Low water cutoff switch for water well pump. Experience with brands?

At 400 feet I assume you have a submersible pump. Do you have typical setup with Pressure tank with a pressure switch mounted to the tank Tee?

If all you are looking for is to prevent dry running the pump, Square D makes a pressure switch that has a low pressure cut-out. If the pressure drops below some low value (well below the cut-in value) the switch will turn off the pump and leave it off. You have to manually flip a lever on the side of the switch to turn it back on. Looks exactly like the regular pressure swtich you see on zilllions of well systems except is has the little lever on the side.

If the pump starts sucking air this will shut it down when the pressure drops. Also works if your pipe from the pump to tank springs a leak, provided you don't have a check valve between tank and pipe.

It's not completely foolproof, but it catches most common situations.

HTH,

Paul F.

That would definitely be the economical solution. Our well guy put a Franklin controller on one of our more marginal wells. Has about 8 different flashing codes, including underload which presumably checks for the pump spinning against air instead of water.

Yeah, I have one of those. It works but has to be reset once tripped, a small inconvenience. If I put in a 1500 gallon reservoir tank the inconvenience factor goes off the board. They are also more prone to not tripping and burning out a pump. That is a $2500 inconvenience.