Pump guides and advice
These pages explain the pump gear that is already on your property, what it is doing, and what to do when it stops doing it. Start with the explainer that matches what you have, use the fault finding pages if something is wrong right now, and use the install guides if you are putting a pump in yourself.
Written by the people who install and service this gear around Waihi, Thames and the Coromandel. If the answer is that nothing is wrong, that is what it will say.
Where to start
A pressure switch, a pressure controller or a variable speed pump. The three explainers below tell you which one is bolted to your pump.
Cycling, humming, no water, tripping the breaker. The fault finding pages take the symptom and point at the part.
Suction lift, flooded suction or submersible. Three separate installs with three separate sets of rules.
What is on my pump, and what does it do?
Every pressure system needs something to tell the pump when to start and when to stop. There are three ways it gets done, and which one you have decides how the system behaves and what fails on it.
What is a pressure switch?
The oldest and simplest method. Cut in and cut out pressure explained, why a switch needs a pressure tank behind it, and how to tell when the switch itself has failed.
What is a pressure controller?
Torrium2, PM Plus and the like. Pressure and flow sensing plus dry run protection in one unit, which is why it usually does away with the pressure tank.
What is a VSD or variable speed pump?
The pump slows down instead of stopping. What constant pressure actually feels like at the tap, the power and noise questions, and when a fixed speed pump plus a controller is the better buy.
Not sure which you have?
Photograph the pump and whatever is bolted on top of it, email it to contact@pumpstuff.co.nz, and we will tell you. It is usually obvious from the photo.
Something is wrong with the pump
Start with what it is doing, not with what you think is broken. Most pump callouts we go to are one of a small handful of faults, and a couple of them you can sort out yourself in ten minutes.
Common pump faults and what they mean
Hums but will not start, runs and never stops, noisy, leaking between motor and pump. Each symptom matched to the part behind it, plus what you can safely check before you call anyone.
Why is my pump turning on and off?
Cycling when no tap is open means water is going somewhere. The valve test to prove it, then the four usual causes: a leaking toilet valve, the pressure tank, a non return valve, or the controller.
If the pump is running dry, hot, or tripping the breaker repeatedly, isolate it and stop. Every restart is doing more damage than the fault already has.
Installing a pump yourself
Which guide you need is decided by where the pump sits relative to the water. Above it, below it, or in it. Pick the one that matches your site and follow it through, because the rules are genuinely different for each.
Flooded suction install guide
Pump below the tank outlet, water feeds in under gravity. The easiest and most reliable setup if your site allows it. Suction line, pressure settings, and starting it for the first time.
Suction lift install guide
Pump above the water, drawing up. The install that goes wrong most often. How high a pump can actually suck, foot valves, suction line, priming and commissioning.
Submersible pump install guide
Pump in the bore, tank or pit. Choosing the right one, where it sits, the discharge line, why submersibles fail electrically, and how to commission it.
Rather we did it?
We install and service pumps around Waihi, Thames and the Coromandel every week, and we are on call for the ones that cannot wait.
What we stock for all of this
House pumps
Pressure pumps for tank and town supply, fixed speed and variable speed. Davey DynaDrive, Davey EvoDrive, Davey HM Series and the DAB E.SYBOX.
Bore and submersible pumps
Down the bore or in the tank. Grundfos SQE, the Grundfos SBA and the DAB E.SYDIVER. Also see submersible pumps.
Controllers, tanks and parts
Davey Torrium2, Grundfos PM PLUS and PM Start controllers, Davey Supercell pressure tanks and a pump cover to keep the weather off it.
Everything else
Firefighting, dewatering, garden and transfer pumps in the full pumps range. If you cannot see what you need, ring us, because we do not list everything we can get.
If it is the water and not the pump
Discoloured water, staining, smell and taste are filtration problems, not pump problems. A pump moves whatever is in the tank, good or bad.
Filtration guides and advice
Cartridge choice, filter and UV lamp changes, and water testing. The same straight answers, aimed at what comes out of the tap.
More pump guides are on the way. If there is something you want covered, tell us and we will write it.
Talk to us
Tell us what the pump is doing, what it is drawing from, and roughly how old it is. Most of these turn into a two minute conversation. A real person picks up.
65 Kenny Street, Waihi, Monday to Friday 8 to 5. 74 Kopu Road, Kopu, Thames, Monday to Friday 8 to 3.
