Ice ~ Water Pump/Broken Filter Bowl

PaddyBloggit

A friend of mine has a holiday home. ESB was switched off.

He went to the house today, turned pump on, motor working but no water. When he investigated it he found that the filter bowl had cracked in two lying on the ground.

Pump switched off immediately.

I presume that the pump was pumping air rather than water?

Is this a big problem to fix and could there be other unseen damage that should be checked for?

The water within the house had been drained ... when pump will eventually (hopefully) be fixed should he be looking out for anything within the house?

Thanks

items

Not sure what you mean by filter bowel. Is it located @ pump inlet like a strainer or part of filtration @ pump outlet?

PaddyBloggit

items wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by filter bowel. Is it located @ pump inlet like a strainer or part of filtration @ pump outlet?

Just like a strainer. a clear tube come from motor into a bowl that has a stariner in it and into a tank from which the water exits via a water pipe to house

It's not a filtration unit ... there's nothing added etc.

items

PaddyBloggit wrote: »

Just like a strainer. a clear tube come from motor into a bowl that has a stariner in it and into a tank from which the water exits via a water pipe to house

It's not a filtration unit ... there's nothing added etc.

Still a bit lost sorry, to answer you first question, pumps don't pump air as in pressurize air, if pump was starved of water pump impeller will just spin until pump shuts down auto (dry run protection) or trip it's self out (pump over run).

Provided pump wasn't submersed under water or soaked, if pump is new enough it should of detected the problem and powered off, if its an old pump some electrical parts might have blown, you could have power @ pump but a capacitor or some other electrical component might have blown which prevents impeller from running. Most well kits have a pump control box with a reset button depending on pump kit, pump might still show power but wont pressurize until reset.

So many different pumps and kits, its hard to give best answer from here, would have to see pump kit, best ring a company who maintain well pumps / filters etc.

PaddyBloggit

Sorry .... I know nothing about pumps. If I has a photo twud expalin the set up.

Anyhow I'll try again.

Pipe into the ground has a motor at the top which is working. From that a clear tube goes into a glass type bowl which has a plastic filter in it. This bowl is connected to the side of a tank that looks like a mini hot press tank. It's grey in colour.

What seems to be wrong is that this glass bowl is split horizontally with the plastic tube and lower part of the glass bowl on the ground. The remainder of the bowl is still attached to the hot press tank lookalike.

Other than that there's nothing else there. When pump was switched on a little water trickled out of the part on the ground but that was it.

He called a plumber who has to call another guy he knows who knows about pumps so no answer locally yet.

items

Ok, you might be talking about a submersible pump, pipe going into ground could be well pipe, motor on top provides power to submersible pump located down in water well. Submersible pumps work different than standard single impeller pumps, you might even have two pipes going into ground, some submersible pumps wont work unless pipework is primed full with water, second pipe creates a back pressure. Maybe pump cant operate as the filter bowel you mention is broken. Replace what you can but you might need the experts on this one before pump comes on, if you've got system I'm thinking of, after loss of water / pressure, entire system has to be commissioned back into use, its something that cant be done by a DIY'er.

PaddyBloggit

Thanks items .... not a job for a DIYer ....

I'll update thread when I hear more ..

RKQ

The grey hot press tank sounds like a water storage tank to me.
The glass bowl filter - sounds like the grit filter - usually about 300mm long, 75mm diameter, the screw off lid has an in & out pipe.

If thats what you are talking about, then its about 35 - 60 euro to replace at any Well Supplier. Easy to replace, turn off pump, unsrew pipes and refit to new lid. Clear plastic bottom with plastic or card filter screws up into lid. They usually freeze at -5 if uninsulated.

This photo is similiar to the one I'm refering too.

PaddyBloggit

It's something like this:

http://www.poolandspa.com/catalog/images/de4800.jpg


but the glass bowl is attached where the black part is with the platic pipe off it. The glass bowl is more like the size of an extra large orange.

The pump seems to be in awhile ... perhaps 15 to 20 years.