Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

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DetroiTug
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by DetroiTug » Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:47 pm

Jon,

That should not matter pressure-wise as they are exhausting at nearly the same pressure. However if you have yours set up like mine to do auto boiler fill, exhausting hot water may degrade your condensers' effectiveness. The thermal losses would be much greater as well. You could run a submerged coil in your hotwell and exhaust in to that. 1/4" copper on the exhaust is probably ample.

-Ron
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by JonRiley56 » Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:50 pm

Thanks Ron !

I have it dumping into the hotwell now, but just with a straight lin down about 3/4 of the way. It "rolls" the water pretty heavily, I get a lot of hot vapor coming off it.

jon
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by JonRiley56 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:30 am

Hey Ron,

I dropped you an email on your work address, let me know if you didnt get it
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DetroiTug
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by DetroiTug » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:48 pm

Yes received and responded.. :D
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by Adamsmi1 » Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:39 am

After 6 years in service how have the pumps held up?
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by DetroiTug » Fri Jun 07, 2019 2:41 pm

They've held up just fine, but they are a bit finicky.

The steam/water going to the steam side needs to be very clean.

The O-rings on the piston and valve rods need to be high durometer neoprene.

Have to lubricate this pump with a good reliable displacement oiler, can't run O-rings and rely on saturated steam etc. I think it would behoove the builder to incorporate real packing glands with real graphite-flax packing on the piston and valve rods on the steam side, and there is room to do that, they can tolerate lack of lubrication. The water side is fine with O-rings.

They are noisy at high pressure, the shuttle clacks back and forth, and it's more annoying on a steel hull. Some redesign of that can probably quieten it down, i.e. hollow out the shuttle pistons and make it lighter

All in all they are great little pumps and a nice show feature to have.

-Ron
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Re: Southworth 12" Vertical pumps

Post by Adamsmi1 » Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:41 am

Thanks for the reply Ron,

Its great to hear how things perform in real life.

A few note worthy improvements..

Adam
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