Water Ring Vacuum Pump

One of the possibilities for reducing power consumption is to give it less work to do.

• Is there too much vacuum for the process, for instance?
• Are there any leaks into the vacuum pipework?

Those are characteristics of a liquid ring pump - low efficiency meaning high power consumption.

The plus side is that they are fantastically reliable.

1) The sealing water and gas stream should be as clean as is practical.

2) Maintain the packing glands well

Liquid ring vacuum pumps are prone to build-up on their internal parts. They have to be cleaned regularly, especially when using tap water as mineral deposits can destroy them. The gland seals will almost always leak regardless of what you do with them, so don't get obsessed with them. With water, it's also important to keep your temperatures down as efficiency is reduced dramatically as the water nears boiling. You must also have enough water flowing through the pumps to keep the levels up internally.

Have you ever used the things? One reason we went to liquid ring pumps was due to build up in centrifugal machines. The we never had to dismantle them for cleaning.

We had constant trouble with the LR pumps. The water injected was very critical and we had problems with areas of "washout" on the interior surfaces.

We now use rotary vane pumps and hardly have any issues.

Wrong material of construction most likely. We had a similar problem due to erosion and corrosion (high CO2 content and high dust loading in the gas stream) until we went to 316SS casing and end plates.