Introduction –

Okay, I’ve written a whole lot about our solar well and lightening problems; some here, some on a DIY solar website/forum. Bottom line…twice in 4 years we were hit with lightening transient voltage that blew up our control module for the solar powered well. Yeah, $600 for the first one $500 for the second control module. Simply put…unacceptable!

Yes, I installed all the appropriate grounding and surge devices but it turns out that it was the 700’ of signal wire between the water storage tanks and the wellhead that was acting like a giant antenna absorbing very small amounts of voltage (in the ground, from lightening) and sending it into the control module’s computer circuit board. Zap!

AND!!!! Along the way I found out that I didn’t need the control module to begin with!! Yup, that really ticked me off…$1,100 down the drain. So much for retailers selling customers what they need vs higher profit.

The “fix” turned out to be 2-stages; 1) get rid of the signal wire problem, 2) replace the control module including the very sensitive electronic circuit board with something more stable and safer. This review/article will be only about the signal wire issue.

I first tried to figure out how to protect the signal wire from the transient voltage. Long story…very long story…made short, I couldn’t do it in a manner that I felt was safe, reliable, and realistic. Plan B turned out to be simple…eliminate the signal wire altogether. And that turned out to be a wireless float switch system.

The float switch itself is a simple device that monitors the water level in the storage tank. When the water level drops it sends a signal to the well pump to turn on. When the tank is filled it sends a signal to the well pump to turn off. My problem was the 700’ of buried signal wire between tanks and well. A wireless system is just that…wireless…no wire buried in the ground to pick-up the transient voltage.

The signal is transmitted via a radio signal between a transmitter and a receiver. Everything else pretty much operates the same. Problem solved…installed it last week.

Summary –

Let’s make this easy for you. I will give you the bottom line right here and then you can read the rest if you want to…or if you need some reading material to fall asleep by.

After weeks of research and searching there was only one real option: RPS Solar Pumps’ Wireless Water Tank Sensor for Remote Pump Shutoff, the 24-hour version. Price $729 (on sale), about $800 all in with shipping and tax.

So here is the bottom, bottom line…It Works!

Unpacking & Problem –

You know, after getting sold the wrong pump by a retailer that didn’t really know what they were doing, and getting sold a control module that was 100% not needed…and then buying another control module that was 100% not needed I was very skeptical about the actual ability of this unit to do what it was advertised to do…and the price it was being sold for…and the ease of installation that the company was touting. I think you can understand that.

So the box arrives in decent time and apparently undamaged. I set-up for a video to show the unboxing as the first step in a longer video covering the install. “Action!” The box was packed well with plenty of protection around each solar panel and the attached transmitter/receiver units. Out comes the transmitter unit…nice. Next comes the receiver unit…nice. Ahhhhhh…that’s it…nothing else in the box. First thought that ran through my head…here we go…scammed again!

I double checked what was supposed to be in the box vs what was actually in the box. I was missing the float sensor, the antennas, the hardware, etc. More defeatist thoughts start rolling around in my head.

I checked to make sure I saved the video, pulled up the company website, and called customer support. Now this is where it could have been the end of the last of my faith in humanity. Thankfully I couldn’t have been more wrong. The CS rep was incredibly friendly and helpful. She listened and verified the missing equipment. She said she would get an order placed immediately for the missing parts. Then the other shoe dropped…”Do you have any pictures of what was in the box?”

Yup, first thought…they want verification that stuff was actually missing, thinking I was scamming them. But, thankfully, “Mam I took a video from the time I set the unopened box down on the deck through pulling out each piece that was there and then showing the empty box.” I guess that sealed the deal…order placed.

So on with the results of the unpacking…

Issue #1 – Safety : Exposed terminals on both batteries. Yeah, not a good thing. On both solar panels there was an attached battery. The battery had both the positive and negative terminals fully and completely exposed. Meaning…had a piece of metal touched both terminals it would cause a dead short in the battery…and that cold cause a fire. Very, very bad thing when shipping. All rechargeable batteries come with terminal protection when shipped. Someone at the RPS plant didn’t put the terminal protectors back on after assembly. And, the folks in the shipping department missed it as well. Not a good thing at all.

Issue #1.5 – Incompetence : Yeah, kinda harsh but factual. The order should never have left the warehouse without all the parts in the box. It is not hard to ensure all the parts are there in the box…not hard at all. But, RPS does get a compliment for their customer service and quick response to get the missing parts to me.

