Well pump shutoff switch

[Paul T]

I'm really hoping some of the great minds of PPOT can help me out here. I have a fair amount of older plastic supply pipe in my house, with various corroded, crimped fittings, and to be honest, I’m a copper pipe guy and this plastic makes me nervous.

So, I go out and buy a valve that you install inline to your water supply that can sense any amount of water flow (has a home & away setting) and close the valve – basically a fancy electric ball valve. I have a well system and I want to put this on the output of my water tank – this works great for all failure types except one – the water tank. If the tank fails, the pressure drops and keeps calling the pump for water, and this is all before the electric valve so it senses nothing. What I want to rig up is simply a water sensor I can place on the floor, that will cut power to the pump if it senses anything, thus covering me on both counts. Any ideas? I’ve dug around and can’t really come up with anything. I’m thinking there has to be a sensor that could flip a relay to kill power to the pump controller?

For those who suggest putting the electric valve “before” the tank, I originally thought this, but then if there is a leak: 1)you will still lose the contents of the tank before it kicks the pump in and the valve senses a water flow and more importatly, 2)the pump would never shut off since the valve would close before the tank/pressure switch would satisfy.

I suppose I could just flip the breaker, but this is not really practical on a daily basis.