Pressure Pump Shutdowns Stereo

[gweisheipl]

I was on my boat this weekend and my water pressure pump came on while washing my hands. I was listening to my stereo and when the water pressure pump stopped, my stereo shut off. This happened more than once because I tested it again to see if it would repeat the problem. The stereo is on a brand new circuit having a separate breaker. Any clues or thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg W
SlipAway

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

an all time first!

thanks for coming up with a brand new problem Greg. I'll be interested to hear the solution to this one.

Is a "brand new circuit" or a new wire from an old pre-existing breaker and did the breaker shut off or just the radio?

 

[Bob Poff]

Volts or noise?

Can you hang a voltmeter on the lead(s) to the radio and cycle the pump?
If so, does the voltage drop?

If not my guess is noise from the pump pressure switch closing glitches the processor in the radio.

Are you sure that your grounds are all common to each other?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

still not clear on how you wired this

When you say "only" the radio shut down, are you implying other stuff is on the same branch? I'm really having a hard time trying to figure out how the pump stopping has any effect on a radio, regardless of how they are interconnected.

Your theory about line current dropping when a demand (the pump) stops is plausible, however, it would require other inductive loads on the same circuit to theoretically cause that

 

[Andy1237]

Fail soft voltage drop

Radios seem to be the first in the chain of voltage to go. Some cars are wired so that the radio quits before more essential things quit. On our boat, the radio will fail to operate if voltage drops much below 12 volts; meanwhile the freshwater pump and lights keep "hangin' in there and just operate at less than optimal performance.

Perhaps your house battery was real low and when the water pump starts it sucks away enough amps that the radio shuts down.