# Is my Well pressure switch wired right?



## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

Hi, Today I decided to clean out the tube that the Well pressure switch is connected to ( Completely clogged not sure how it was working ) and I cleaned up the switch.
I have a Sta - Rite SK 2 switch which I adjusted to be a 40/60. I also have a 1/2 HP 230 Volt well pump.

Now I have had no problems but my wiring does not seem to be like anything I have seen on the net.

The first pic is of my cover
2nd is my switch
3 and 4 are samples off the Net.
Mine is wired 2 out side posts to a 2 pole 20 amp breaker and the middle wires go to my Pump.
I did attach wires better when I put it back together.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

Your switch is wired with the opposite colors going to the pump leads. If it pumps, all is ok. If you pull the pump in the future, reverse both ends of the wires and your colors would match the other photos.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Yes. Probably. 
The only thing different between the diagram on your cover, and your actual wiring is that the inside pair is reversed, but, since it’s 220 AC, the pump the doesn’t know.


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

It looks correct to me, but it's hard to be exact, as I have no way of knowing which of the NM cables is the motor lead.
The motor lead should land on the middle pair, L1 black on the left side, L2 white on the right. But I agree with the fella above.....if it works....let it be


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

And if it works now, don't change anything when you work on the well.


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## AmericanStand (Jul 29, 2014)

What prompted you to clean that little tube ?
Your PM schedule is way better than mine.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

American Stand, I decided to clean out all of my fixture screens, I then I remembered that sometimes the tube for the switch gets clogged so i decided to check, And it was packed right full I have no idea how the switch was still working. I did notice about a 5 PSI increase on the gague after the cleaning.

Okay so mine is right? I could switch the two power wires ( White and black from breaker box ) with each other and also switch the two motor wires ( White and Black center wires ) with each other and it would be fine?

Why do the pictures I took from the net have black with black and white with white? It appears they dont have the motor hooked to both center screws which the label says they are for the motor.

I am trying to learn and I thank you guys for the help


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

For the future.....I always take a pic before I disconnect anything.


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## AmericanStand (Jul 29, 2014)

Wow Joe you are on it !
Wish I could help you with the wire thing but I gotta go with the others and see if it’s not broke don’t fix it


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

aart said:


> I always take a pic before I disconnect anything.


That makes you smarter than about 99% of the population.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

aart said:


> For the future.....I always take a pic before I disconnect anything.


How do you think I got the 2nd picture? This was before I touched it and hooked up the wires better.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

Your picture doesn't look right to me. Your pressure switch is two separate switches, one for each live wire from the breaker to the pump. You should have two black wires on one side and two white wires on the other. Also the wires need to wrap around the screw in a clockwise direction and fit snugly to screw shank.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

These pictures were before I touched it, they are now hooked up better but in the same location, I was told that I can swap wires 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 and the colors would line up but it is not needed.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

Joe.G said:


> These pictures were before I touched it, they are now hooked up better but in the same location, I was told that I can swap wires 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 and the colors would line up but it is not needed.


It's your pump. If it works great, if it's running on 120 instead of 240..... ?
You've got two 120 lines coming into the switch. 120 to ground, 240 to each other. One pushing one pulling. Hooked up properly you get 240 to your pump. Improperly you may only be getting 120 to the pump. With two white on one side (terminals 1-2) and two black on other side (terminals 3-4) you are sure to get 240 to pump.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

Yvonne's Hubby, I am not arguing with you because I don't honestly know but you are the only one to say it is wired wrong. I asked here also.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443230

Can you tell me what you are suggesting would get me 240 since only 2 of the wires there are hot and the other 2 are feeding the pump. The way it is now I should be getting 240 since the breaker it is hooked to is.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Yvonne's hubby said:


> It's your pump. If it works great, if it's running on 120 instead of 240..... ?
> You've got two 120 lines coming into the switch. 120 to ground, 240 to each other. One pushing one pulling. Hooked up properly you get 240 to your pump. Improperly you may only be getting 120 to the pump. With two white on one side (terminals 1-2) and two black on other side (terminals 3-4) you are sure to get 240 to pump.


