Honda held a product training in New Zealand on their line of pump products. The training covered pump terminology, types of pumps including water pumps, diesel pumps, trash pumps and light chemical pumps. It discussed identifying customer needs, specifying the appropriate pump using performance curves, and considerations like priming and suction head. Common questions were also addressed.

1. Honda Pumps Product Training
March 2022, New Zealand
By Andrew Witham

2. Training Content
• Specifying a Pump - Terminology
• Pump types
• Identifying your customers needs
• Specifying a pump
• Performance Curves and pump calculator
• Considerations
• Questions

3. Specifying a Pump - Terminology
• Head is the vertical distance the water is required to be discharged in metres
• Suction head is the vertical distance between the pump and the water source in metres
• Friction loss is the resulting resistance as water moves along the inside wall of either a
hose, pipe, or hose fittings. How long are the hoses in metres?
• As a rule of thumb for every 10m of hose allow 1m of head loss due to friction
• Head can be converted to PSI by multiplying the maximum head of a pump x 1.42 e.g. 36m
head x 1.42 = 51.1 PSI
• PSI conversion above is only correct at the discharge end of the pump, not at the end of a
long discharge hose

4. Identifying your Customers Needs
• Identifying your customers needs and specifying a pump can be daunting at first but if you
ask the right questions you will get it right and your customer will be happy
• Start by asking your customer basic questions
1. What liquid do they want to pump? Fresh water, salt water, dirty water, milk, fertiliser,
bee syrup etc. This will help you determine which type of pump to start thinking about.
e.g. a water pump, trash pump, diesel pump or chemical pump
2. How close can they get the pump to the source? This will determine suction head
3. How high do they need to pump it? Is it going from a gulley to the top? Or tank to
tank? This will determine the discharge head
4. How far do they need to pump it? How long will the discharge hose need to be? This
will determine frictional losses
5. Do they need a particular flow rate? Is it time critical or can they let the pump run for
any amount of time?
• Keep in mind that you may not be able to offer a pump that fits the customers needs if they
are unusual

5. Specifying a Pump
• Determine how high the pump will sit above
the water source (suction head). Ask your
customer
• Determine how high the discharge end will
be elevated above the pump (discharge
head). Ask your customer
• For long distances consider the frictional
loses inside the pipe. Ask your customer
• Rule of thumb: for every 10 metres of hose,
allow frictional losses of 1m of head
• Calculate Total head = suction head +
discharge head + frictional losses
• Use the pump performance curves to
estimate the discharge flow rate

6. Pump Performance Curves
• Use the total head (suction head + discharge
head + frictional losses) to read off the estimated
discharge on the graph in litres/min
• e.g. a WB20 at 20 metres of total head will
discharge around 350 l/min
• e.g. a WB30 used on a water tanker with little to
no head will discharge around 1000 l/min
• As a comparison a really high flow kitchen tap will
output around 20 l/min
• Our pumps move a lot of water!
• The UP650 high pressure pump has outstanding
high head and still maintains an excellent flow
rate.

7. Honda Pump Types
• Water pumps
• Diesel pumps
• Trash pumps
• Light chemical pumps

8. Water Pumps – Low Pressure
• Specified by inlet and outlet size, e.g. 1”, 1 ½”, 2” & 3” e.g. WX10 is 1”, WB20 2” etc
• These have high flow rate and relatively low pressure
• Used for pumping fresh water
• Typically used for transferring tank to tank or stream to tank- low head
• Can handle small amounts of debris, some call them semi-trash, strainer holes indicate
maximum size of solids that the pump can handle.
• Seals are designed for water only but sometimes used for other liquids such as bee syrup
• Cost effective
WX10 WB30
WB20
WX15

9. Water Pumps – Low Pressure
• Our WX10, WX15, WB20 and WB30 water pumps use a semi open
impeller with vanes that are attached to a single plate, leaving the
other side of the impeller exposed to the interior of the pump
housing
• This design is less efficient than the closed impeller because the
liquid is immediately interacting with the rest of the liquid in the
pump casing
• Semi-Closed impellers have a back wall that adds strength to the
impeller
• Semi-closed impellers are usually used with liquids or products that
have solids
• Reduced efficiency is a common problem with semi-closed
impellers, but the ability to pass solids is an important trade-off
• The volute is the snail like shell casing

10. Water Pumps - High Pressure
• Ideal for high head water transfer applications e.g.
pumping water from a creek down in a gully to a storage
tank at the top to supply stock troughs
• Ideal for firefighting when fitted with 1” discharge hoses
and nozzles
• Closed impeller
• Closed impellers have a back and front wall around the
vanes, to increase strength.
• They don't do well with solids and are difficult to clean if
they become clogged but provide much higher head
• Optionally available with roll frame or electric start
UP650M

11. Diesel Pumps
• These are essentially standard water pumps with the seals changed to Viton
• Honda New Zealand fit the seal kits in Auckland
• Same as water pumps specified by inlet and outlet size, e.g. 1 ½” & 2”
• Used for pumping diesel tank to tank e.g. refuelling trailers to vehicle fuel tanks
• DSL at the end of the model name denotes Viton seal kit fitted
WX15DSL WB20DSL

12. Trash Pumps
• Heavy duty robust design
• Used for pumping dirty, muddy, contaminated water with small
rocks, stones etc
• Typical applications include trough cleaning, pumping out
flooded areas in locations where stones and organic material are
present
• Semi open impeller with wider vanes to allow larger material to
pass through easily
• High quality replaceable stainless steel wear plate
• Easy to open volute case to clear blockages
• WT20 (2”) can handle solids up to 24mm
• WT30 (3”) can handle solids up to 27mm

13. Light Chemical Pumps- RPP Range
• Chemically resistant for general use with salt water,
waste water, mild acids and bases.
• Often used for milk in New Zealand (calf feeding)
• Available in 1 ½” to 3” with optional electric start

14. Pump Calculator
• There is a very handy tool “Pump
Calculator” for helping with
specifying a pump on the
Dealernet
• https://dealernet.hondapowerequip
ment.co.nz/WaterPumpCalc
• Keep in mind that if flow rate is
important to your customer you will
still need to use the pump curves

15. Considerations
• Pumps must not be run dry and must be primed prior to use by filling the pump housing with water
through the filler cap
• “Dead heading” (blocking the discharge completely) will likely cause the pump to leak on the
housing
• Increasing the suction head will decrease the discharge head
• Always keep the suction head to the shortest possible
• For longer suction heads consider the use of a foot valve (one way valve) at the end of the suction
hose to stop the water from draining back out of the suction hose when the pump is not in use,
reducing the time it takes to draw up water
• Different types of discharge pipe will affect performance, some are more smooth than others e.g.
Lay flat hose will cause more frictional loses than a smooth PVC pipe
• Pumps curves supplied are only relevant when using the correct size hoses e.g. a 2” hose on a 2”
pump. Smaller diameter hoses will negatively affect performance by reducing head and flow rate

16. Common Questions
• Q: Do Honda supply hoses?
• A: There are simply too many different hose types for us to cover. We leave supply of hoses to
specialists in that field. However, we do sometimes have available a small WX10 hose kit for
household applications such as emptying a spa pool
• Q: What comes with the pump?
• A: Honda water pumps come with hose fittings for the suction and discharge with hose clips. They
also come with a strainer designed to not allow debris larger that the pump can handle to be sucked
up
• Q: Can you tell me which pump will suit?
• A: Not without the knowing suction head, discharge head and discharge length
• Q: Where can I find the pump curves?
• A: In many places. The technical USB has them, the pump brochure and the Dealernet within the
pump calculator.

17. Questions

18. Thank You

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