I'm an electrician so I'm probably overthinking this. Some people I have noticed that people are worried about an elec wtr pumps reliability. Why wouldn't a digital amp meter gauge work for keeping an eye on it to see if the motor is gone or starting to lock up.

 

If anyone does do a little insurance, it's usually a small led that will come on if the pump is spinning, and go off if the pump stops. Not sure how it's wired in though.

 

I like the ammeter idea better, preferably an analog gauge.

 

The reason i was thinking digital is you might not notice a couplke of amp on an analog gaugge whereas if its slowly going bad it will draw more amps.

 

Sure you could do that...but who will remember what yesterday's amp reading was, or two weeks ago? I have an electric water pump and had one fail. The temp goes up just like any other water pump...all you have to do is watch the gauges..

Anyway, you could put an hour meter on the engine and just replace the pump at it's MTBF rating...whatever the manufacturers says that is....

 

amperage draw of an electric motor would be consistant from week to week.

 

No reason an ammeter wouldn't work... Another idea is a current sensing circuit - I have a module which will activate a device (light, relay, etc) in response to the amount of current being drawn. I haven't wired it in yet, but I'm planning on having it light a green LED when the pump is working (normal current draw) and a red LED, maybe a buzzer too, when current drops below the sensor's threshold (pump burns out, blows a fuse, wiring damaged, etc).