The check valve discussion.

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Pumpman

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Shack,
These were oil lubricated with a 2 3/16", 17-4 s.s. shaft inside a 4" enclosing tube with bronze bearings every 5'. The shaft/enclosing tube was centered in the 12" column pipe using Trico centralizers every 100'.
Everything was installed in 20' sections.
The pumps were anywhere between 26 and 36 stage, depending on depth, and were driven by 4160V 800 hp motors. The bowl assembly had 4" of endplay and you need every bit of it. Once the pump and all column pipe is in the ground, you have to "pull tension" on the shaft and oil tube. The top column pipe had a spider welded in it that the shaft/tube came up through, and the top oil tube was threaded for a big nut. We used the rig to lift the weight of the tube (usually about 35, 000 lbs.) to ensure it was straight and held it there with the nut. The discharge head was then mounted along with the stand and motor.
Once that was done, we needed to set the impellers in the bowls. I calculated the weight of the shaft and we used a crane and a dyno to lift the shaft. Once we had the weight of the shaft on the dyno, we would continue to lift the shaft until the weight on the dyno increased. When the weight increased, I knew the impellers were against the top of the bowls. We would then lower the shaft 3/4" and set the adjusting nut on top of the motor. We ran the pump until the brine came up to temp., usually about 350 degrees. We then shut it down and respaced the impellers to take into account the growth from the hot brine. Once this was done, the pump was restarted and set to the plant.
BYW, it takes approx. 48 straight hours to install one of these pumps.
Ron
 

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The pumps were made by Johnston Pump, out of Brookshire, Tx.
I used to be a factory rep for them.
Actually, once we pulled tension on the oil tube, the spiders weren't even in play anymore. They were only used to facilitate installation.
Ron
 

neili

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I sold an old used Johnston Pump once. It was pretty tought to find information on it. Are johnston pumps still in production? I know MAPS had a tough time finding me information on them.

I didn't know that about spiders. Is this the case because of the amount of tension used or is this the case on all oil lube lineshaft pumps.
 

Pumpman

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Johnston is still alive and well in Texas. I think they're part of the Sulzer Pump Co. now.
I think the spiders are still important on the shallow settings. At deep settings the shaft/oil tube still "snakes" down despite the spiders in place.
That's the reason we pull tension, to straighten it out and center it in the column.
Ron
 

Rshackleford

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I think you are right about Sulzer. I remember hearing that when I was on hold. We do some work with Crown Pumps. It was disappointing when Crown was moved or bought out or whatever.

This thread just grows and grows, great.

Are oil lube pump still legal in your area? We still use them, but I am surprised.

Since this thread is just all over the place I have anther question. This last season we had several Goulds turbines that were just hammered. The funny part is they were all shipped out the same year (around 1998) and they all had about 7500 hours on them. These pumps were hammered way beyond our expectation for that age of pump. There was no amount of ceramic coating and brass rings that would have brought these pumps back around. The thing that made us wonder was that they were all the same age. Have any of you experienced this with Goulds bowls of that age?
 

Pumpman

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About the only oil lubed pumps around here are used in the geothermal industry.
You don't see many ag pumps in this area, as our water (Colorado River) is delivered via canal systems. Rural homes in this area are canal fed, so there isn't much call for submersible well pumps, either.
I've never seen this problem with Goulds pumps, but I did see similar problems with pumps from another manufacturer a few years back. Turns out that the foundry that made the impeller castings were not following the specs on the material close enough, turning out a subpar grade impeller. They (the impellers) didn't last very long.
Ron
 

Rshackleford

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I know that this is way off topic, but I guess this has kind of become a turbine thread as well.

I helped our drillers set a turbine a couple of days ago. Normally we use a smeal rig and everything is done by hand. However on the back of the rig there is a cathead. This was pretty awesome for making up column pipe. It almost took all the work out of setting a turbine. I am thinking that we need to setup our smeal truck with a cathead. I assume that something like this is used on the 2000’ set geothermal pumps.
 

Speedbump

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Sometimes it's good to jump around. It keeps us on our toes.

Has anyone heard any more on the check valve issue? I still can't think of one good reason for it being above the pump 40'.

bob...
 

Rshackleford

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rshackleford said:
Okay, I just got a phone call from our pump supplier. Part of the reason that they recommend placing the check valve up is the “that’s what daddy used to do and his daddy and his . . .†rational. They say that Layne recommended the check valves be placed in such a position and have continued to recommend that throughout the years.

The other rational they used was from a friction and minor loss point of view. The claim is that if the water flow is allowed to straighten out in a couple of lengths of pipe there is less friction loss in the check valve. I suppose laminar flow through a check might indeed have less friction loss than the turbulent flow directly after the pump.

I hope that I was able to explain this well enough.

This is still all the informaiton I have.
 

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We used hydraulic tongs on both the column pipe and the oil tube. The tongs were set at 3600 ft/lbs. for the column and 1000 for the tube, as I recall. They had to be very tight because of the depth and weight.
We have used the cathead to spin up the tube before putting the tongs on.
Ron
 

Rshackleford

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I don’t want this thread to die! It has been a pretty good dialogue.

What do you do when someone wants a well that will drain back for frost purposes? Do you drill a hole in the check, remove it all together, or drill a hole in the column pipe? Why?

I have thought it a good idea to drill to holes in the drop pipe opposing each other. Place a wire through these holes and bend the wire so that it cannot fall out. The wire will keep water from coming out the holes under pressure so bad. The wire will jiggle as water flows by and keep rust from clogging the hole. Also, the wire should disrupt the drain back so that the water trickles down the drop pipe rather than squirting against the casing. Any thoughts?
 

Speedbump

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Shack, that is a great idea on the two holes and the wire. I have never seen that before. We drill a small hole in the droppipe (which plugs up on some wells in a few years) to make air to a galvanized tank. We put a check valve at the tank an air release valve on the tank and a footvalve upside down on the top of the droppipe. Works great until the hole plugs, I'll bet a piece of "copper wire" would not rot out and would work just as well. Or would it wear through from all the wiggling around?


bob...
 

Speedbump

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I don't think copper would wear on the steel pipe since it's softer, but it might wear itself through and find it's self in the pump screen.

bob...
 
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