Franklin didn’t use their 40 year head start to make a motor better than everyone else. They used that time to buy out and eliminate many competing motor companies. Every time they got rid of a competitor, they put less quality into their own motor. Franklin had a monopoly on the submersible motor market for many years. I was told the government didn’t see it as a monopoly because the submersible motor market is such a small part of the overall motor market, but make no mistake about it, it was a monopoly.
When Franklin bought out Jacuzzi and got into the pump business, they thought they would use their monopoly on motors to drive several other pump companies out of business. They tried to pull their motors from other manufacturers like Goulds and Sta-Rite (Pentair). A judge made them honor a contract which meant they had to supply Goulds and Pentair for another year or so. During that time Goulds and Pentair partnered up to make a new motor as quickly as possible. If they hadn’t gotten that Faradyne motor in production before their contract with Franklin ran out, they would effectively have been out of business.
Franklin had a monopoly on motors for so long, they thought they could get a monopoly on pumps the same way by not selling motors to these other companies, running them out of business. It would have worked to, except for those pesky contracts. By the time the contracts where expired, Goulds and Pentair had their own motor. Not only did this give Goulds and Pentair time to make their own motor, but dozens of other brands of motors are now on the American market.
So Franklin went from being the only supplier of motors in the US, to just being one of the many pump companies who now have their own motor. Can you say “backfire”. I was glad to see it as they needed some competition. They had been cheapening up their motors for years. Now we have a choice of a bunch of different brands of cheaply built motors. So far I haven’t seen one I thought was superior to any of the others.
The pump ends are all the same except for the Plastic or Stainless Steel end bells. Of course the Stainless Steel end bells are better. But it is not worth paying very much extra for. I have installed thousands of pumps with plastic end bells. The trick is getting them tight enough not to leak or come unscrewed without tightening enough to split them. Other than that it is exactly the same pump.
I think it is interesting that when someone calls Franklin they say there isn’t any difference between a Franklin J Series and a Little Giant. This is what I have been saying for years, but this is not what they are telling their contractors.