Intermatic timer won't turn on/off pump.

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lavaman

0
Aug 20, 2012
37
Fountain Hill, Arizona
Hello, my wife and I just bought a house here in Arizona and the other day, I moved the "on/off" trippers on the "intermatic timer" (for the pool pump to turn on/off at different times than what the previous owner had them set at). Since then, it's no longer automatically turning on or off the pump at the set times. All I did was hand unscrew the on/off trippers and moved them a few cm's. Is there a trick to setting these things or do I need for the trippers to be set into a "groove" on the timer or something? I've attached a photo of the timer.

If anyone has any advice or can help, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much.
 

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I assume that you can turn it on and off manually with the switch inside the timer - correct?

Have you looked at the ON/OFF tabs closely? Are they intact? There are no groves, set points, etc. This timer is freely adjustable without specific setpoints.
 
Is it not turning on? Or is it not turning off? That could potentially narrow down the problem to one of the trips.

You want to make sure the part of the trip behind the dial are up against the back of the dial. Some times the trips can tighten down and be slightly rotated ... which might make the trip not work. Although in you picture they look ok ... something to check anyway.
 
It is all mechanical. The trippers push on a tab on the on/off switch. So either the tripper is broken (or installed out of alignment) or the tab(s) on the on/off switch are broken.

You can turn the dial and then only wait a few minutes to check is the OFF tab is working.
 
To rotate the dial on that unit you have to pull the face (yellow) of the dial away from the timer to rotate it.....make sure the face is not still pulled away from the timer. It is possible it is just stuck in the out position. If you can turn the dial manually changing the time without pulling it out...it's already in the out position or it's broke. It about a $70 timer at Lowe's.
 
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BadOleRoss said:
To rotate the dial on that unit you have to pull the face (yellow) of the dial away from the timer to rotate it.....make sure the face is not still pulled away from the timer. It is possible it is just stuck in the out position. If you can turn the dial manually changing the time without pulling it out...it's already in the out position or it's broke. It about a $70 timer at Lowe's.
Click to expand...

:goodpost: :goodjob:
 
lavaman said:
It's not turning on, so I just go and do it manually (I haven't waited to see if it shuts off yet). Would that matter? I think I'm going to go by some brand new trippers and see if that helps.

Do you think it could it be anything other than the trippers?
Click to expand...

It looks to me like the trippers are not quite positioned right. They appear to be slightly outboard from where they should be. Loosen the set screw and see if the tripper won't move slightly (maybe 1/16th of an inch) toward the center of the yellow dial.
 

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Qwaxalot said:
lavaman said:
It's not turning on, so I just go and do it manually (I haven't waited to see if it shuts off yet). Would that matter? I think I'm going to go by some brand new trippers and see if that helps.

Do you think it could it be anything other than the trippers?
Click to expand...

It looks to me like the trippers are not quite positioned right. They appear to be slightly outboard from where they should be. Loosen the set screw and see if the tripper won't move slightly (maybe 1/16th of an inch) toward the center of the yellow dial.
Click to expand...

I think you may be right... but pictures are hard compared to being there in person. The key for the original poster is to ensure that the flat part of the tripper is all the way up against the dial edge as far forward as it can go.

Maybe this site will help:
http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-trou ... timer.html

The water heater timers are basically the same as the pool timers.
 
I might have spoke too soon. :oops:

Okay, here's what's going on:

I bought some new trippers the other day and tested them out. They worked (turned the time/pump ON & OFF) the other day... but now, the "ON" tripper is not working to get the pump going in the morning. The OFF tripper is working just fine, but as I wake up in the morning, the pump is not working (so I go and manually turn it on), and the "OFF" tripper shuts it off when the set time arrives. We've been having some major monsoon storms here in AZ over the past couple of days and this morning, the breaker on the timer was popped. It took a minute or so of turning it on and off again and again to finally get the power back.

Do you think it could be not "turning on" in the AM, because of the storms or do you think I have another/underlining problem here?
 
It is a mechanical system, so if the dial is turning and you can manually turn the pump on and off, then the storm should not have affected anything.

Can you see the tabs on the on/off switch that are flipped by the trippers? Wondering if the one for on is damaged? The only other option I think is if the on tripper is not mounted correctly.
 
Are there 2 tabs that are flipped by the trippers or just 1? (1 for "ON" tripper and 1 for "OFF" tripper?)
Can I take the yellow dial off to check or will that screw everything up"?
If the "ON" tab is damaged, can that be replaced or do I have to replace the entire timer thingie?

Also, could the tabs that are flipped by the trippers cause the breaker to go off?



jblizzle said:
It is a mechanical system, so if the dial is turning and you can manually turn the pump on and off, then the storm should not have affected anything.

Can you see the tabs on the on/off switch that are flipped by the trippers? Wondering if the one for on is damaged? The only other option I think is if the on tripper is not mounted correctly.
Click to expand...
 
You should be able to take the dial off. These are generally bullet proof, so surprised by this problem. They are fully re-buildable so you should be able to find parts.

Since the dial only moves in 1 direction, there have to be different tabs for ON and OFF to move the switch in opposite directions.

Make sure that when you put the trippers on that the back side are in as far as they can go and are flush up against the back of the dial.
 
Okay, I took off the dial plate last night and everything looked fine. I tested it last night (the timer), waited a few minutes and the timer trippers turned the pool pump on and off. Then this morning... nothing.

Something is tripping the breaker in the AM and I don't know what it is. :grrrr:

Any other ideas, suggestions, tips?


jblizzle said:
You should be able to take the dial off. These are generally bullet proof, so surprised by this problem. They are fully re-buildable so you should be able to find parts.

Since the dial only moves in 1 direction, there have to be different tabs for ON and OFF to move the switch in opposite directions.

Make sure that when you put the trippers on that the back side are in as far as they can go and are flush up against the back of the dial.
Click to expand...
 
lavaman said:
Okay, I took off the dial plate last night and everything looked fine. I tested it last night (the timer), waited a few minutes and the timer trippers turned the pool pump on and off. Then this morning... nothing.

Something is tripping the breaker in the AM and I don't know what it is. :grrrr:

Any other ideas, suggestions, tips?
Click to expand...

So - just to be clear - the circuit trips when the pump is supposed to be turned on in the morning? Is there anything else besides the timer and the pump attached to this circuit? Startup bump on the motor may be right on the verge of tripping the breaker if the breaker is old. You might need to replace that breaker.
 
Yes, the circuit is tripping in the morning, but last night when I tested it, it was fine... much like the other night when I bought new trippers and tested it. Something is going on in the morning that's tripping the breaker.

I'm not sure what a "startup bump on the motor" or a "gfci breaker" are, but I've attached a photo of the entire box. Does this help? I can take the blue plate off and take some more pics if that will help you out, let me know...




Is there anything else besides the timer and the pump attached to this circuit? Startup bump on the motor may be right on the verge of tripping the breaker if the breaker is old. You might need to replace that breaker.
Click to expand...
 

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