How to prevent dry-running

[videowaffle]

Hello Everyone,
I was wandering if there was some sort of an easy, cheap and cheerful device
that prevents Pumps from running dry,
Could be some thing like No pressure= Dont run
Or something that measures flow...
that could be connected to the Relais that drives my pump.

Many thanks ,
Stefaan

 

[bobodaclown]

Steffan, Welcome to the forums.
The problem might be that when it first starts/primes it would seem to the sensors as if it's dry to a pressure or flow sensor.
Is your pump draining down after it's shut down? Most pumps don't drain, unless there is a plumbing issue, a leak or such.
Or is it piece of mind?

Bob

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Can you be more specific? What would happen to make you you think it would end up running dry?
If your floor drain is plumbed to your skimmer, then a float diverter can help reduce the likelihood of it running dry if the water level drops below the skimmer level for some reason.

 

[videowaffle]

Hello, and thanks for having me here at the forum,
Here is the situation, I am gone sometimes for long periods for work, my lovely wife takes sometimes the manual vacuum to get rid of leaves,
The vacuum is connected with a valve directly to my pump with leave filter in between.
I have showed her how to close a couple valves from the skimmers to get more suction , ofcourse she forgets to close back the one from the vacuum, after she takes it out of the pool.
So what happens ... pump runs dry, Yes indeed she blew one up last summer... dead,
I was just wandering if there somekind of sysem that just shuts everything off. when running dry...
many thanks

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

I don't know of such a thing, but I've always thought it was a needed product.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You could use a current sensing relay to shut the pump down if it detected a dry-run situation.

There have been a couple of threads about using a Macromatic Current Sensing Relay to stop and start things.

 

[jerryt]

I would use a flow switch and a timer circuit.

Timer arms when the pump starts, then after 30 seconds to a minute the flow switch controls the pump.

 

[videowaffle]

Thanks for your help, I will try to build it myself shouldn't be that difficult electronic wise

 

[themapmonkey]

I'm new to this forum and to pool ownership. I've read some great advice in this forum so my suggestion is more of a question for anyone who has a comment. If the problem comes from improperly resetting valves, why not just make it more obvious what needs to happen? Some well placed colored duct tape could go a long way toward simplifying the settings. Put one color around the vacuum handle and all of conduits the valve handles should point towards during vacuuming. Maybe red. Place blue tape during normal operation.

Or laminate pictures showing step by step instructions.

Your plight speaks to me as my wife and I are learning what to do as well.