No. You’re not. You don’t know what you’re talking about.


@Joe.G , don’t listen to him. He’s never been bashful to talk about things he doesn’t understand.

If we assume everything is wired right on the pump side, and on the breaker side of that switch, the colors of the wires don’t matter. All that matters is what side they’re fed into the switch from- and yours are right.


Your breaker box has four unique connections in it. One ground, one neutral, and two separate 110v connections.

In a conventional 110v outlet, the cable coming in has three conductors: hot, neutral, and ground. Measure between the hot and neutral, and you have 110v AC. The hot wire goes to one of the two hot busses feeding your breaker box (either one, doesn’t matter). The neutral goes to your neutral bus, and ground goes to ground.

For a 220v appliance, like your well pump, you don’t have a neutral; you have two hots. Those two hots connect to one each of the two 110v busses at your box. Those two separate 110v connections are reverse-phase of each other, so, when you measure across them (instead of measuring across one hot and neutral) you get 220v.

That’s why you see three wires going into each side of your switch. The bare wire from each side are tied together- back to ground.

The cable coming in from the breaker side has a white and a black wire, each is connected to one of the 110v busses at your box.

The cable going out to the pump has a white and a black wire, each is connected to one pole on your motor.

So, no matter that the installer didn’t choose to match up the colors, your pump motor is getting 220v AC, and doesn’t care which side of the breaker box each half of its alternating current is coming from.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

Joe.G said:


> Yvonne's Hubby, I am not arguing with you because I don't honestly know but you are the only one to say it is wired wrong. I asked here also.
> https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443230
> 
> Can you tell me what you are suggesting would get me 240 since only 2 of the wires there are hot and the other 2 are feeding the pump. The way it is now I should be getting 240 since the breaker it is hooked to is.


@GunMonkeyIntl is correct. 

@Yvonne's hubby is incorrect on this matter. 

Your pump is wired correctly and is running on 220vac.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

g monkey is correct.
If you took a picture and wired it exactly , and the pump worked before, you have it correct.
reaming a pipe/tube and tightening wires doesn't change a thing.
furthermore, if it is a 220 motor, it won't run on 110,
or if it even did, it would not run strong enough to pump water.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

[email protected] said:


> ...furthermore, if it is a 220 motor, it won't run on 110,
> or if it even did, it would not run strong enough to pump water.


And let’s not mention that there is no way, with that conductor arrangement, to have one wire on each of those lugs, and end up with 110v being fed to the well pump.

There are a bunch of combinations that the insulated wires could be attached there, one per lug. Half of them result in 220v to the pump, and the other half result in a short that trips the main breaker. None get you 110v.

Wouldn’t want to disabuse @Yvonne's hubby of the things he thinks he knows. It’s no small irony that he thinks it’s the color of the insulation that determines the character of the current.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

That is one subtle burn



GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Wouldn’t want to disabuse @Yvonne's hubby of the things he thinks he knows. It’s no small irony that he thinks it’s the color of the insulation that determines the character of the current.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

HDRider said:


> That is one subtle burn


Was it subtle?


My bad.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Was it subtle?
> 
> 
> My bad.


Only slightly more so than your tag line


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> And let’s not mention that there is no way, with that conductor arrangement, to have one wire on each of those lugs, and end up with 110v being fed to the well pump.
> 
> There are a bunch of combinations that the insulated wires could be attached there, one per lug. Half of them result in 220v to the pump, and the other half result in a short that trips the main breaker. None get you 110v.
> 
> Wouldn’t want to disabuse @Yvonne's hubby of the things he thinks he knows. It’s no small irony that he thinks it’s the color of the insulation that determines the character of the current.


