Case
Grundfos S-tube® impeller delivers great results
A water utility company, based in the south west of the UK, approached Grundfos Pumps as they had identified a troublesome wastewater pumping station.
The situation
This site had suffered particular problems that resulted in 12 blockages over a three month period. This in turn created the need to carry out numerous reactive calls to unblock the pumps. As a result expensive vacuum tankering was required to deal with the very high rag content in the pumping station in order to carry out cleaning cycles. The reactive call outs and tankering were resulting in significant disruption and high operating costs.
The solution
Having reviewed the site and analysed the demand, Grundfos assessed the situation with the company’s personnel and subsequently selected the Grundfos SL1.80.100 80mm wet well submersible pump, complete with the award winning S-tube® impeller to replace the existing pump. This 5.5kW pump was also smaller than the existing 5.9kW pump but provided the desired pump duty, with the same efficiency as the original pump as the Grundfos solution offered greater free passage of 80mm.
The outcome
Grundfos then monitored the performance of the pumping station in order to establish the facts. Following on from a like-to-like three month post installation assessment, the summary findings found that over this period, blockages had reduced from 12 to none; reactive call outs were reduced from 16 to 3; vacuum tanker emptying and cleaning calls reduced from 2 to zero. Meaning the Grundfos S-tube® solution delivered huge improvements in both the pump operation as well as massive savings in operating costs. The company are now identifying other sites that could benefit from this level of improved performance by adopting S-tube® pump technology and this pump has now been co-opted and is now part of their permanent pump solution portfolio. Yet another success story for the Grundfos S-tube®.