No Water!

The water pump choose to fry itself today. Such are the risks of pumping your own water. Sometime things break, and sometimes it's catastrophic. I'm still not sure exactly what happened inside the pump, as I've yet to take it apart. But the bottom line is that it fried. No water. Luckily we were home at the time and heard the pump constantly running. We ran to the pump house, saw water running across the floor, looked at the pump and saw water running out the end. Quick, shut off the power. 

A glance at the pump revealed that this was not going to be an easy, quick fix. The plastic connections at the pump end were melted. Bummer. We needed a new pump ASAP. 

Of course this happens to be Saturday after twelve noon. Only one store around here sells dc water pumps. A quick phone call and we find out that they're open for another hour. Great! Of course we hop into the car immediately and high tail it up to Oceanview, and buy us a pump. $250, ouch. But when you need water, today, like now, one doesn't quibble. Whip out a credit card and try to figure it out later how to justify it in the budget. 

So the gods of mischief messed up. According the Murphy's Law, the store should have been closed...or out of pumps in stock. Ha, beat those gods for once. It's nice to win a hand every once in a while.       :)

With new pump in hand, hubby suggested that we stop at the Ace Hardware and pick up replacement hose and hose clamps. Might as well replace the old, since otherwise they'd be the next thing to fail. 

$25 more and we're on our way back home. 

Installing the new pump turned out to be fairly simple. Disconnect hoses and electricity. Reconnect using the new hoses and hose clamps. Attach the electric wires. Flick the electric switch and watch the pump self-prime and build the water pressure back up in the tank. Wallah....water! Check for leaks....none....good to go. Hubby, being a neat freak, electrical taped all the wiring and water protected it all, screwed the pump down, made sure everything was lined up properly before declaring the job complete. 

Tomorrow I plan to take apart the fried pump to see if it's repairable. If it is and we can get the parts, the pump would come in handy for other applications.....or to keep as a back up.