Doug Moore
Kentucky Service Co., Inc.
Many EASA members perform service on pumps of some type and have had the customer return the pump or call back to say it leaks or it still will not pump. We solved this by making a very inexpensive test center for all types of pumps: flooded suction, immersion lube, submersible, centrifugal, deep well and many others.
We purchased the material for less than $300 and it took less than half a day to install. The system we put together was based on an average size of the pumps we need to test most often. By mounting eight 10-foot lengths of 2-inch diameter PVC pipe with 90 degree elbows in an accordion fashion, we needed less than 5 feet of wall space.
We have plenty of room to set an open water tank on the floor below to pump from and discharge into while testing. Although this design gives us 50 feet of head, we can increase this by a valve added at the discharge side and a pressure gauge to monitor pressure in line just before the valve to increase pressure (psi x 2.3 = feet of head).
This creates a false head as the pump only knows how hard it has to push the fluid against a restriction. As you increase the head the flow will decrease until it reaches the point in the curve for which the pump is designed.
Check for leakage and noise
Even if you can’t build full head and flow, at least you can tell the pump is pumping and you can check for leakage and noises without causing damage to seals or impellers. By adding a flow meter to the system, you can document the amount of head and gallons per minute you are pumping so you can inform your customer that he or she needs to check their system to find the problem. The nice thing about this is that you can build it to suit your needs or change it on the go like we recently had to do.
We have a customer that uses 3 hp immersion style pumps to pump lube to the bearings on 6000 hp motors. They sent us four of the units over the past six weeks and we found nothing wrong with them. We sent a test report back with each to show they were pumping within their curve. They still complained they could not build to 40 psi. Even after explaining our test stand setup, they still wanted their engineer to witness the test. So we added a duplicate of their system consisting of 12 feet of 1-inch PVC pipe and a valve to increase pressure.
Test proved correct workmanship
The customer brought two of the pumps with him. When we ran the test, both performed to the proper pressure and flow rating. After seeing the test, he went back and found that the valve they use to set the proper psi in their system was not working properly.
They replaced it and have had no further problems. Until they saw the test, however, in their minds they blamed the pump and our service even though we had never had an issue with this customer in the past 10 years. This system helped us prove our workmanship was correct.
We might otherwise have lost a customer because this is a large power generation plant that had to shut down a turbine generator until this was corrected.
The manager of their engineering group called us to say how impressed he was that we were able to do this and that from now on they will request and pay extra for the documented pump test, although we offer it as a value added service to all pump repairs.
I have included a material list for what we built. If you have any questions or need more information please feel free to e-mail doug@kyservice.com and I will send you pictures or answer any questions I can to help you get started to build a similar system.
Pump test center materials list
8 10-foot sections of 2-inch PVC*
1 flow meter 40-150 gpm
14 2-inch PVC with 90 degree elbows
1 quick disconnect
2 2-inch unions PVC
2 2-inch PVC valves
1 pressure gage 0-100 psi
10 2-inch conduit straps
*Note: 2-inch Schedule 40 PVC is suitable up to 166 psi and Schedule 80 can withstand 244 psi.
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