Do pumps not pump water up to a certain height?

B

Browserz

New member
I have a QuietOne 5000 pump, and I was looking at this chart

http://www.swisstropicals.com/wp_site/wp-content/uploads/Lifegard-Aquatics-Quiet-One-pump-specs.pdf

From the chart, it says at 11.8ft the flow rate is 0. Would water just stop pumping at this height?

I wanted to put my water storage in my basement and was thinking I could just use this pump to pump water from the basement to my display tank. Would make water changes a lot easier if I could do this. I don't care for the speed in which it pumps, just that it eventually pumps water up that high..
 
Correct, at max head pressure the pump will not be able to force water any higher. Although the pump is running you may or may not even get a trickle at max height.
 
There is a max head pressure (Lift) of any pump. There are options of pumps you can look into that will pump from your basement tho.
 
Max head pressure is calculated by the height of the pipe and the I.D. of the pipe.
The weight of the water in the pipe is what max's out the strength of the pump.
 
I'm running a jebao DCT-1500 in my basement sump, it works well and is quiet. mind you I only have 9' head height (old house with 6'4" clearance in the basement.)
 
Dale_M said:
Max head pressure is calculated by the height of the pipe and the I.D. of the pipe.
The weight of the water in the pipe is what max's out the strength of the pump.
Click to expand...

Head pressure does not depend on the ID of the pipe. Head pressure is measured in feet, and is a shorthand for pressure..... Actual pressure is force/area.... so as the ID goes up, the mass goes up, the force goes up, but the area the force is acting against goes up.... so you can just talk in terms of head. The head on a 12 foot 1" vertical pipe is the same as the head on a 12 foot 3" vertical line.

The pressure at any depth is P = rho * g * h

rho is density of water, g is grav constant, h is ht of water column.
Since rho and g are constants (at any given condition of water) you can essentially substitute the height of the water (in units of length) for pressure (in units of force/area).
 
LX20000 said:
Head pressure does not depend on the ID of the pipe. Head pressure is measured in feet, and is a shorthand for pressure..... Actual pressure is force/area.... so as the ID goes up, the mass goes up, the force goes up, but the area the force is acting against goes up.... so you can just talk in terms of head. The head on a 12 foot 1" vertical pipe is the same as the head on a 12 foot 3" vertical line.

The pressure at any depth is P = rho * g * h

rho is density of water, g is grav constant, h is ht of water column.
Since rho and g are constants (at any given condition of water) you can essentially substitute the height of the water (in units of length) for pressure (in units of force/area).
Click to expand...

The ID and length of the pipe along with any valves or bends in the pipe will equate to a pressure loss (due to friction) which will reduce the amount of available pumping head.

In a cylindrical pipe of uniform diameter D, flowing full, the pressure loss due to viscous effects Δp is proportional to length L and can be characterized by the Darcy"“Weisbach equation:[2]

where the pressure loss per unit length
Δp
/
L
(SI units: Pa/m) is a function of:
7717b00956ce0367261ff695e740ec8d0e7d90e4


ρ, the density of the fluid (kg/m3);
D, the hydraulic diameter of the pipe (for a pipe of circular section, this equals the internal diameter of the pipe) (m);
⟨v⟩, the mean flow velocity, experimentally measured as the volumetric flow rate Q per unit cross-sectional wetted area (m/s);
fD, the Darcy friction factor.fD is called flow coefficient λ by some.[3][4]
t
 
To answer the op, the water would be like a fountain: the height of the jet might not reach the end of the hypothetical upright hose. You need a gph (gallons per hour) at the hose exit (the lift) to equal the desired turnover rate for the volume of your tank. Desirable turnover depends on what you're keeping, but it's expressed in terms of tank water volume being replaced how many times an hour.
 
Thanks for the lesson in head pressure...
I've only been a valve and piping designer for the last 30 yrs and didn't learn much.
 
Browserz said:
I have a QuietOne 5000 pump, and I was looking at this chart

http://www.swisstropicals.com/wp_site/wp-content/uploads/Lifegard-Aquatics-Quiet-One-pump-specs.pdf

From the chart, it says at 11.8ft the flow rate is 0. Would water just stop pumping at this height?

I wanted to put my water storage in my basement and was thinking I could just use this pump to pump water from the basement to my display tank. Would make water changes a lot easier if I could do this. I don't care for the speed in which it pumps, just that it eventually pumps water up that high..
Click to expand...


Lots of crazy talk above.

The practical answer to your question is yes. I did what you're thinking of doing back when I had a 55g. Used the same line used for pumping as for draining to a floor drain. I used a mag18 for many years from the basement to the first floor. Great utility pump.
 
Practically speaking, too, its better to buy a pump slightly larger than you need rather than perhaps too small, and then install a gate valve in the 'up' line that you can throttle down a little.
 
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