Thought I was a pro at cutting suction line - turns out I was making mud soup for 2 years

Last month on a job near Mobile Bay, my pump kept clogging every 45 minutes. I was blaming the material, the weather, everything. Old timer named Donny walked over, watched me cut the line and just shook his head. He showed me how I was leaving a ragged edge that was creating turbulence right where the slurry hits the ladder. Fixed it in 5 minutes and the pump ran clean for 4 hours straight. Anybody else have a simple fix that made you feel like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

roberts.jordan1mo ago

Wait, was your discharge hose going uphill the whole time or just a small section? I had a similar thing happen with a transfer pump on a job near the Tennessee River last fall - we kept getting air locks and couldn't figure out why until someone realized the hose had a little dip that was causing a vapor pocket. That stuff is sneaky because you don't see it until the pump starts coughing. How did you finally spot it?

william_taylor1mo ago

You ever have a buddy who's been running jobs for 15 years and he still does stuff the hard way? My friend Mike spent a whole summer fighting with a dewatering pump that kept dying on him. Turns out he had the discharge hose ran uphill just a tiny bit and it was trapping air bubbles. He rerouted it flat and it ran like a champ. Felt pretty dumb afterwards.