Centrifugal Pump Breakdown

Hello Guest,

Please advise:

A) Make of pumps

B) Size of Pumps in HP or kW

C) RPM of pump impeller/s

D) What the pumps are normally pumping:

1. Water
2. Sewage
3. Concrete
4. Oil - Advise viscosity
   
5. Other - Advise please.
   

E) Pressure of pump delivery

F) Are pumps deep-well, and multi-impeller?

The vibrations generally have particular causes - most usual being:

1. Eroded or broken impellers
2. Fan blade broken off motor cooling fan
   
3. Damaged Bearings
4. Solids like Concrete or sewage with solids being pumped
5. Bent shaft
6. Cavitation - Caused by air or gas in intake stream
   

Reply here please, with further information, and we may help you.

Kind Regards....

Kindly detailed the frequent breakdown of the pump? What is the symptoms of pump failure?

If you are not familiar with the symptoms of pump failure, then it will be very difficult for you to root-cause the problems. To start with, better to take some photos and share it to the forum in order to verify visually and perhaps somebody can evaluate the symptoms that leads you to the cause of failure.

How did you know that vibration is the cause of failure? Please support your findings!

Jojie_oak...

do to the above

Just one more question: Are you using pirate parts?

If the pumps sound like there are marbles in them then they are cavitating.

Large pits in the impellers or bodys are also a sure sign of cavitation.

Tip: if the impellers are open faced, set the clearance from the back. If they are closed face, set the clearance from the front. I dunno why but it works.

If the centrifugal pump is being used on either condensate recovery from a steam system, or steam boiler feed water applications, then the problem is cavitation.

How do you fix cavitation with hot water/condensate as the source? You can't - it is an inevitability of electric pumps that see water temperatures in excess of 200 deg F.

If the problem persists, then you may want to consider an alternative method of returning condensate: non-electric Pressure Powered Pump.

A non-electric Pressure Powered Pump can be operated using either high pressure steam or gas (such as air).