The Callaghan Pump Advantage — Preprogramming and Pretesting of Our Domestic Water Pump Systems

August 14th, 2018

At Callaghan Pump and Controls, we build our own domestic water variable speed booster systems. We also build and package all our tank filled systems that are used quite often in New York City.

Callaghan Pump has the option of choosing any manufacturer’s variable speed drive on the market, but we will absolutely not use what is called a dumb drive. Even though they are cheaper, you can find a 5 horsepower drive for about $125.00, in the long run the initial cost savings is just not worth it. Instead, we use smart drives made by Yaskawa which eliminate the need for programmable logic controllers.

We put these drives together in our shop in Hackensack where we have the ability to test single phase 115/220. We more commonly test 208 three phase. We also have a transformer so that we can test 480 volt. Why is this important? It is extremely important because prior to shipping any variable speed drive domestic water booster system or any variable speed tank filled system, we pressure test the system in our shop, then we program the system. Our average system might be programmed to maintain 80 psi.

We can run the system in our shop. We have a tank on the roof and a tank in our shop. We run the water up to the roof in a circle and back down into the pump system. We do this with the control panel open and we have what is known as flir (forward looking infrared). We scan the entire control panel to examine the connections checking for any loose ones. Any loose connections will show up extremely hot. Or, when using thermal imaging, they show up a very bright white. This testing ensures that every package we send out is correct and all connections are tight. We heat cycle them, run them, let them cool down again, then we run them again. We run them using water so that we duplicate the actual conditions at the job site. All of our systems are corrected for rotation in our shop.

Once the system gets to the job site, it does not matter what the electrician does- we know that our motors are set and will spin the right direction, because Yaskawa IQ 1000 drives automatically correct for rotation because they take three phase in: AC power converted to DC power which is essentially two phases; then back to three phase. Once the drive is corrected for rotation, the smart drive locks it in. If a customer tells me, he wants 80 pounds of pressure that is where the pump will go to sleep. I typically have it wake up and start pumping again once the pressure has dropped 7 psi. If the first pump runs full speed which is 60 hertz for more than 10 seconds, the second pump will start and they will work together. They run together at the same speed until they get down to a preset speed, typically 40 hertz, and one pump will destage and the remaining pump will be in the lead.  Nobody else does this kind of testing and programming.

All a customer needs to do for startup is bring the incoming water pipe, the discharge pipe, 3 hot 208 volt, and a ground. Then, they will need to open all the water pipes, drain the air out of the top of the pump, and press the blue auto button on both drives. We put our key pads through the door and we put our heat syncs out in the back of the controller, which allows for heat dissipation and a cooler control panel inside temperature. This makes your domestic water booster system or tank filled system last longer.

Startup is already conducted at our shop making your process simpler.  All customers need to do is let the water in, let the air out, and press auto. The pumps will go right to the preset speed of your choice and shut off if no one is using water.  You cannot go wrong with a variable speed water booster system and smart drive from Callaghan Pump.