GamaTech 110V/220V 10A/5A Pressure Switch for Water Pump and Air Pump, Adjustable Digital Pressure Controller, 0-230 PSI

I ordered this $59 replacement to the generic mechanical pressure switches available at Menard’s, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. made by Square D & Merrill that sell for $18 - $25. I installed this device less than a week ago, and it has been easy to set and let run with my 2-wire 230v 0.5HP submersible pump set at 85 ft. I liked the stated separate, easily adjustable cut-in and cut-out pressure set points, and corresponds well to my fluid-dampened bourdon tube pressure gauge. It starts and turns off my pump like clockwork on each setting. I’ve noticed some reviews stating they saw a delay in shut-off, which can be programmed as well, but I chose to leave that at default. I woke up at 4:30 am 2 days after installation with no water when flushing the toilet. I checked the pump room and found an error code displayed on the controller, no pressure on the analog backup gauge, and immediately wondered WTF. To cancel the error code, you simply push any of the 4 adjust buttons and in my case, my pump started running like normal up to my programmed 65 psi cutoff (40-65 psi set). What happened next was interesting. As soon as the pump kicked out, my 80 gallon pressure tank blew down from 65 to 40 psi in about 10 seconds, indicating massive abnormal flow somewhere. I watched the pump and tank cycle the same way again and shut off by the switch safety algorithm while I had eyes on it. I checked all the house and outdoor spigots, no leaks or bursts, nothing running. My supply piping has 2 check valves, one at the discharge outlet on the pump, and one in our pump room just upstream of the geothermal tee. Our geothermal pump & dump system was running at the time, and has a fixed 5 gallon/min flow restrictor in the system. I turned the thermostat to OFF and the abnormal blowdown immediately stopped. Bottom line - this safety feature in this switch saved our ass within two days of being installed. No doubt our submersible pump would have pumped dry and burnt up if we had our old mechanical switch on it. It turns out normal geothermal operation the storage tank allows operations in the tens of minutes before the pump cycles on. A new 5 gal/min fixed orifice flow restrictor is on order for and yes it’s balls hot outside 29 July - 1 Aug 2024. Notes: For 220V wiring, you have 2 bundles one for power (inlet) and another identical marked outlet (for your pump). The yellow/green wire is for your ground. The other 2 wires, white and black, are for your hot wires (included brief user manual included actually states this). So a normal 3 wire 220V cable has red & black hot wires and a white for neutral/ground. If you get confused, read the documentation. The control wires white & black are switched on and off while the green/yellow is not. Well worth the money!

Was an easy install and has been in more than a month now with no issues. Fixed my pressure problem and brought me into the digital age! 🤣

I looked around for a pressure switch for my well pump and this is the best bang for your buck. Easy to hook up. 120 or 240v. just set the desired pressure high and low and watch it do its thang. :)

Really cool switch. However, it comes about 5 psi off right out of the box. The instructions for calibration instruct you to calibrate it when there is no pressure. Which is only possible if you install another switch out to the well pump, or else the pump will kick on, which means you have pressure. (Since the pressure switch itself needs power to calibrate it)

So easy to install and amazingly simple to adjust cut in/out pressures. Highly recommend!