Tips on Repairing and Upgrading Your Pump

While most pump repairs and upgrades address specific performance or maintenance issues, they should also address longevity, reliability and efficiency. It is a good idea to upgrade the internals of the pump to prolong the pump’s life, reliability, and efficiency. Upgrades to the pump internals can help you avoid unexpected downtime and costly expenses.

1. When upgrading or repairing pumps, use high quality parts.

When repairing or upgrading pumps, only use high-quality parts. Lower quality parts will result in higher costs and more maintenance and repairs down the line. This can also lead to lower performance, reliability, and efficiency. It is even more important to invest in higher quality parts that provide a better return on your investment during times of economic uncertainty.

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2.) Ask yourself if an upgrade will improve performance or reliability.

Check the operating point of the pump (OP) to ensure it is at or near the highest efficiency point (BEP). It is time to replace the Impeller if the operating point is below or above the Best Efficiency Point. SIMS PUMP, Hoboken, New Jersey, can make any impeller for any centrifugal pumps. They are able to make the Operating Point (OP), the Best Efficiency Point (BEP), which makes the pump more efficient and significantly reduces shaft deflection, cavitation, high radial loads, and other performance-related issues. SIMS PUMP makes impellers from solid blocks of material. This allows them to design the impeller to meet the customer’s specific operating requirements.

3.) Determine if your performance requirements have changed.

It is important to replace the impeller if the performance requirements have changed. SIMS Pump, Hoboken, NJ can make a new impeller that meets the performance requirements of the pump without having to replace the whole pump. This saves you a lot of time and money.

4. Buy American-made parts whenever you can.

It may seem tempting to order parts from non-US manufacturers depending on the location of the pump. However, this is not the best option if they aren’t reliable, quality and timely delivery. Although it may seem appealing to purchase parts made in cheap countries, the final cost of the parts will be much higher.

5. Reduce dissimilar metals if the pump is susceptible to Galvanic Corrosion.

Electrolytic Corrosion (or Electrolysis) is when two dissimilar metals come into contact with an electrolyte. This could be water or moisture containing very little salt or acid. Galvanic reactions are caused by dissimilar metals. This results in the nobility or lowest galvanic number metals becoming corroded. Two metals can come into contact with an electrolytic presence. The one with the lowest number (nobility), becomes sacrificial or corroded. Galvanic action is more intense when the metals are further apart in the Galvanic series. Galvanic couples should be avoided where the exposed area for the lower metal in the galvanic serie is greater than the area for the higher metal in this series. If the pump casing is made of bronze and you add a stainless steel or duplex stainless steal impeller (even worse), then the pump casing will suffer from galvanic corrosion. Structural Composite Non Metalic Impellers & Casing rings, such as the ones manufactured by SIMS Pump, Hoboken NJ, are a better option. They are inert and don’t support galvanic corrosion.

6. Customers tend to focus on the mechanical balance of impellers. However, they often forget about hydraulic balance. In many cases, it is more important than the mechanical balance. A hydraulic imbalance can occur when the vane passageways of the impeller are not equal or have been compromised by corrosion, coatings or other factors. This will cause the shaft to shift every time the impeller vane passes through the cut-water of a pump. This will eventually lead to premature failure of mechanical seals, bearings sleeves, shafts and motors.