and more heat until the pixies let the magic smoke out. again, why I would run (easiest for underground to home with a waterproof junction on the side of the foundation as it enters the house) grey PVC sch80 conduit. Direct burry is sooooo bad and when you have wild animals that dig and pets that dig, going a few inches under is nothing..... lol.... just going to happen in a few years again! :) If i was to ever use direct burry, i'd put atleast 12-18" under... and if I go that deep, why not just spend a coupld bucks and get conduit and put in the hole :) LOL. If your yard is big enough, you could even setup an RV socket next to it with running big enough conduit to run the wires, and then a RV water hook up too! I guess if you have septic, you could run a line from there to, to your septic inlet side. Kinda figure if you have a well, you likely dont have city water either.... But I was born and raised in the city life in Phoenix, so hot desert life here. So the idea of a septic and well and all this is mind blowing that people have to deal with and pay this kind of money just for simple water service.... Spoiled with a line going to the street and a meter.... and the city/private water co. run a few redundancies, that if something does happen, and they need to shut off water to break, 99.9% of the time, they can issolate that one section and have redundent pipes running other ways to keep service on to almost everyone.... The only time This isnt like this is with Natural Gas hookups. 2 of my houses were Gas and current one i built in 2019 have gas.... absolutely LOVE IT!!! Prefer over electric anyday!!! Electric stove/oven/dryer/waterheater/heat pump all suck and use a massivve ammount of electrical power and cost where gas is PENNIES to run even longer and more! electric bill in full elecvtric house was nearly 700 in summer months and 200 in winter months.... house with gas, is 400 in summer and 50 in winter with a 36 gas bill..... You do some awesome work and leaving the customer plenty of extra to play with is awesome of ya.

Check your battery if it gets low it will give you bad readings.

240v system right?

caused from using plumbing for conduit.

I have a 9013fsg2 switch and that's what I can read on the label. Just moved in and wanted to check pressure on the tank and don't know what to set it at.