Pumps are a lot like the human body. Keep them healthy and they will provide you with a lifetime of good health and worry free living.
In all the Krav Maga classes that I teach see this as well, the students who take the best care of their bodies, get the best performance out of them.
In my work with the maintenance team here at Pye-Barker I can see exactly the same ‘thing’ going on with our clients’ pumps.
The clients who take the best care of their pumps are the ones who get the best performance and least downtime. Thankfully, unlike the human body there aren’t thousands of competing theories on how to take good care of your pumps.
For example - the best lubrication for your pump this year, will be the best lubrication for your pump next year. but there are some tricks to keeping your pump running at peak efficiency for as long as possible.
If you want a long life for your pump be sure to avoid these 3 all too common ‘pump ruining’ mistakes.
Operating The Pump At Shut-Off
When the discharge valve is partially or completely closed, 100% of the energy is destructive. This leads to increased pressure, vibration and increased heat generation – all drastically shortening the life of the pump at best and at worst causing a critical failure.
All because someone decided to manually control the flow – don’t let them. Keep the discharge valve open 100%, if that is generating too much flow then then adjust your reducer or slow down your motor. There are many other ways to reduce your flow other than closing a discharge side valve.
Using the Wrong Pump
Pumps have an efficiency curve for a reason – so that you can select the pump that will have the lowest running costs over the life a pump. They are intimidating to read. But we can read them for you and then based on your requirements recommend the best one.
Too many pumps that have been ruined are actually running too far back on their efficiency curve. An easy problem to solve at selection.
It’s up to you. A little bit of extra effort up front could mean years of trouble free pumping.
Poor Piping Design and Installation.
It sounds all too obvious, but it is one of the most common ways to ruin a pump pre-maturely. 90° bends immediately before the intake can cause turbulence inside the pump resulting in cavitation and loss of suction. Inverted U’s on the intake side can see air sucked into the pump causing cavitation.
Piping installation faults can cause misalignment between the pipe and the pump. This can lead to nozzle breakages, casing wear and damage and even base plate damage.
Got a pump that is consistently down for maintenance or not lasting like you expected it to? Give one of the team here at Pye-Barker a call at 404-363-6000 or drop us a line sales@pyebarker.com. We can arrange to come and conduct an inspection of your system and identify what could be causing the wear and tear on your pump.
