Water pump specs vs. actual output...

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K

kurare

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 7, 2010
111
1
48
Toronto
Sup folks, I'm setting up a 150g tank and going sump style, and I was wondering if anyone has ever bothered to test out their water pumps to see if their pump meets head output specs as per stated by the manufacturer?

Cause one, I'd like to get the right flow of water in/out and not bother with a trial and error, valve setup, or anything of the sort :P

Bought a Danner 9.5 btw., and i'm gonna test it out since i havent been able to find anything concrete anywhere on the internet about an individual testing the actual flow rates out of a certain head height.

If anyone has bothered to try pls LMK! and if you tried with a danner 9.5 LMK even know asap :D
 
I have the danner mag drive 18. My head height is only 4.5 ft. I have a T then splits to 2 returns with 1 elbow in each return. I did a rough estimate and I seem to be only getting 900 gph. So I am also interested in what you find.
 
It's a good question. I hear lot's of discussion on this subject, but, it seems relatively few actually physically test the output of their system. Pump output is affected by so many factors that it would be fruitless to ask someone if their pump works as advertised without intimately knowing their setup. My take is , you get what you pay for. Attention to detail and quality pumps should yield acceptable results.
Before anyone gets tweaky about this reply keep in mind the OP wants to skip "Trial and Error".;)
 
I finally got around to testing the setup where all my water will run...
the only thing i must say is that my test is crude.
Setup: reservoir > pump > tubing/pvc (setup @ 5') into another reservoir.
Run: had the system going, slid in reservoir, started timer for 1min, pointed the PVC outlet away after 60 seconds.

The grand total for the output was ~777gph.
But somewhere along the way between sliding in bucket and pointing away timer and a little splashing of water wherever i could just subtract 5% and it's still a reasonable value compared to the specs on the box at a head of 5 feet.

For those who wonder about size of pvc/tubing it goes like so:
3/4" outlet from pump
> 1" barb with 3/4" inlet/outlet
> 2 ft - 1" clear tubing
> 1" barb with 3/4" inlet/outlet
> 30" - PVC
> 90 degree elbow
> 36" - PVC
> 90 degree elbow
AND OUT = total distance is ~6 ft of travel

Thank for reading ^^
@david503bk your setup is unclear to me :(
 
So from my pump I got a 3/4 in union then 1.5 ft of 3/4 in pvc and ball valve. Then I have 3/4 in barb splitter(the barbs tee off from the pvc cause I have dual returns). 3/4 in vinyl hosing from there one side is less than a foot the other is 3.5 ft( I was told left to right plumbing doesn't count for head loss only up and down). So then from there its connected to a barbed bulkehead no bends to 2.5ft of 3/4 in pvc with an elbow on top and a dual locline as return. 2.5ft of pvc, elbow and locline is bothe sides I have dual reutrns hence the tee splitter. Hope this isn't confusing lol.

What I did to estimate my gph is I have ball valves on my drains. I closed them as much I can and that was a quarter of the way shut. So since my drains do 600gph each totaling 1200gph and the valves was closed 25% that equals 900gph. My pump at 6ft is 1200gph so I am missing over 300gph since my head height is 4.5ft only. It is hard for me to catch water coming from 4 nozzles almost 6ft apart. So any other ways I can a accurately test my gph?
 
David, I don't think your method is quantifiable. I don't think you should base your pump's output on this method. Short of a full scale mock up the only way I can think of to get a relatively accurate number is to diconnct the return where it splits and add a piece of hose equal to the length of the longest branch being careful to maintain the same head dimension. Direct the flow into a calibrated 5 gallon bucket, turn on the pump and count the number of seconds it takes to fill.
Devide the number of seconds it takes to fill by 5 to get seconds per gallon.
Multiply sec/gal x 60 to get gallons per minute.
GPM x 60 = GPH
This shoul get you a pretty accurate number.
Hope this helps. :)
 
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