Received Missing Parts –

About 4-days later the missing parts showed up. Yes, I was skeptical all over again. Video rolling, box opened, all missing parts were no longer missing…all was good. Too bad they weren’t in the original box in the original shipment. The shipping department seems to have a bit of a problem. Solution: Have a pre-printed list for each different unit, the shipping guy goes down the list, the part goes in the box, it gets checked off the list, when complete, take a picture of the signed-off list, put the original list in the box, seal & ship. Problem solved.

Installation –

The installation was straight up and pretty simple. However, the installation video put out by the company is completely unrealistic in terms of time it takes to do the installation. Plan on 20 – 30 minutes per each unit, potentially more depending on your situation.

Issue #2 – Installation : The battery is located poorly. The battery adds weight in the wrong place, it is unbalanced. The battery should be closer to the base of the mounting bracket lowering its center of balance and gravity.

Issue #3 – Installation : The battery is located poorly #2. The battery is located too closely to the plastic box containing the circuit board. It makes it difficult for a person with large hands to get the antenna screwed in. Locating the battery closer to the mounting base would give more room to attach the antenna.

Issue #4 – Installation : The battery is semi-permanently attached to the mounting bracket. Trying to fix issues #3 & #4 I attempted to move the battery. Ah, no. It appears there is a large zip-tie holding the battery to the mounting bracket making it simple…slid the battery closer to the base of the mounting bracket…two problems solved. It did dawn on me that it seemed pretty lame to have the battery held on by nothing more than a zip-tie. When the battery wouldn’t slid down I noticed a double-sided foam piece of tape between the battery and the mounting bracket frame. No moving it. So, it is nice to have a little better mounting system for the battery…too bad the battery is located in a poor location and can’t be moved without major effort.

Issue #5 – Installation : There is a signal wire “pig tail” on both the transmitter and receiver units. RPS also includes a splice kit to attach the float switch signal wire to the transmitter unit and a signal wire between the receiver unit and the well pump. Why? Any splice is a potential point of failure of the system. Also, adds considerable time to the installation process. I simply opened the circuit board box, removed the pigtail wire, and then place the signal wire directly into the connection ports on the circuit board. Poof! Problem/issue solved…no more potential source of failure and time saved.

Issue #6 – Battery : Yeah, this is a fairly minor issue, but one that should not exist. Attaching the wire terminals to the battery “blade” style terminals wasn’t any fun. The first couple of attempts by hand were unsuccessful. And the battery being so close to the circuit board box didn’t help any. I finally had to use my pocket knife, separate the wire terminals a little bit, then use needle nose pliers to get a solid connection on the battery. Seems a bit unneeded and easily addressed at the factory. And, to make matters worse, the battery terminals and wire connections/terminals are open to the weather.

Overall –

Pros –

• • • The float switch is not a mechanical float switch at all, it is a sensor. That fact makes it much more useful and functional…and I am thinking it will also last longer.
    • Solar panel appears to be of good quality and plenty large enough to do the job.
    • Battery appears to be of more than sufficient capacity to do its job.
    • The plastic box holding the circuit board is top notch and appears to be plenty weather proof.
    • The circuit board itself looks to be quality and well built.
    • There are 3 status lights in each unit. “Tank Full”, “Power”, and “Com”. The last one shows the unit is transmitting or receiving a signal to ill the tank.
    • The angle of the mounting bracket places the solar panel at a good compromise angle for winter or summer sun.
    • The mounting bracket itself is stout enough to do the job pretty dang well. The base holes are sufficiently large enough to do the job accommodating lag screws/bolts.
    • The antenna appears to do the job. Good thing is, if the antenna is too short, the circuit board box has a universal antenna connection…simply buy a better/longer antenna and connect it if needed.
    • The signal wire on the tank float probe/switch is long…and I mean long. Supposedly 100′, but I didn’t measure it. Great to have so much wire to work with.
    • Overall, it was easy to get up and running within a reasonable amount of time.
    • 2-year warranty and lifetime support.

Cons –

• • • The wires connecting the circuit board box to the battery are really, really lame. While they are of sufficient size for volts/amps, their quality appears to be used on an interior space, not sufficient quality to be exposed to weather. It would have been very simple to use a weather rated wire.
    • The terminals on the wires that connect to the battery are even more lame than the wires themselves. The wires, while crimped, are not sealed against weather, dust, etc. A simple solution would be to use a heat-shrink terminal. Or, use a short piece of heat shrink after crimping the terminal.
    • The terminal on the battery and the terminal connections on the wire are completely exposed to the weather. Any weather can easily infiltrate the connection…potential point of failure.
    • The magnetic base on the antenna sucks. Yeah, meaning the magnet used is super weak. I mounted the antenna base on a 1-1/4” wide piece of steel…we’ll see how long it lasts once the windy season starts.
    • The included screws for the mounting bracket base appear to be adequate for mounting on metal. But, if mounting it on a the top of a post, such as a 4”x4”, those screws are wholly/totally inadequate.
    • Last but not least…mislabeled or missing part…again? So here is a picture of the water level sensor. Read the label…again. “Yes, two sensors are included and interchangeable.” Yeah, I unrolled the 100′ of wire and saw the sensor, the silver probe. So where is the other “sensor”? Notice the other wording…”Tank Full / Low Well” Ah, how do they know that my well has low water level?

