gorms

Motors drawing 14 amps should be running through a starter, like jmartin said. Then undervoltage on any one leg (single or three phase) will overload that phase/leg and trip out the entire circuit. Starters aren't cheap, magnetic or manual but they can save the same motor several times in installed correctly. Around here any non-fractional hp motor (1hp or more) needs overload protection, often times single phase motors will come with the thermal overload right on the motor itself (think air compressor) but they aren't as reliable as a starter, imho.

As far as pricing the smaller contractors can be found pretty cheap, I think I remember hearing my boss say $150 for Allen Bradley contactor and adjustable overload unit. Can probably find them cheaper.