One day my water filter started to leak. Strange i thought, but i tightened it, and gave the problem very little attention. Half an hour later the filter was cracked and my cellar floor full with water.
After inspecting the filter I started to suspect that it had burst from over pressure. The pump had been running all the time and it still was. Checking the gauger on the holding tank reviled that i had almost 10 Bar in my tank.
Now there was something very wrong with this. I emergency repaired the filter and connected the water hoses together again. I used the ordinary garden tap to lower the pressure and then manually switched on and off the power to my pump. No matter the pressure, the pump was engaged.
Now I was suspecting the pressure switch. And there I found the problem. The switch was stuck in the on position, no matter the pressure.
The pressure switch I have is shown above. It is pretty new and if I remember right it was one of the better when I bought it. The idea of repairing emerged.
As you can see it is very easy to unscrew the switch from the pipe. Just don’t forget to switch off the water from the holding tank and the rest of the house.
I took the plastic cover off and unscrew the switch from the pipe. As you can see there is a rubber gasket keeping the water from the mechanics/electronics. Immediately when I unscrew the switch I could see that debris had build up inside the passages inside the switch.
I unscrew the small screws holding the “wet” side in place and found that everything else looked nice and clean. Almost as new.
The part that came off looked like this. Please note the two metal parts. They are not fastened in any way and will probably fall out when you disconnect the two pieces of the switch. Any way this is how they are placed inside the switch.
Now take good care of the two metal parts, you will need them when you reassemble the switch again. Peel of the rubber gasket and voila, that is where all the dirt is hiding. In my switch I had more than 5 millimeters of chalk and debris. And it is smelly!
This is how it should look. No smelly, sticky stuff. And free passage for the water. My gasket was in very good shape, so I did not change it. If your gasket is showing wear and/or cracks, this is a very good time to change it into a new one to prevent future disasters.
And thats it! Now you can reverse the disassemble and assemble it all again. Use new sealing tape and give things an extra thought before mounting everything. Remember to be careful and exact.
And also remember that you just saved yourself one hundred bucks.
