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Question: I have heard that sometimes well drillers build a system consisting of a 500 gallon atmospheric storage tank from which they then pump water to the house using a second pump. How is this different from a Well Manager®?
Answer: Once in a while we see one of these custom made systems you are describing.  They consist of a large unpressurized storage tank, usually 500 gallons or larger, which receives water from the well. The tank is equipped with two sensors, one for high water and one for low water. The high water sensor would be set near the top of the tank, say at 450 gallons, and the low water sensor would be set at a reasonable low water level - possibly 300 gallons.
Once the low water float turns the pump on it runs until the high water sensor turns it off. The difference between the high and low switch settings is determined by the amount of water that you could reasonably expect to pump without emptying the well and endangering the pump.
There are several differences between this type of system and a Well Manager®.
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Because of time based pumping, a Well Manager® uses a much smaller tank so the entire system will fit in the corner of an average basement, utility room or even a crawl space. The job site built system requires a lot of space.
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The large tank system cannot automatically compensate for a drought as a Well Manager® can. With the jobsite built units, if there isn't enough water in the well to replace the 150 gallons needed to turn off the pump, damage can result. If, on the other hand, a Well Manager® is not pumping water during an on cycle, it turns off immediately and tries again later.
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A Well Manager® pump controller has status lights that tell you what is going on. They indicate when the power is on, when the well pump should be running, when the pressure pump should be on, when there is flow from the well, when the tank is full, and when the tank is too low. The job site built system usually has none of those things.
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The job site system will be built with whatever parts are available at the time but a Well Manager® control panel is built with the same readily available parts and is Underwriters Laboratory listed. This is an important feature when you need a certificate of occupancy and are trying to get the wiring approved by the local electrical inspector.
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A Well Manager® is a packaged and tested system that can be installed in one day.
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