One of the most useful pieces of equipment for residential, agricultural and light commercial tasks is the water pump. They’re ideal for a wide array of tasks, such as draining and filling a swimming pool, hot tub or pond, draining water from a basement, irrigation for lawn sprinkling, draining shallow flooded spaces, distributing pesticides and fertilisers and much, much more.
When shopping for water pumps, you’ll come across a couple of different types, which can be confusing for people who don’t have much understanding regarding this topic. So it’s best you do your homework before you open up your wallet to purchase the best water pump. There are several different designs of water pumps, and all of them can be categorised under two main categories – positive displacement and centrifugal pumps.
Centrifugal pumps are also known as velocity pumps, as they use velocity to add kinetic energy to move the fluid. They work while the valves are closed, because they don’t produce much pressure build up. However, they aren’t very good at maintaining a constant speed as positive displacement pumps. Their efficiency decreases as the viscosity of liquid increases.
Positive displacement pumps, on the other hand, trap fixed amounts of fluid, before forcing it into the discharge pipes. The decreasing and expanding cavities allow them to operate at the same flow speed consistently. These pumps can be used for a variety of other liquids, and water with notable amounts of sediment.
When it comes to the actual design of pumps, you can pick between high-pressure pumps, trash pumps, clear water and semi-solid pumps.
Clear water pumps are great for draining your swimming pool or garden pond. Moreover, they can be used for lawn sprinkling and to drain shallow flooded areas. This type of pumps isn’t capable of pumping out water that contains debris larger than 6-7mm.
Semi-solid pumps have similar specs to clear water transfer pumps, except for the fact that they can handle larger debris, up to about 20mm. These are best suited for draining a pool or removing water from the basement.
Trash pumps pass even larger solids, as big as 5cm and are used for agricultural and commercial use. They’re oftentimes used for irrigation, on construction sites and to drain small flooded areas.
High-pressure pumps provide high pressure at lower volumes. These pumps are ideal for pressure-washing, firefighting, agricultural and hobby farm markets, because of their ability to move water over long distances.