Auto shutoff for electric?

[peterac]

Hi,

I have a pump that I keep in a large vat of fresh water. Every few days I turn the pump on in order to topoff.

I have a large 450 gal setup so I loose alot to evaporation. Also, my sump is in a hotter room than the main so I keep one of the panel complete off the top of the main.

I know it sounds like I should never forget that the pump is running but it has happened and I ended up dropping my salinity to sharply (and minor flood). I work out of my house sometimes so distractions are common.

Anyway, what I am asking is does anyone know of a device that I could set a timer on (say 1 minute) and the electric would cut off after that time?

Thanks!
Pete

[fishfreek]

Well I suppose your looking for something that will cut the power off after you have turned this devise on after 1 min has elapsed or some set period of time. I figure you could build one using a timed relay switch. http://www.attr.com/x10/a4181.htm This is an example.

Another option would be a digital timmer switch if you coudl deal with the pump running for X period of time every day. You could maybe find some more complex ones that you could program to run every other day or on fixed days of the week.

[Charlie]

Go to Home Depot and get a rotary timer switch. They have some that are for minutes and others that can go for a few hours.

I bought one for charging cordless equiptment. I wired the rotary timer to a standard wall outlet and plug in my equiptment as needed. Set the timer and go out dancing. I've been using this set-upfor several years without a problem.

The switch is very inexpensive.