Rising main burst detection
Detect major rising main bursts from the MCC.
A major burst typically shifts every pump on the main at once. SAM4 reads that shift from the motor control cabinet and flags it with graded confidence, so your team can be first to know, isolate the pumps, and shorten the spill. Install inside the MCC.
When a rising main bursts, you find out last.
A rising main (also known as a force main) carries raw sewage under pressure, often for kilometres, through ground nobody inspects. When it bursts, the station keeps pumping — and nothing trips an alarm. Sewage discharges into fields or watercourses until someone outside your organisation notices.
In one UK enforcement case, a main at an unmanned station discharged an estimated 20 million litres of raw sewage over four days before discovery. The regulator's finding was blunt: there was no monitoring of the rising main.
How far a single main can run between the pumping station and the gravity network
How long a burst can discharge before discovery
Dedicated instruments on the buried main at most stations
Why nothing watches it
Station telemetry watches the wet well, not the pipe. Instrumenting kilometres of pressurised main means hardware along the route, plus the fouling, comms, and maintenance that follow — so most utilities reserve it for their most critical mains only.
SAM4 closes the gap without touching the pipe. The pumps already respond to everything on the pressurised section; SAM4 reads that response from the motor control cabinet, alongside your existing telemetry and SCADA. Nothing is replaced.
SAM4 raises the burst rising main alert
A red alert was raised in the early hours of the morning from the pumps' electrical signature alone. The water utility's team inspected the same morning within 6 hours, escalated as the evidence built, and isolated the pumps within 20 hours of the alert, halting flow through the failure while crews located the burst.
SAM4 raised a red alert
A sustained step-up in power and step-down in emptying time across every pump was detected.
The field team investigated
Standard dye test conducted and dye found in waterway.
Burst confirmed and isolated
Station was isolated within 20 hours of detection (first visit within 6 hours of alert), minimising environmental impact.
The burst is rare. The install earns its keep daily.
A catastrophic burst is the failure you cannot afford to miss. It is also infrequent. The same cabinet install watches the assets that fail far more often, so the cover pays for itself between bursts, not only during one.
Blockages & ragging
Blockages & ragging is the most frequent pumping-station failure. SAM4 reads a clogging or ragged impeller from the current signature, before it spills or burns out a pump.
Pump & impeller faults
Bearing wear, imbalance and electrical faults on the pumps pressurising the main, caught early, from the same waveform.
Energy & efficiency
Drifting efficiency and avoidable energy cost, surfaced continuously from the electrical signal.
Post-repair checks
Confirms a repaired pump returns to service clean, not degraded or obstructed by debris left behind.
One burst costs hundreds of thousands of pounds in repair, sewage loss and clean-up, before penalties. The cover costs a fraction of that, per station, per year, and the everyday detections clear that cost on their own.
Validated at scale across UK water.
Recall on confirmed fault events in water
Assets monitored across the UK water sector
In confirmed benefits across UK water
A burst reaches the pump before it reaches anyone else.
A rising main is a closed hydraulic system. When it loses integrity, every machine connected to it knows. This is not a model claim. It is causality.
One station pressurises each main. Monitor its pumps and the pressurised section is in view. No excavation, no sensors on the pipe.
The signal arrives in seconds. Pressure changes travel the water column at hundreds of metres per second — the pumps feel a burst almost instantly, even kilometres away.
We sample the only machine wired into the main. SAM4 reads high-frequency electrical waveforms continuously from the motor control cabinet.
Multiple pumps are independent witnesses. A machine fault shows in one pump; a burst shows in all of them at once. Expert review confirms before alerting.
The signal arrives in seconds
Pressure changes travel the water column at hundreds of metres per second, the pumps feel a burst almost instantly, even kilometres away.
We sample the only machine wired into the main
SAM4 reads high-frequency electrical waveforms continuously from the motor control cabinet.
Multiple pumps are independent witnesses
A machine fault shows in one pump; a burst shows in all of them at once. Expert review confirms before alerting.
What SAM4 detects
- Catastrophic escapes and major bursts with a clear signature. Discharges at that scale typically change the hydraulic load on the pumps: reduced head, shorter emptying times, coordinated power shifts.
- Events on the pressurised section, where pumps and pipe form one system.
- Post-repair anomalies: pumps that return to service degraded or obstructed.
- Pump faults from the same install: clogging, ragging, and electrical faults on the assets pressurising the main.
With SAM4 monitoring
A coordinated shift raises the incident. Expert review confirms it. Your team makes the first call, dispatches the crew, and verifies the repair afterwards.
Without SAM4 monitoring
The station keeps pumping until someone outside your organisation notices. The first call comes from a regulator, a farmer, or a resident.
Three steps to a watched main.
Contact our team
Install
Monitor
Be the first to know about the next burst.
Coverage starts the day SAM4 powers on. No sensors on the asset, no engineering effort from your team.