Pumps

All about pumps. Please contribute & help complete the article.

Flow & Head

Marketing departments have a habit of claiming flow rate figure with no pipe attached to the output, and head figure at zero flow. These are both unrealistic conditions for real world use. In reality:

• The pump often operates against a column of water (or head) which provides back pressure
• Pipes have resistance to water flow

A better idea of real life flow can be gained by plotting head (at zero flow) versus flow rate (at zero head) on x & y axes, and drawing a line from max flow to max head. This enables approx flow rates to be read off for any given head. Pump curves page explains this.

More info

More Head Please

Plumbing 2 pumps in series increases the flow rate as shown here: Pumps in series

Pump Materials

• Bronze: used for potable water & unsealed uninhibitied CH
• Plastics: some are approved for potable water
• Iron/steel: for central heating where oxygen is excluded or inhibitor used

Pump Types

Central Heating circulator

• Very quiet operation
• Long service life
• Speed adjustable.
  • too fast can cause pumping over & noise
  • too slow can cause boiler kettling
• Standardised pipe fittings.

Shower

• Boost shower pressure and thus flow
• Boosts bills too.

Sump pump

• For draining cellars prone to flooding.
• Usually automatically operated by a built-in water sensor
• Usually placed in a small dug out lowered area of floor to achieve good floor drainage.

Drill Pump

• Small minimal cost pump for occasional clear-up use

Foul Water Pump

• Able to handle debris in the water

See Also

• Pump flow, head, pressure etc
• Shower pump review
• Plumbing
• article discussed on news:uk.d-i-y
• Wiki Contents
• Wiki Subject Categories