No water after freezing

[leetamus]

Hi!

I'm worried my pump may have burned out and wonder how I would troubleshoot that?

The Scenario:
My well is around 130' deep, submersible pump. It feeds directly to a cistern which is fed back to the house and is controlled by a float in the cistern. We had a super cold spell this week and I noticed the cisterns were not filling up. The line connecting the well to the cistern is easy to check and seemed to be empty so I assume the well head was frozen. I could also hear the pump running even through no water. I turned off the pump at the breaker and set up a light at the well head to help keep it warm. As of last night the temperature has come back up a few degrees above freezing.

This morning I turned the pump back on and I can again hear it running, but no water... The pump was replaced last year and I REALLY hope it's not fried from running while the lines were frozen, not sure how long that was happening... I am blown away there's no safetey mechanism to kill the pump if the lines are blocked.. maybe there is.. Any suggestions on steps to try to get this thing working? Is my pump damaged?

Pump Details:

11-FRANKLIN SUBMERSIBLE MOTOR 0.5HP
115V 3W 1PH (214 5049 004-S)

10-0.5HP 10GPM FRANKLIN PUMP END ONLY
J CLASS SERIES (96341000)

02-FRANKLIN 2.0HP MAX, 115/230V, 16AMP
MAX, INLINE JET PUMP CONTROL

EDIT: Wanted to add that when the well pump is running there is also a trickle of water coming out of some sort of overflow/pressure pipe at the top of the well. Yesterday when I tried the pump it was just a drop occasionally, today it's more of a very light stream.

 

[Valveman]

The pressure relief at the well head if popping off because the pipe to the house is still frozen. The pressure relief valve can also freeze. Check the amps of the submersible. Anything less than about 10 amps means the line is still frozen and the pump cannot make any water. A Cycle Sensor looks for low amps and shuts the well off, which can happen when pumping a well dry or if the lines are frozen.

There are lots of safety mechanisms like the Cycle Sensor and the Cycle Stop Valve to make pumps last longer. But you are not going to find out about those from the pump manufacturers as they don't like pumps to last longer.

 

[leetamus]

The pressure relief at the well head if popping off because the pipe to the house is still frozen. The pressure relief valve can also freeze. Check the amps of the submersible. Anything less than about 10 amps means the line is still frozen and the pump cannot make any water. A Cycle Sensor looks for low amps and shuts the well off, which can happen when pumping a well dry or if the lines are frozen.

There are lots of safety mechanisms like the Cycle Sensor and the Cycle Stop Valve to make pumps last longer. But you are not going to find out about those from the pump manufacturers as they don't like pumps to last longer.

Thanks for this! I went out this morning and started the pump and bam it started filling the cisterns again, hurrah! I do have something called a Pumptek load protector which kills the pump if the water runs low, perhaps it also kills the pump if the lines are blocked.. I'll need to read up for piece of mind. Thanks for your input!

 

[Valveman]

Maybe? But the amps are not quite as low when the line is blocked as they are when the well runs dry. A pressure relief valve installed prior to any line that could freeze works best. But if the pressure relief can freeze it is not protecting the pump from a blocked line. A Cycle Sensor is more adjustable than any other similar device on the market and can shut the pump off when the line is blocked.