Those of you who own a grinder pump and I know you know who you are. This is a very necessary item for you but one that has with it, many frustrations. First of all, any mechanical device that runs in sewage is going to have some difficulty. That being said, I open this subject not to be a place for you to whine, but to be a point for questions to be answered. I have worked on all different types of grinder pumps and the one for residential use that I recommend is Environment One. www.eone.com. This company has been around for more years than most of the other companies put together.
Now for the tech stuff. Most of these systems are installed on what is called a force main. That simply means the main sewer line is pressurized by the pumps that are pumping into them. These force mains are sized by the target load expected. The problem is that once a system is installed more people want to tie into the system than originally planned. This happens all the time in my town. That becomes a problem because the system was designed for "x" amount of gallons per minute and when that amount is exceeded, the pumps (if they are cetrifugal in design) begin to stop working. This is where an Environment One Pump comes in. An E-one pump does not use centrifugal force to pump. It uses a stator and rotor which creates a positive pressure pumping system. What that means is that it will pump up to a mile straight up into the air or a very long way horizontal or against a somewhat high force main pressure. The other advantage is that they only produce 10-12 gallons a minute when pumping. This means that you can install many more of these systems on a smaller force main without overloading it. With standard grinder pumps (the ones that use centrifugal force to pump) you have any where from 30 to 50 gpm or more with a pretty small amount of head pressure. (Head pressure is the pressure exerted against a pump totaled from all friction losses and inches of water column pressure on the outlet side of the pump.) After you reach the limit with standard grinder pumps they will no longer pump. This is what leads to pump stations not pumping during peak times and then when the peak time passes they will then begin pumping again. There is another problem with these pumps that many do not see as a problem. That is that they pump so much so fast that they load the system quickly. The more of these pumps that you put on the system the quicker it is fully loaded. Now you may be able to see why I prefer and use E-one pumps.
There is another reason that I prefer E-one pumps. I will explain, but first I will talk about the other systems. Other grinder pump stations use what are called float switches. (if you have them you know what a pain they are) These types of switches are very prone to getting junk, grease whatever balled up on them and cause them to not operater properly. They also often get tangled up on things inside the pit like piping and the pump. In short they create nuisance failures. This is where an environment one pump outshines them all. They have a very reliable pressure switch that uses a natural air column built into the pump to switch on and off the pump and the alarm. This proves to be a very reliable system. I have had pumps that have gone 15 years without ever being touched. Now tell me that isn't impressive. A mechanical device that functions in sewage for 15 years and never needs service.
Now I am not saying that every one will do that but I have had several that have.
There are some precautions that many owners do not know about. If you own an E-one pump, never run egg shells through it. Do not wash paint or drywall mud down the drain. Do not put fish tank gravel, sand, kitty litter or anything that creates a sandy gritty slurry. The pumping action is made from rubber and will quickly deteriorate. All other types of normal sewer things can be put through them. They do quite well at the grinding and making slurry of it for disposal.
If there are comments or questions, feel free to post them.
http://www.mcconnellphac.com
No comments:
Post a Comment