Do 90degree fittings on the inlet side of an external pump affect gph?

[weaglereefer]

I want my return pump chamber in my new sump to be in the middle, but I want the pump to be accessible from the side of the stand should I need to service it. This will result in a 90degree fitting coming directly off the bulkhead (probably a street elbow) and traveling 18" or so horizontally to the pump's inlet. Will this result in any loss? Would upsizing the bulkhead and pipe to 1.25" (then adapt back to 1" at the pump's input) help in reducing this loss?

 

[smoothie]

Any angle is going to result in a little loss. I can't remember the shelf name of it but the smooth angled elbow would be the way to go

 

[acroholic]

I have a BL 1740 gallon pressure rated pump (1" in/out) set up in the same way. I first plumbed the intake with a 1" street elbow, and it worked, but at full speed it cavitated, meaning it made a lot of noise, and it would not surprise me if it was not pulling at full power.

I upsized to a 1 1/4" 90 degree slip x slip, then downsized with 1" female threaded x 1 1/4" slip reducer bushings and that eliminated the cavitation.

Definitely do it.

 

[moebious]

"Sweep"... but i don't think they make them smaller than 1 1/2".

 

[acroholic]

I doubt you'd notice the loss, if any. People do this all the time.

 

[weaglereefer]

Ok, cool. Basically my cabinet will have an enclosed electrical compartment on the right side. The sump will be on the left/middle. The return line will exit through a bulkhead at the rear middle chamber of the sump and then go to the right where the pump will be located behind the electrical compartment. Since all sides of the stand will be removable, this will allow for easy access if I need to remove it for something.

 

[grouper therapy]

Acroholic;557870 wrote: I have a BL 1740 gallon pressure rated pump (1" in/out) set up in the same way. I first plumbed the intake with a 1" street elbow, and it worked, but at full speed it cavitated, meaning it made a lot of noise, and it would not surprise me if it was not pulling at full power.

I upsized to a 1 1/4" 90 degree slip x slip, then downsized with 1" female threaded x 1 1/4" slip reducer bushings and that eliminated the cavitation.

Definitely do it.

most definitly

 

[budsreef]

I do the same with both of my systems. As Dave said the issue is possible cavitation if the pump isn't receiving all the water it should. I'm not sure of the engineering aspects of this but I've read that most of the pumps can't really suck water on startup they have to be fed it.

If the pump has a 1" input, then I'd drill and install a 1.5" bulkhead, do a 1.5" 90, then a 1.5" ball valve, then 1.5" union, then a 1.5"X1" reducer right to the pump input. Lowes has a 1.5" ball valve/union combination if you want to save a little plumbing but they are expensive.

Other than the ball valve/union from Lowes, I get my seperate ball valves and unions from Home Depot since they actually have a little wider inside dimension than the ones from Lowes.

 

[enderg60]

pipe size should be 2x the sizes of the pump. so if your outlet is 3/4" go 1.5" you can reduce it to go through fittings, thats fine. try to use as few elbows as possible but do go nuts if you need to use them, its not that big a deal.