Water wastage: It’s the plumbing equivalent of leaving the tap on while brushing your teeth. Pointless, expensive, and a bit embarrassing when someone else notices.
If you’ve ever stepped into a plant room to find your ankle-deep in water (or heard that awful dry-run wheeze from a pump that’s had enough), you’ll know how quickly things can spiral.
That’s where float switches come in. They don’t get much attention, but they do a cracking job behind the scenes. From stopping pumps from running dry to keeping tanks from spilling over, they quietly save you (and your customer) from disasters, downtime, and those nasty water bills.
Here’s how they help, and what to think about when choosing the right one.
Float Switches: Keeping Pumps in Line
Pumps without float switches are like kids without supervision; often unpredictable, prone to tantrums, and likely to cause a mess.
Here’s what float switches help avoid:
- Dry running: When a pump’s running with no water, it’s not doing any good. It’s also damaging itself every second it runs dry.
- Overflow: Float switches stop tanks from spilling over and making you a budget swimming pool.
- Short cycling: If your pump keeps turning on and off repeatedly, it’s wearing itself out fast and wasting energy while it’s at it.
With a float switch in charge, your pump knows exactly when to kick in and when to back off. No guesswork, no damage.
Choosing the Right Float Switch
Now, we don’t mean to confuse matters, but not all float switches are built the same, and picking the wrong one can cost you. It’d be like buying a cheap drill set for a heavy-duty job; a waste of time, money, and patience.
Things to consider:
- Type: Cable floats are the classic go-to. Vertical floats are great in tight spaces. And electronic sensors? Great when you want precision (or just something a bit flash).
- Compatibility: Some pumps come with a float switch already installed. Others don’t. Always double-check what you’re working with before assuming it’ll slot right in.
- Job type: Whether it’s clean water, dirty water or wastewater – the switch needs to match the application.
Picture this…
A basement plant room, halfway through a job. The client’s already twitchy, the budget’s tight, and you’ve already had to replace a pump once this month.
Why? Because a float switch wasn’t fitted.
One day, the pump’s running dry, the next it’s flooded the floor. No warning, no control, just pure chaos.
Then you install a proper float switch. It’s sized right, wired right, and tough enough to last. Suddenly, the pump does exactly what it should: runs when needed, stays off when not. The floor stays dry. The pump lasts longer. And you? You stop getting the blame. It’s a small upgrade for a big win.
Want to Go One Better? Add a High-Level Alarm
For jobs where things really can’t go wrong, pair your float switch with a high-level alarm- it’s the system’s “Hey, something’s up!” shout before disaster strikes. We’ve heard that the Trebles Guardian is quite literally a guardian angel in this sense!
Basically, A Small Fix That Solves Big Problems
Float switches may not be fancy or flashy. But they save you time, money, and stress by doing exactly what’s needed, and nothing more. Kind of like the plumbing equivalent of having your cake and eating it too.
Want to stop water wastage and save your sanity?