You are half correct. No way to end up with 120 to the pump. Either 240 or a tripped breaker. I stand corrected on that. Your assessment of how I reached that conclusion however is totally incorrect.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

HDRider said:


> Only slightly more so than your tag line


I’d forgotten about that. 


My last one was more articulate, and to the point (like @Yvonne's hubby ’s hood).


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Black black, White white, is correct for a 220 volt motor and the whites should be identified as hot.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> I’d forgotten about that.
> 
> 
> My last one was more articulate, and to the point (like @Yvonne's hubby ’s hood).


You would also be incorrect as to my head wear. Sorry, I don't have a hood, nor any kind of hat. I have no need for such, I don't rob banks or liquor stores, no reason to conceal my identity.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

topside1 said:


> Black black, White white, is correct for a 220 volt motor and the whites should be identified as hot.


The right way.


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> No. You’re not. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
> 
> 
> @Joe.G , don’t listen to him. He’s never been bashful to talk about things he doesn’t understand.
> ...


Its 120 and 240, not sure why people keep talking about 110 and 220.
With modern appliances, you do have a neutral, it's part of the NEC.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Just for 100% clarity sake, L1 is incoming power/pressure, L2 is incoming power/pressure. The two terminals in the middle are outgoing power through the contacts to the motor (M). Lastly I mentioned to re-identify the white colored wires as hot so no one can misinterpret them as a neutral and get bit.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

110/120, 220/240 it all depends on where you live. Anywhere in between those parameters are acceptable and will operate equipment. Yes, most modern appliances have a neutral wire to accommodate portions of the appliance that require 110/120 voltage such as LED lights, clocks, alarms, music, etc.....


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> No. You’re not. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
> 
> 
> @Joe.G , don’t listen to him. He’s never been bashful to talk about things he doesn’t understand.
> ...


Neutral and grounds are tied together in a main panel, they are not seperate.
The buss bar they are screwed to is bonded to the main panel with a screw.
A sub panel has neutral and grounds isolated from each other.


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

topside1 said:


> 110/120, 220/240 it all depends on where you live. Anywhere in between those parameters are acceptable and will operate equipment. Yes, most modern appliances have a neutral wire to accommodate portions of the appliance that require 110/120 voltage such as LED lights, clocks, alarms, music, etc.....


NEC is your best friend, four wires are code for 240 appliances.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

I actualy learned more from this thread then I planned, It is good to know mine is wired right now and that I can swap 2and 3 and get colors lined up like in the picture. My power does come from a Sub Panel, I have a 200 amp in basement and a 100 amp at shop. The reason for the sub in the basement is that I moved panel from first floor to the basement during a remodel, Upstairs I have a disconnect by meter.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

VicktorWhite said:


> In fact, it is very important to approach this issue responsibly, as it is very dangerous. Consult an electrician.


Got another spammer @wr 
Looked at his other two posts and they’re both nonsensical necroposts of monetized links.


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## mreynolds (Jan 1, 2015)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Got another spammer @wr
> Looked at his other two posts and they’re both nonsensical necroposts of monetized links.


How about I supposed to make money GM if you keep doing that? 😆


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Took a little studying. So 120v power is coming in on black wire, and white wire. The difference between the wires is 240v.

and you are sending it out on white wire, and black wire.

which works perfectly fine for this. But you did flip the wires technically backwards.


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## Rural Kanuck (Apr 13, 2020)

Licensed electrician here....

Just to clarify a few items here, firstly GM is totally correct in the post #16  but some folks seem confused by the common practice of using two wire black and WHITE wire for a 220/240 volt circuit, this is because although available (some places) black and red 2wire is needed so little that its hardly ever actually used. Instead the correct thing to do is to mark the white wire red (black is acceptable ...few electricians even carry red tape in their tool box) just to identify the circuit as a 220 volt circuit rather that a 110 as a white wire would indicate.

Hope this clarifies things not further confuse self help householders!


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