A large manufacturer of chemical products in Georgia uses AODD (Air Operated Diaphragm Pumps) as sump pumps to empty outside containment areas. Liquid removed from these areas, which are exposed to rain fall, must be neutralized and tested before it is released into the sewer system. Level sensors are installed to turn the pumps on and off when liquid accumulates from rain or the manufacturing process.

Although level sensors were installed, they proved to be unreliable in the outdoor conditions due to debris and corrosion. In response, maintenance personnel would manually turn the pumps on and off as needed. Unfortunately, as those personnel had many other responsibilities, they would often times leave the pumps running and forgot or not be able to return to turn the pumps off. In many instances, this resulted in a pump being left "dry running" over the weekend, and requiring maintenance on Monday.

A "dry running" pump has run out of liquid to pump and is simply wasting energy. Worse, it is actually using more air and wearing faster than it would be if it were pumping liquid. The company complained that they were being forced to rebuild the pumps every few weeks instead of the several months that was expected.

After experimenting with several different brands of AODD pumps and not finding any increase in reliability, they turned to DryStop^TM technology to automatically turn the pumps off after a dry run condition is detected.  The DryStop^TM controllers are installed outside on air inlet lines to the pumps. Maintenance personnel manually start the pumps with the manual reset button on the DryStop^TM, and can walk away to do other work relying on the DryStop^TM controller to turn off the pump after it detects that the pump is no longer pumping liquid.

Because the DryStop^TM controllers are installed on the air line, and make no contact with the liquid, they are unaffected by the leaves, dirt and corrosion that damaged the level sensors.

Sentrinsic’s patent pending DryStop^TM Controller for air operated double diaphragm (AODD) pumps saves energy and maintenance costs by turning pumps off when they don't need to run. It does this by monitoring the pressure variations on the air inlet line without ever having to contact the working liquid. See the main DryStop AOD Controller page for more information.