Water Pumps

If your property’s water is provided by well water, then chances are your sprinkler system will have some form of pump and tank set up.  Configurations can vary such as the pump and bladder tank are enclosed in a pump house and only the main tank is outside, everything is outside and properly insulated, or you have two pumps, an irrigation pump for your sprinkler system and a pressure boosting pump for you household water.  These types of pumps are called centrifugal pumps and regardless of the configuration they can be expensive to replace. 

The number one cause of premature failure for these types of pumps is that they have “deadheaded,” meaning they have operated without water moving through the pump.  These types of pumps require water to continually move through them while in operation to stay cool.  When this doesn’t happen, the pump overheats, and the bearings fail.  It’s like running a car without any water in the radiator until the car stops moving.  When dealing with a sprinkler system that runs from a pump there are several failure scenarios that will allow the pump to run even though there is no water circulating through it and we have seen them all.  The most common scenario is that a zone valve has failed and no longer opens to allow water to circulate.  For example, the controller thinks the valve is open, so it turns on the pump, but the valve isn’t opening to let water through, and the pump eventually deadheads and dies. 

The good news is that there are pump protection circuits that can be installed to prevent this from happening.  If your sprinkler system has stopped working and you have a system designed around operating on a pump, then give us a call.  In many cases we get lucky and there is a simple electrical issue, a relay, or a controller malfunctioning.  Regardless of the problem we will quickly diagnose it and provide you with cost effective long-term solutions.