Not really had to deal with motors/DOLs since college and my knowledge I admit is pretty limited.

One of our sites has a plant room that has flooded. This has happened fairly frequently over the years I've been told. Last year a new sump pump has been fitted with a direct online starter to try address the issue. Unfortunately the area is rural and power cuts happen on a regular basis and this resulted in a flood of the plant room as during the power cut the DOL tripped out causing the sump pump to stop (it's an unmanned site).

Any suggestions on the way forward?

Thanks!

Short out the start contact - ie make it auto restart.

Obviously keep the overload protection in series with the stop button.

Regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

And consider a second pump, perhaps a cheap portable self contained one that plugs into a standard socket outlet.

I take it it is a three phase pump and the power cut only dropped out one phase? if not how would a power cut make the overload trip?

Is the starter wired for hand auto starting, auto via a float switch?

The overload is just doing it's job, you could set it to auto reset.

If the plant room is critical why not wire a signal from the overload to a remote radio link to warn when it has tripped

We do an online alarm kit that can warn you of trip and flooding and e mail or SMS you you can also start the pump remotely if its something your intrested in drop me a pm

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If it's a remote (unmanned) site I'd go with jamie's idea of a bit of telemetry on it.

You can as Dave has said make the thermal overload auto reset and make the pump auto start (which I'm sure it probably does anyway)

I think a little more info on the type/size of pump whether single or 3 phase will also get you a few more answers.

If you go down the SMS route, look for a manx telecom sim. They will roam across three or four networks when used on the UK mainland which provides a nice solution in case your nearest site on the preferred network falls over during a power outage.

Stu

There is a difference between "tripped out" and dropped out, presumably you mean the latter. It's not mentioned if this is 3 phase or single phase, but the same principles apply. There should be a circuit breaker before the automatic starter with overload protection. The CB will always be in the ON position, with the float switch or level switches controlling the pump, when power is available. Remote alarming is possible via mobile phone etc. on loss power. I assume that this is a self priming pump.

Regards