Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SUBJECT: The pump is not producing enough head to satisfy the application 10-9
Let me begin by pointing out that there are a couple of things you must keep in mind when troubleshooting
centrifugal pump problems:
The centrifugal pump always pumps the difference between the suction and discharge heads.
A centrifugal pump always pumps a combination of head and capacity. These two numbers multiplied
together must remain a constant. In other words, if the head increases the capacity must decrease.
Likewise if the head decreases, the capacity must increase.
The pump will pump where the pump curve intersects the system curve.
If the pump is not meeting the system curve requirements the problem could be in the pump, the suction
side including the piping and source tank, or somewhere in the discharge system.
Most pumps are oversized because of safety factors that were added at the time the pump was sized. This
means that throttling is a normal condition in most plants, causing the pump to run on the left hand side of
its curve.
mcnallyinstitute.com/10-html/10-9.html 2/5
16/10/2010 Troubleshooting pumps
Air is coming into the stuffing box through the pump packing.
Air is coming into the stuffing box through an unbalanced mechanical seal. As the carbon face wears
the spring load holding the faces together diminishes.
If you are using mechanical seals in vacuum service, they should be of the O-ring design. Unlike
other designs, o-rings are the only shape that seals both pressure and vacuum.
The pump was not primed prior to start up. With the exception of the self priming version,
centrifugal pumps must be full of liquid at start up.
Air can enter the stuffing box if the gasket between the two halves of a double ended pump is
defective or does not extend to the stuffing box face. Any small gaps between the face of the
stuffing box and the split at the side of the stuffing box will allow either air in, or product out.
Air is coming into the suction side of the pump through a pin hole in the casing.
Air is entering the stuffing box between the sleeve and the shaft. This happens if you convert a
double ended pump from packing to a mechanical seal and fail to install a gasket or o-ring between
the impeller hub and the sleeve.
The open impeller was adjusted backwards and now the close fitting "pump out vanes" are creating a
vacuum in the stuffing box.
You need a volute casing instead of a concentric casing. Volute casings are much better for producing
head.
You have the wrong size pump. It cannot meet the system curve requirements:
The pump was not selected to meet the system curve requirements because no system curve was given to
the pump supplier.
At replacement time the same size pump was purchased because no one had calculated losses in the
system.
The pump was sized from a piping diagram that was thirty five years old. There have been numerous
piping changes and additions since the original layout. In many instances additional pumps have been
installed and this pump is running in parallel with them, but nobody knows it.
THE PROBLEM IS ON THE SUCTION SIDE OF THE PUMP. THE PUMP COULD BE CAVITATING.
Two pumps are in connected in series. The first pump does not have enough capacity for the second
pump. They should be running at the same speed with the same width impeller.
The pump discharge is connected to the bottom of the tank. The head is low until the level in the tank
increases.
Units in the discharge piping should not normally be shut off, they should be by-passed to prevent too
much of a change in the pump's capacity.
If too many units are being by-passed in the discharge system the head will decrease as the capacity
increases. This can happen if an extra storage tank farm is being by-passed because the storage capacity
is no longer needed.
A bypass line has been installed in the pump discharge increasing the capacity and lowering the head.
Piping or fittings have been removed from the discharge side of the pump reducing piping resistance.
Connections have been installed in the discharge piping that have increased the demand that increases
capacity.
The pump is acting as an accumulator, coming on when the tank level drops. The head will be low until the
accumulator is recharged.
Consider the possibility of a siphon affect in the discharge piping. This will occur if the pump discharge
piping is entering into the top of a tank and discharging at a lower level The pump must build enough head
initially to take advantage of the siphoning action.
A discharge valve (manual or automatic) is opened too much.
For information about my CD with over 600 Seal & Pump Subjects explained, click
here
Link to Mc Nally home page
mcnallyinstitute.com/10-html/10-9.html 5/5