I bought my system in 2024 but didn't have time to set up the watering pipes until this year, so I had it set not to run until the end of April when I started planting out tomatoes in tubs.
It's a solar powered offline mini, running two zones in my greenhouse, with additional watering periods during hot weather controlled by the wired thermostat.
It all ran fine as I gradually added more dripper circuits over the first month or so, then kept toms and peppers in good condition when I was away for a week.
When I came back I noticed the low water alarm seemed to turn on whenever the pump was running, despite the water butt being full. But system still ran perfectly well, so I assumed the low pressure sensor was just over-sensitive, and perhaps needed resetting sometime. The battery always showed plenty of power, so the pump wasn't drawing too much.
Then a couple of days ago I noticed the compost in the tubs looking very dry. I thought I'd give it an extra watering via the control panel on my phone ( which I've done before ), but although the valve solenoids clicked, there was no other sound from the pipes or the pump. After a few seconds the low pressure alarm went off, but there was no sound and no water coming through.
The control box seems to be working perfectly; the control panel tells me it's detecting the pump and there are no problems reported. I tried disabling the automatic shut down for pump faults just in case, but that made no difference.
I've also tried disconnecting the output hose from the pump, but it still makes no sound and does nothing when you manually turn it on for 10 or 20 seconds. It's as though a fuse has blown, but based on reading other posts here I think the pump fuse is in the control box, and that if it blows it stops the control box working ( which I'm not seeing ).
Is there a local fuse in the pump? I could take out the screws where the cable is connected and look, but there's no point unless there's something useful to check there. If it has a thermal safety trip it could have been triggered by the water butt heating up in the hot weather, but then I'd expect the control panel to report a fault?
I know these mini pumps sometimes have a relatively short lifespan of a year or two under heavy use, but I only started using this one a couple of months ago, and the bigger of the two circuits is only driving about 18 simple dripper outlets ( no sprinklers or soak hoses ). It seems really unlikely it would fail so quickly.
Any idea what's going on? Anything more I can test or investigate? I've attached my system information.
Cheers,
Ian
Hi Ian G
If you havent got anyway of testing the pump using a 12 volt battery or a 12v test lamp / multimeter to check the supply feeding it, I would either speak to Harvst or order a new pump and try it, if it still dont work, its always handy to have a spare during these hot & summer days.
Regards Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for taking the time to respond - I do have a circuit tester, just wasn't sure where to test ( no wiring diagram ). I'll have to do trial and error on the outgoing connector pins from the control unit, looking for one to come live when I try to run the pump. If that's looking ok, I'll unscrew where the cable goes into the pump to see if there's a fault in the cable...
For thirty quid I take your point about the usefulness of a spare pump - will certainly consider that. After writing the above I found the Harvst support page and realised they have a piece on the pump not working! Apologies for coming here and wasting your time when I should have been working through that first - it suggests turning the pump manually with a screwdriver to make sure it isn't seized. So off to the allotment tomorrow to try that and the electrical tests.
Thanks again,
Ian
Register for a free account and join the Harvst community.
It's a solar powered offline mini, running two zones in my greenhouse, with additional watering periods during hot weather controlled by the wired thermostat.
It all ran fine as I gradually added more dripper circuits over the first month or so, then kept toms and peppers in good condition when I was away for a week.
When I came back I noticed the low water alarm seemed to turn on whenever the pump was running, despite the water butt being full. But system still ran perfectly well, so I assumed the low pressure sensor was just over-sensitive, and perhaps needed resetting sometime. The battery always showed plenty of power, so the pump wasn't drawing too much.
Then a couple of days ago I noticed the compost in the tubs looking very dry. I thought I'd give it an extra watering via the control panel on my phone ( which I've done before ), but although the valve solenoids clicked, there was no other sound from the pipes or the pump. After a few seconds the low pressure alarm went off, but there was no sound and no water coming through.
The control box seems to be working perfectly; the control panel tells me it's detecting the pump and there are no problems reported. I tried disabling the automatic shut down for pump faults just in case, but that made no difference.
I've also tried disconnecting the output hose from the pump, but it still makes no sound and does nothing when you manually turn it on for 10 or 20 seconds. It's as though a fuse has blown, but based on reading other posts here I think the pump fuse is in the control box, and that if it blows it stops the control box working ( which I'm not seeing ).
Is there a local fuse in the pump? I could take out the screws where the cable is connected and look, but there's no point unless there's something useful to check there. If it has a thermal safety trip it could have been triggered by the water butt heating up in the hot weather, but then I'd expect the control panel to report a fault?
I know these mini pumps sometimes have a relatively short lifespan of a year or two under heavy use, but I only started using this one a couple of months ago, and the bigger of the two circuits is only driving about 18 simple dripper outlets ( no sprinklers or soak hoses ). It seems really unlikely it would fail so quickly.
Any idea what's going on? Anything more I can test or investigate? I've attached my system information.
Cheers,
Ian
If you havent got anyway of testing the pump using a 12 volt battery or a 12v test lamp / multimeter to check the supply feeding it, I would either speak to Harvst or order a new pump and try it, if it still dont work, its always handy to have a spare during these hot & summer days.
Regards Paul
Thanks for taking the time to respond - I do have a circuit tester, just wasn't sure where to test ( no wiring diagram ). I'll have to do trial and error on the outgoing connector pins from the control unit, looking for one to come live when I try to run the pump. If that's looking ok, I'll unscrew where the cable goes into the pump to see if there's a fault in the cable...
For thirty quid I take your point about the usefulness of a spare pump - will certainly consider that. After writing the above I found the Harvst support page and realised they have a piece on the pump not working! Apologies for coming here and wasting your time when I should have been working through that first - it suggests turning the pump manually with a screwdriver to make sure it isn't seized. So off to the allotment tomorrow to try that and the electrical tests.
Thanks again,
Ian