Dewatering hot water from manholes

[Len Phillips]

Posted for Paul Razo of Detroit Thermal:

What procedures are you using for dewatering extremely hot water from manholes? I am looking for names of pumps that are not mounted in manholes but pumps that are kept on the trucks for flooding situations, and specifically for when the water is very hot. Seems like when I have very hot water to pump the pumps quit. Thanks.

[Tim Gephardt - University of Missouri - Columbia]

Paul,

As far as portable pumps for dewatering flooded steam manholes are
concerned, we use the Versamatic Sludgemaster pneumatic centrifugal
pump. This pump works well for pumping very hot water, but, we have
had some issues in the past with the pump seizing up over time when it
sits in our storage area waiting for use.

We have repaired two of these pumps in-house for far less cost than
purchasing new pumps and have found that it is simply rust that causes
the pump to seize. The rubber o-rings looked fine (not melted) but
there was significant corrosion on the lower open face ball bearing.

To try to prevent this corrosion from occuring again we are being more
diligent in checking and changing the oil, as well as putting oil in
the air inlet after use and spinning the pump for a few minutes. The
pump is designed to consume oil so that will draw down the oil level.
Also, the oil can become contaminated with water where the oil
reservoir looks full, but the bottom of the reservoir could be mostly
water. Therefore changing the oil and preventing water entry through
the pump air exhaust via a check valve or another air line out of the
manhole, is important.

The pump is 60 lbs itself, plus with the discharge hose, air line and
a rope, it is definitely a two man job to safely lower this pump down
into a manhole.

-Tim

[Rundle, Gordon]

We are currently using Chicago Pneumatic submersible pumps on our trucks. If you are looking for an electric  option, Little Giant makes a high temp submersible as well.

 

Gordon Rundle

Thermal Project Manager

366 Kentucky Ave, Indianapolis IN 46225

Office / Fax 317.693.8854

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Distribution Forum" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/distribution-forum/-/iMQyAEUBp_UJ.
To post to this group, send email to distribut...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to distribution-fo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/distribution-forum?hl=en.

[Petty, David]

We use a hydraulic submersible.  A hydraulically driven pump head with the power pack located in the vehicle. Our unit is manufactured by Atlas Copco.  See attached photo.

 

 

Best regards;

David Petty

Plant Manager

 

 

Nassau Energy Corp.

185 Charles Lindbergh Blvd.

Garden City, New York, 11530

Tel. 516-222-1022 x 220 - fax 516-222-2047

Email:  david...@gdfsuezna.com

 

[Molnar, John]

The best pump we found for us is the little giant. It seemed to be able to take the condensate’s heat the best. We sometimes use two. 1 in the manhole and 1 on standing by and swap then before they get to hot  when the water is extremely high.

 

John Molnar

Supervisor, Steam Distribution

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pa. 16802

Office: (814)-865-5434

Cell: (814)-215-7397

E mail: jf...@psu.edu

 

 

 

From: distribut...@googlegroups.com [mailto:distribut...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Len Phillips
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:06 PM
To: distribut...@googlegroups.com
Subject: {Distribution Forum} Dewatering hot water from manholes

 

Posted for Paul Razo of Detroit Thermal:

What procedures are you using for dewatering extremely hot water from manholes? I am looking for names of pumps that are not mounted in manholes but pumps that are kept on the trucks for flooding situations, and specifically for when the water is very hot. Seems like when I have very hot water to pump the pumps quit. Thanks.

 

--

[c.n.edwards]

At UMCP we use BJM J15-F-230T 230V 3-phase pump good up to 210 DEGF. Works great and pumps quickly at 150 GPM. Since its 3 phase, we purchased a single phase to 3 phase 230V VFD ($500) from PLC Direct and hooked it up to the mechanic's truck mounted welder. The pump weighs about 60 LBS, but holes that used to take 2 hours now take 30 minutes.

 

We didn't have much luck with StaRite pumps. They kept failing.

On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:05:54 PM UTC-4, Len Phillips wrote:

[Tim Gephardt - University of Missouri - Columbia]

For those of you using hydraulic submersibles, such as the atlas copco shown elsewhere in this thread, are you having good luck with these pumps pumping very hot (near boiling) water?  Are the pumps able to pump the near boiling water?  Are the water pump and hydraulic power pack operating reliably?  We have an Atlas Copco LTP3 pump and LP-9-20 power pack unit we are trying out, but we want to make sure we are purchasing a reliable machine.  You can contact me off list at geph...@missouri.edu if you like.  Thank you!

[Tim Gephardt - University of Missouri - Columbia]

I just wanted to update this post from two years ago.  We ended up purchasing the Atlas Copco unit we were trying out two years ago, a new Atlas Copco LTP3 pump and LP-9-20 power pack.  So far the only thing we have had go wrong with it was an o-ring on the pump that we repaired in-house.  The hydraulic bio-oil that we had to put back in the machine was very expensive at $90/gallon, but overall I would recommend it for pumping flooded steam vaults, particularly over any air powered pump.