All the water to my house comes from the river close by - via a 1500kw surface pump, into a large pressurised tank. If there is ever any kind of blockage in the pipe - or if it freezes ...this causes the pump to run - 'dry' - which eventually burns out the motor. I have lost 2 pumps so far because of running dry - and they are very expensive.I would like to fit some kind of automatic cut-out - that will ALWAYS stop the pump running after 15 minutes or perhaps less - as that is ALL the time it needs - if the water is flowing freely - to fill the pressurised tank. I feel sure such a thing must exist - but I do not know what it is called or where to buy one. Does anyone know of a 'switch' of this kind? And where to look for one? What could I put into google to do a search - for suppliers and prices, please?
There are pressure switches that have a low water cut out on them.If the pressure drops too low the switch will turn the pump off.This however my not be a 100% cure.If you used just enough water to turn the pump on and then shut the flow of water off and the pump was not pumping water for the reasons you stated it would continue to run and not build up enough pressure to turn it off.If you wanted to do some sort of timer you could contact an electrician and ask about a timer that could be acctivated when the pump comes on. I am not aware of any thing on the market made for this but a good electrician would know where to get the right components to do this.
the best thing is buy a submersable pump it is cheap and never burn
Put an inline presure switch between the tank and pump so the pump will turn off when the presure in the line drops below a preset presure.
