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Are there any residential pump controllers or other device that can be used to cut power to a water pump if the pump inlet pressure falls below a threshold? If so, what are these devices called or what feature to look for (the pump I have is decades old, so maybe this is built into controllers now?)?

For context, I use a residential water jet pump to pump water from a water tank to the house. The check valve between the utility service line and my pump failed, so there was backflow that emptied the tank and caused the pump to come on and stay on for several hours. The pump eventually burned itself out. I will be replacing the pump, but I want to prevent a repeat - and I especially want to prevent a situation where the pump could overheat and cause a fire if a check valve fails, leak occurs on the inlet side or the supply water tank is empty for some reason.

Thank you for any help or guidance!

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  • A float switch will turn off/break the electrical connection the pump if the water gets too low.
    – crip659
    Commented May 1 at 19:49
  • Yes I could try this as a last resort but I was hoping for a solution that was inline with the pump and outside the tank. The tank has limited access so I would need to use a horizontal float switch and cut a hole in the side of the tank to get it installed. Seems odd that something inline with the pump / built into the pump controller doesn't exist - I would assume this is a pretty common failure for wells, tanks, swimming pools.
    – laroygreen
    Commented May 2 at 1:55

1 Answer 1

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It's called a water pump pressure switch with low pressure cutoff. If the pressure falls below a certain level, they switch off and must be manually reset by pressing a lever until pressure rises above the threshhold.

Here is an example. (I have no connection with the manufacturer or distributor.)

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  • You said "pump inlet pressure" and this controller measures pressure at the controller, beyond the pump outlet. But if the pressure at the outlet and controller is low, it's certainly low at the pump inlet as well.
    – MTA
    Commented May 2 at 1:34
  • I interpreted the low pressure cutoff as cutting the circuit if the outlet pressure drops below the cutoff pressure. In that scenario, it would mean the outlet had a major leak somewhere so its a safety to prevent flooding. I believe this is a feature in most controllers, and since mine didn't cut the pump I don't think it would work in my case.
    – laroygreen
    Commented May 2 at 1:45
  • @laroygreen Nope, this feature is precisely to prevent your outcome of a burned out pump due to insufficient water feeding into the pump. Most often that would be from low water in the well. Controllers without this feature will keep the pump running no matter how low the output pressure goes, even zero pressure from no water at all.
    – MTA
    Commented May 2 at 4:03
  • Thank you @MTA. I took another look and you are correct. The feature is also referred to as a "dry run protection" and its exactly what I need.
    – laroygreen
    Commented May 2 at 8:31

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