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Friday, May 9, 2014

So Much for Being Ready

Spoke too soon. We found a hole in our preparedness. An obvious one at that. What happens when the pressure pump for the house water stops working?

Well it just stopped with no explanation. At first I thought someone had kicked out the extension cord to the generator. But no, it was fine. Pressed the Reset Button on the pump. No change and no lights on the control panel. Checked that power was available - fine.

Disconnected the pump from the system and brought it into the workshop and took off the cover to the electronic controller. The lovely scent of burnt plastic was the first observation. A close examination of the circuit board showed one of the capacitors had a swollen molten side.

The call to the retailer uncovered a couple of relevant pieces of information. Most electronic controllers don't like power fluctuations especially those that come from generators. But they just happen to have a spare new style controller that is designed to cope with brown power. And if I was to make the 1 hour journey they could fit and test same immediately. And so it transpired.

I also took with me the current pumps predecessor for evaluation. It works but not well and possibly with some maintenance it may be suitable as a backup in an emergency. Never a truer  statement:

"Two is one. One is none".

 The repair work went quickly and leaving the proposed backup for their service team to evaluate I took the repaired system home. Total cost $220. Amazingly inexpensive. I was expecting more.

On the way home a quick stop at Bunnings to collect a Surge protection plug to use on the pump - just in case as added protection. And a surge protection power board to use in the house when connecting any other devices to the generator in future.

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