Draining a footing
December 5, 2014

A very pleasant gentleman called us today to ask about one of our portable engine-driven trash pumps. He explained that he wanted to drain some footings that had been dug for a household construction project and that had subsequently been flooded by rainfall.

Now, it's important to know that we do not offer pump recommendations -- there are just too many variables involved with any given pumping application for us to be involved in picking pumps from our online store. (Pump application and selection assistance is something we do every day for local customers on engineered applications, but that's because we have special local knowledge of conditions prevailing in Iowa and Nebraska.) However, this was a case where the customer was trying to pick a pump that was completely wrong for the purpose, so we advised strongly against choosing the pump he had in mind.

The footings the customer described were only about 1' in diameter and 2' deep. In other words, about 1.6 cubic feet -- or around 12 gallons, if completely full.

One of our engine-driven trash pumps would be too much pump for the job. That would be like using a blender to put sugar in your coffee. Much more appropriate to a small drainage application like this might be one of our handheld utility pumps or even a hand-operated pump.

Again, we're not equipped to make pump selections for our online customers. Pumps are affected by everything from local power supplies to elevation, and from water quality to the type of hoses used for suction and discharge. We share Gorman-Rupp's pump application manual freely since it is a great tool for making those selections. But we thought this particular case was one worth sharing because it illustrates our thinking on the importance of getting the right pump for the job -- not just selling the pump with the highest price. AMT's engine-driven trash pumps are great for workhorse jobs where the volumes involved are in the dozens or more, and we're happy to sell them. Get the right pump for the job, and don't trust anyone whose solitary goal is to get you to spend as much money as possible on a pump. Sometimes the best fit is surprisingly compact.

December 2014
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