Protection is split

Look at the pump circuit's numbers: a 35 A breaker feeding 14 AWG wire — wire rated 20 A. On a receptacle circuit that's a violation you'd get sent back for. On a motor branch circuit, it's exactly what the code wants. Understanding why is the single most useful idea in Article 430.

The problem: motors start ugly

The moment a motor energizes, it draws around six times its full-load current — the inrush — until the shaft comes up to speed. Our 14 A pump pulls roughly 84 A for a second or two, every single start. A breaker sized to hug the wire would trip on every start, forever.

The fix: split the job in two

• The breaker (430.52) is allowed up to 250% of FLA — 35 A here — precisely so the inrush passes underneath it. Its only job is clearing faults: short circuits and ground faults, the violent stuff.
• The overload (430.32) sits in the starter, set near 125% of the motor's current. Anything sustained above that — a jammed pump, a dry bearing, a lost phase — heats the OL and it drops the starter out.

The overload is what protects the 14 AWG wire from cooking, and 240.4(G) is the line of code that blesses the arrangement: motor conductors follow Article 430's rules, not the usual breaker-protects-wire rule.

Say it the field way

The breaker protects against the dead short. The overload protects against the slow death. Neither can do the other's job: the breaker is too big to notice a jam, the OL is too slow to clear a fault.

Run it

Back in the pump circuit, tap the breaker and read its card — 250%, next size up, faults only. Then tap the starter and overload — 125% of nameplate, 17.5 A max. Two protectors, two jurisdictions, one healthy circuit. Next: the wire between them.