Water level pump cutoff

[cammer77]

Is there a system that can remotely shut off a basement well pump before the pickup gets uncovered and the pump loses prime? Ideally a well depth sensor (battery powered), connected via wifi to a pump cutoff relay. My pickup is at 15 ft. depth and the water level is at 11-12 ft. This is in a 4 ft diameter dug well, meaning I only have approx.78 gallons per foot of reserve. That means if my wife over-waters her gardens we run out of water, and it's a pain to re-prime!

 

[Reach4]

There are systems that can shut off a pump by looking at the current being drawn. When you run out of water, or almost run out of water, the pump gets shut down for an adjustable interval. https://cyclestopvalves.com/pages/cycle-sensor-pump-monitor is one of those.

Another option is to put in a float switch to shut off the pump when the water reaches a lower limit. With this, I could see wiring in a bypass such that if irrigation drops the well water to only 70 gallons remaining, you could operate the switch to pump up drinking water after manually closing the outdoor spigot.

Another variation, especially if you have an irrigation controller, is to inhibit irrigation if there is less than 100 gallons remaining. Lacking a regular controller, you could use a solenoid valve, and let the float switch control that.

Now let's consider a different aspect. A 1/2 hp 10 gpm pump will probably give you as much or more flow than a 1 HP jet pump. You would want a flow inducer (cheap and easy), and that pump could be suspended horizontally. The big bonus is that no priming needed. You still don't want to run dry for long.

Additional advantage for submersible: it is quiet.

 

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[Valveman]

Thanks for mentioning the Cycle Sensor, which will protect the pump from running dry. But with a jet pump, as was said, re-priming is a pain. I would use a pump down float switch at a low level in the well. This way the pump is shut off before running dry and won't need priming.