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elcb and borehole pump

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello

I have a problem with a newly installed domestic borehole pump. This is to replace the original pump which after 20 years has given up the ghost.

The pump appears to operate satisfactorily except that it trips the consumer unit elcb on starting and only on starting. Resetting the elcb allows the pump to run normally. The time taken to push the elcb switch back up is presumably sufficient for some transient effect to end.


The house wiring is exactly the same as for the original pump, which ran satisfactorily for 20 years.


The installer has carried out all the tests normally conducted on the pump and pump cable (continuity, insulation, running current, etc.) and claims that the pump is not faulty. Yet it trips the elcb on startup.


I will welcome any suggestions for a solution. The installer is a one man firm and is reluctant (to say the least) to change the pump.


Mike Lee
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  • 0
    Thanks for the update ... I hope it continues to work.  It's really appreciated that you provided this information, as it can be useful knowledge for future times.  I'd only seen it the problem on very old RCDs.  (And in one case I solved it in the way my EMC friends don't like, but simply removing a washing machine's filter.) 


    Addendum:  the "pulsating dc" should indicate it's type A, not AC.  A picture on the front should show both a full-wave and half-wave sine shape for type A, or just the full-wave for type AC.  If the device itself says it's type AC, yet also somehow mentions sensitivity to pulsating dc, then I'm surprised.  But if the supplier writes nonsense on their website, I'm not surprised. There's a lot of confusion, and sometimes a new model becomes A instead of AC but doesn't get updated on the web.  It gets even worse for RCBOs, where there are letters for the MCB tripping characteristics (usually B or C) as well as the RCD type (usually A or AC, but could potentially be B).
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  • 0
    Thanks for the update ... I hope it continues to work.  It's really appreciated that you provided this information, as it can be useful knowledge for future times.  I'd only seen it the problem on very old RCDs.  (And in one case I solved it in the way my EMC friends don't like, but simply removing a washing machine's filter.) 


    Addendum:  the "pulsating dc" should indicate it's type A, not AC.  A picture on the front should show both a full-wave and half-wave sine shape for type A, or just the full-wave for type AC.  If the device itself says it's type AC, yet also somehow mentions sensitivity to pulsating dc, then I'm surprised.  But if the supplier writes nonsense on their website, I'm not surprised. There's a lot of confusion, and sometimes a new model becomes A instead of AC but doesn't get updated on the web.  It gets even worse for RCBOs, where there are letters for the MCB tripping characteristics (usually B or C) as well as the RCD type (usually A or AC, but could potentially be B).
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