click to enlarge

• • • • The two sensors are located in the silver probe; 1 sensor is “tank full“, the other sensor is “tank fill“. There are not two separate sensor unit, they are both located in the probe.
      • “Low Well“??? How in the heck could they know my well is low on water when the sensor is located in the storage tank!?! So a bad case of mislabeling. A bit weird if you ask me.

Kinda Weird –

So I bought the unit on rpssolarpumps.com. If you read everything on their website it sounds as if they make, or at least assemble, the unit themselves. Ah, no. When the unit showed up the instruction manual was from “Back 40 Solar”. And the overall instruction manual left a lot to desired.

The unit is actually made by a company called Back 40 Solar (https://www.back40-solar.com/). So RPS is just the distributor not the manufacturer. But don’t try to buy direct from Back 40 Solar…they apparently only sell through their distributors.

And “rpssolarpumps” is actually Rural Power Systems (ruralpowersystems.com). So there appears to be a bit of an identity crisis going on here. But, I am not particularly worried…the unit worked even if RPS was a little dysfunctional fulfilling the purchase.

Yeah, I have no idea why I thought the Back 40 Solar vs RPS issue was “weird”. I think it just caught me by surprise that RPS was selling a Back 40 product. But hey, why not. Now I just have to figure out how to get this review to Back 40. Yeah, another interesting little tidbit…Try to find a way to contact Back 40 Solar. On their website I couldn’t find any email address, no phone number, no physical address, no mailing address, no contact form, nothing. Okay, there was a form you could fill out if you wanted to become a dealer. No, I don’t want to become a dealer. I did find an email address embedded in the html code of one of the pages so I will send them this review at that email address.

Anyone else find this weird or is just me? It appears that Back 40 Solar wants to stay hidden for some reason; they want no contact with actual customers. I wonder why. The distributor, RPS, does seem to be responsive so maybe it is no big deal…we’ll see.

Recap –

As I stated at the beginning…it works. Yup, that was the main goal…it needed to work which in turn eliminates 700’ of signal wire. And that hopefully eliminates the stray transient voltage that was frying my controllers. And it appears it will do just that…mission accomplished.

Here is a big whine on my part…price. Yeah, this thing ain’t cheap…retail is $949…and that is some serious coin. In October they were running a sale…$729 until 10/30. I bit the bullet and bought it a couple days before the end of the sale. Yeah, well, a week later I went back to the website page to get some info and it was on sale once again for $729 until11/30. Gee…perpetual sale. Just kinda throws up a red flag for me. Yeah, not sure why…just does.

Did I mention that the unit worked? Yup, sure does…mission accomplished…I’m happy…so far.

Sad part is, if they increased the quality of materials and construction just a bit, it would be a great unit vs a good unit. The total cost of the improvements would probably be less than $5…at most. And then add in the shipping department fix…BINGO! A great product and a better purchase experience.

I won’t, or at least shouldn’t, complain about the price. If I figured the cost of 700’ of shielded signal wire plus trenching cost/time the $729 would probably be right in the ballpark of a good deal. Throw in the cost of two burned up controllers and even the $949 price would be reasonable…staggering, but reasonable all things considered.

Now for a reality check…whether $729, but especially for $949, it is not acceptable to have half the parts missing. It just ain’t right. But, they did step up and make it right…but, there should not have been such an egregious/simple mistake to begin with. But, well done on fixing the missing parts issue. And the RPS customer support person was amazing!

Once again…bottom line…It works! It spanned the 700’ distance between the storage tanks (float switch) and the wellhead (pump controller) with no issues. Now here is the real test…Would I buy it again? Absolutely!! Another test…would I pay the $949 full price vs the sale price? Yeah, probably, I would begrudgingly buy it…but clearly I would whine a lot more about it. But it works!! And that is what really, truly matters.

Side Note: I am wondering if I should start videoing all unpacking of purchases made online. You know, anything expensive to document exactly what is going on…damage, missing, etc.

Related Articles –

• Off-Grid Problems/Issues/Challenges…Part #1
• Our Solar Well Pump System

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