Remote water pump switch - latching relay?

DryCamper11 wrote:
The Intellitec came in, and this weekend I had time to begin the installation. The Intellitec wouldn't function. It was in an original sealed bag when received - it looked to be an original factory label and seal, but who knows. I took it to a friend's RV who had the Intellitec water pump control and swapped my new one for his old one - and yep - mine was bad.

It turned out that the MOSFET was bad. I was able to replace it with a similar MOSFET from an old computer UPS in my junk box. One comment for anyone else adding remote switches. My water pump was powered from the main control panel through a switched wire carrying +12 volts. I didn't think about it until I received the Intellitec and the installation instructions, but the Intellitec doesn't switch the positive lead.

It's designed to switch the negative lead, not the +12v lead. I wanted the Intellitec mounted at my control panel, as that's where the control wires all go, but my water pump was grounded to the frame near the water pump. I couldn't just switch +12 volt line or replace the previous on/off pump switch with the Intellitec. I had to run a separate ground wire from the control panel to the water pump and switch that wire, plus find a good solid ground connection near the control panel to feed the pump.

If I'd purchased a latching relay as I'd originally planned, I could have just installed it to switch the +12v wire that was already installed between the control panel and the WP. It wasn't a big deal, but given I've already had one MOSFET failure and needed to do the extra work to run the ground wire, I probably would go for a latching relay if I did this again.