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Simple Water Level Controller Circuits

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5 Simple Water
Level Controller
Circuits
Last Updated on October 15, 2022 by
Swagatam — 177 Comments

An automatic water level controller is a

device which senses undesired low and
high water levels in a tank, and switches
a water pump ON or OFF accordingly to
maintain an optimal water content in the
tank.

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The article explains 5 simple automatic

water level controller circuits which can
be used for effectively controlling the
water level of a water tank by switching
the pump motor ON and OFF. The
controller responds depending upon the
relevant levels of water in the tank and
the position of the immersed sensor
points.

I received the following simple

transistorized circuit contribution from
Mr.Vineesh, who is one of the keen
readers and followers of this blog.

He is also an active hobbyist who likes

to invent and make new electronic
circuits. Let's learn more about his new
circuit which was sent to me via email.

1) Simple Automatic
Water Level
Controller Using
Transistors
Please find the attached circuit for a
very simple and cheap water level
controller. This design is only a basic
portion of my own marketed product
having unsafe voltage cutoff, dry run cut
off and LED & alarm indications and
overall protection.

Anyway, the given concept includes

automatic water level control and high
/low voltage cut off.

It is not a new design since we can find

100s of circuits for over flow controller in
many sites and books.

But This ckt is simplified with least no: of

cheap components. water level sensing
and high voltage sensing is doing with
same transistor.

I used to put all my ckts in observation

for a few months and found this ckt OK.
but recently some problems highlighted
by some customer,which i will definitely
write down the end of this mail.

CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
When the water level in over head tank
is sufficient , points B & C are closed
through water and keeps T2 in ON
condition , so T3 will be off , resulting
the motor in off condition.

When water level lowers below B &C,

T2 gets off and T3 on, which switches
the relay and pump ON (pump
connections not shown in ckt). Pump
get off only when water rises and touch
the point A only , because point C
becomes neutral condition when T3 get
ON.

The pump switches on again only when

the water level comes down below B &
C . Presets VR2 is to be set to a high
voltage cut off, say 250V when the
voltage rises above 250V during pump
ON condition, T2 gets ON, and relay off.

Preset VR1 is to be set to a low voltage

cut off say 170V. T1 will be ON until
zener z1 loses its breakdown voltage
when voltage lowers to 170V, Z1 will not
conduct and T1 stays OFF, which
delivers a base voltage to T2 , resulting
relay off.

T2 is handling the major role in this ckt.

(high voltage cut off boards available in
market can be easily integrated to this
ckt)

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Electronic components in this circuit

worked very fine, but recently some
problems were observed:

1) Minor deposits on sensor wire due to

electrolysis in water, needed to be
cleaned in 2-3 months( this problem is
minimized now by applying ac voltage to
sensor wire by means of additional
circuit, which will be send to you later)

2) Due to relay contact terminal sparks,

generated every time during initial
current pull of pump, contacts get worn
out gradually.

This tends to heat the pump because off

in-sufficient current flow to pump
(observed, new pumps works fine. older
pumps heats up more) .For avoiding this
problem, additional motor starter must
be used, so that relay's function is
limited to control the motor starter only,
and pump never heats up.

PART LIST
R1,R11 = 100K
R2,R4,R7,R9,= 1.2K
R3 -10KR5 = 4.7K
R6 = 47K
R8,R10 = 10E
R12 = 100E
C1 = 4.7uF/16V
C2 = 220uF/25 V
D1,D2,D3,D4 = 1N 4007
T1,T2 = BC 547
T3 = BC 639( try 187 )
Z1,Z2 = Zener 6.3 V,VR1,
VR2 = 10K PRESET
RL = Relay 12V 200E, > 5 AMP
CONT ( According to pump HP)

2) IC 555 Based
Automatic water
Level Controller
Circuit
The next design incorporates the
versatile work horse IC 555 for
implementing the intended water level
control function in rather very simple
and yet effective manner.

