Factors Impacting your Water Pumps as the Altitude Increases

Are you using your water pumps at a place higher than sea level? Wondering how altitude affects the working of your pump and what you should do to overcome it? If yes, then you’ve come to the right place. Here, in today’s article, we take an in-depth look at how altitude affects your pump systems. Relationship between Atmospheric Pressure and Altitude Before, we take a look at how altitude affects your water pumps; let’s understand the relationship between altitude and the prevailing atmospheric pressure. Definition of Atmospheric Pressure  It’s the pressure that’s exerted by the air weighing down on Earth at any particular point on the Earth’s surface. This depends on the amount of air at that particular point and varies from one location to another. Since, it depends on the amount of air at any point, as the altitude increases the pressure decreases. This is because the further, one moves from sea level, the air thins, causing a reduction in pressure. The atmospheric pressure depends on several factors like density, the surrounding temperature, the water content in the air and the altitude. This means with a decrease in air pressure, the volume of flow is significantly impacted. Now, let’s take a look at how the Altitude impacts your Pump’s Operations Altitude can either help in improving your pump’s performance or cause it to fall, depending on several factors like the atmospheric pressure, specific gravity and oxygen deprivation. The Relation between Specific Gravity, Atmospheric Pressure, and Altitude According to the rules of specific gravity, water can be pumped up from 26 feet or lesser, while operating a pump at sea level. This height at which the water moves up (26 feet) is reduced when the altitude increases, due to the decrease in atmospheric pressure. The rough rule of thumb to follow here is for every 1000 feet you move up, you have to reduce approximately 2 feet of water displacement height. So, make sure to locate your pump as close as possible to the source of water. Elevation & Suction Lift Take a look at this table to understand how elevation affects suction lift.

Altitude	Suction Lift (Feet)
Sea Level	10.0	15.0	20.0	25.0
2000 feet above sea level	8.8	13.2	17.6	22.0
4000 feet above sea level	7.8	11.7	15.6	19.5
6000 feet above sea level	6.9	10.4	13.8	17.3
8000 feet above sea level	6.2	9.3	12.4	15.5
10000 feet above sea level	5.7	8.6	11.4	14.3

From this table, one can understand that if a particular pump can provide a lift of 15.0 feet at sea level, the same pump can provide only a lift of 8.6 feet at the height of 10k feet above sea-level.

Altitude	Discharge Flow	Discharge Head
Sea level	100 %	100 %
2000 feet above sea level	97 %	95 %
4000 feet above sea level	95 %	91 %
6000 feet above sea level	93 %	87 %
8000 feet above sea level	91 %	83 %
10000 feet above sea level	88 %	78 %

  From this table, one can understand that if a pump has 100% discharge flow at sea-level, it performs only at 91% at 8000 feet above sea-level. How to overcome these issues of Pumping at Altitude? When you operate pumps at high altitudes, you have a different set of requirements than regular users. This is why here at Sintech, we offer modifications to suit your specific requirements. Our high altitude pumps alleviate issues faced like increased power consumption, increased emissions, spark plug fouling and hard starting. If you require customized pumps that are capable of operating at high altitudes, just get in touch Sintech, the leading pump manufacturers, and suppliers in India and overseas. Our pump care experts provide you with tailored solutions. Give us a call at +91-120-4176000 or drop a line at info@sintechpumps.com to get immediate help with all your inquiries.