I bought one of these about a year ago and have had all the same problems. The
pump works great WHEN it works. When the system pressure drops below 40psi, the
pump will turn on very low and run until it overheats and then turns off. I have to constantly reset the breaker to turn it back on.
The pump is very sensitive to voltage. I installed a voltage
regulator to keep the pump supply voltage at 13.8V and it worked correctly most of the time. I got away with using the pump for about 6 months until the voltage
regulator died. I've been
buying voltage regulators from Amazon and it's a huge PITA, because they are extremely unreliable. I don't know if the problem is crappy voltage regulators and/or if the regulators simply can't handle the surge load of the pump startup. BTW, I know some of the regulators were bad out of the box because I tested them before putting them under load. I upgraded my
wiring to 6 AWG (about 30 foot roundtrip wire run) to help with the voltage drop. The pump sounds slightly beefier with the new
wiring, but it still has the same cycling problems.
I can source a voltage regulator designed to handle high
motor loads, but they cost almost as much as a
water pressure pump - this seems like a bad path to take only to compensate for a bad pump design.
Voltage seems to make a big difference though. During the summer months when the
battery voltages average higher, the pump works fine. During the
winter months when the
battery voltage averages lower, the pump cycles constantly (requires breaker resets) all day.
I think I'll be calling
Jabsco and ask what they have to offer. The pump has a 3 year warranty.