PUMP
1N4007

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LOU ToMains
§L 880

ACInput
BC
547 0Y 10K
10K
AIS 10nF

WaterTankhomemade-cir1K BC547ON
homemade-circuits.com

Referring to the above pictorial

schematic, the IC 555 working can be
understood with the following points:

We know that when the voltage at pin#2

of the IC 555 drops below 1/3rd Vcc, the
output pin#3 is rendered high or active
with the supply voltage.

We can also observe that pin#2 is held

at the bottom of the tank to sense the
lower threshold of the water level.

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As long as the 2-pin plug remains

submerged in water, the pin#2 is held at
the Vcc supply level, which ensures that
pin#3 stays low.

However as soon as the water drops

below the lower 2-pin plug position, the
Vcc from pin#2 disappears, causing a
lower voltage than 1/3rd Vcc to
generate at pin#2.

This instantly activates pin#3 of the IC

switching ON the transistor relay driver
stage.

The relay in turn switches ON the water

pump motor which now begins filling the
water tank.

Now as the water starts filing, after

some moments the water again
immerses the lower two pin plug,
however this does not revert the IC 555
situation due to the internal hysteresis of
the IC.

The water keeps climbing until it

reaches the upper 2-pin plug, bridging
water between its two pins. This
immediately switches ON the BC547
attached with pin#4 of the IC, and it
grounds the pin#4 with the negative line.

When this happens the IC 555 is quickly

reset causing pin#3 to goes low and
consequently switching OFF the
transistor relay driver and also the water
pump.

The circuit now reverts to its original

condition and waits for the water to
reach the lower threshold to begin the
cycle.

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3) Fluid Level Control

Using IC 4093
In this circuit we employ a logic IC 4093.
As we all know water (in it’s impure
form) that we get in our homes through
our house water supply system, has a
low resistance to electrical energy.

In simple words, water conducts

electricity albeit very minutely. Normally
the resistance of tap water might be in
the range of 100 K to 200 K.

This resistance value is quite enough for

electronic for exploiting it for the project
described in this article that is for a
simple water level controller circuit.

We have used four NAND Gates here

for the required sensing, the whole
operation may be understood with the
below given points:

IC 4093 Pinouts

How the Sensors are

Positioned
Referring to the above diagram, we see
that point B which is at the positive
potential is placed somewhere at the
bottom section of the tank.

Point C is placed at the bottom of the

tank, while point A is pinned at the top
most section of the tank.

As long as water remains under point B,

potentials at point A and point C remain
at negative or ground level. It also
means that the inputs of the relevant
NAND gates are also clamped at logic
low levels because of the 2M2 resistors.

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The outputs from N2 and N4 also

remain at low logic, keeping the relay
and motor switched OFF. Now suppose
the water inside the tank starts filling
and reaches point B, it connects point C
and B, input of gate N1 becomes high
making the otput of N2 also high.

However due to the presence of D1, the

positive from the output of N2 does not
make any difference to the preceding
circuit.

Now when the water reaches point A,

input of N3 becomes high and so does
the output of N4.

N3 and N4 gets latched due to the

feedback resistor across the output of
N4 and input of N3. The high output
from N4 switches ON the relay and the
pump starts emptying the tank.

As the tank gets vacated, the position of

water at some point of time goes below
point A, however this does not affect N3
and N4 as they are latched, and the
motor keeps running.

However once the water level reaches

below point B, point C and the input of
N1 reverts to logic low, output of N2
also becomes low.

Here the diode gets forward biased and

pulls the input of N3 also to logic low,
which in turn makes the output of N4
low, subsequently switching OFF the
relay and the pump motor.

Parts List

R1 = 100K,
R2, R3 = 2M2,
R4, R5= 1K,
T1 = BC547,
D1, D2 = 1N4148,
RELAY = 12V, 400 OHMS,
SPDT Switch
N1, N2, N3, N4 = 4093

Prototype Images
The above discussed circuit was
successfully built and tested by Mr. Ajay
Dussa, the following images sent by Mr.
Ajay confirm the procedures.

4) Automatic Water
Level Controller
Using IC 4017
The concept explained above can be
also designed using the IC 4017 and a
few NOT gates as shown below. The
working idea of this 4rth circuit was
requested by Mr. Ian Clarke