As might be expected from a company called Pump House, the products it supplies are, well, pumps. But Paul Greengrass new business development manager, says the firm offers more.
The first 16 pages of the Pump House catalogue list more than 15 condensate pumps and pump accessories ranging from centrifugal tank, peristaltic, mini pumps, pumps in trunking and dairy cabinet pumps.

Most of the pumps are manufacturer by American company Little Giant which, Paul Greengrass, business development manager, says has a superb reputation in America and globally, and increasingly, through its exclusive arrangements with Nottingham-based Pump House, in the UK too.

In fact, Little Giant has been manufacturing condensate tank pumps for high efficiency condensing boilers and has evolved this design during the past 35 years.
As well as pumps, the company has a range of maintenance products from another American company, DiversiTech, with which it has a joint venture agreement.

For instance the Pro-Universal is a specially-formulated coil cleaner suitable for both condenser and evaporator coils. It has a special inhibitor that prevents alkalies from attacking aluminium and leaves a protective film on the coil that reduces future dirt build-up. More Pro range products include Aerosol coil cleaners, odour neutralisers and scented gels.

The third arm for Pump House is a range of its own accessories such as condensing unit guards, easy-fit brackets (for holding outdoor air conditioning units and heat pumps on walls), condensate collection trays, condenser housing and equipment support housing, equipment mounting products, condensate drain hoses, clamps (for supporting copper refrigerant tube), flow and return fixings and fan motors, fan motor accessories and portable air conditioning.
But back to condensate pumps - after all the company is called Pump House!

Greengrass is pushing condensate pumps in the domestic boiler market. He acknowledges that most domestic boiler installations will not need a condensate as drainage is gravity fed. 'If it is going down the usual route, down a plastic pipe into the main grey-water drain, there should be no problem; the dilute nitric acid contents are washed through the system to the treatment works.'

But Greengrass has seen installations where the condensate is running down walls or into a soak-away without the neutralising lime chipping. Here, it is only a matter of time before the acid eats away at the lime in the cement and wrecks the foundations.

Risk from boiler condensate

'Installers have been confused by the analogy of the condensate being similar to fruit juice. It is not as mild as some would make out. The dilute nitric acid is corrosive to lime-based products' he adds.

He insists that local authority housing and ALMO's (arms length management organisations for social housing) installers and maintenance staff should be made aware of the risk to housing stock from boiler condensate not disposed of correctly. If it is not easy to pipe away by gravity, a pump should be used to move the liquid to a safe disposal point.

In commercial and industrial buildings, there could be similar problems. If, for instance, the condensate is run out of the plant-room into a concrete channel to a drain point, again, the acid content will eventually erode the concrete and it will break up.

And where the condensate cannot be pumped to a safe disposal drain, Pump House offers an acid neutraliser from its DiversiTech range for both domestic and commercial boilers. Pump House has even written a guide on installation methods explaining the use of condensate pumps or neutralisers for the safe disposal of condensate.

'Installers should be more aware of the damage they could cause if condensate is not disposed of correctly,' Greengrass adds. While both products are in the Pump House portfolio, installers should make the effort to direct the condensate into the grey-water waste in all applications.
Further, the company offers a range of piping and other accessories to help the installer direct the condensate safely to waste.

And recently it has introduced a tank pump capable of handling the high temperature release from the boiler pressure relief valve when the boiler is installed in basement and other areas where gravity drain is not straight-forward. For instance, when a non-condensing boiler has been installed in a basement, there could be a problem replacing it with a condensing boiler. The new boiler must have a special pump that ordinarily deals with condensate but will also handle high temperature if near boiling water is released.

Pump House has also introduced a pre-insulated condensate pipe. 'There were around 50,000 instances of frozen condensate pipes during the winter,' says Greengrass. 'In Germany, most condensate pipes are fitted to an internal connection. This eliminates the problem of frozen pipes and using a condensate pump can assist with finding a suitable internal connection.'

Greengrass says that, having studied condensate pumps in depth, Pump House is the company to which wholesalers come when they need advice. And he reckons the condensate pump market will double in the next two or three years.




Perhaps the most interesting new range for Pump House is a series of cages for domestic and commercial heat pumps. Local authorities, ALMOs and, increasingly, domestic householders are beginning to realise that heat pumps and outdoor air conditioning units are vulnerable to vandalism or accidental damage.

'What fun it might be for a child to push a stick into the fan housing or vandals on an estate to damage the outdoor units,' says Greengrass. Pump House has therefore introduced condensing unit guards made of weather-protected, steel mesh. Four sizes will suit all brands of air source heat pumps and additional panels are available for high wall-mounted or floor free-standing installations.

'We are now receiving enquiries from local authorities who installed heat pumps last year and are finding the outdoor units are being damaged.'

Pump House also offers what it claims is the UK's first flat-packed self-assembly guards to protect the larger outdoor VRF units. They come with a base pack that suits single VRF units and any number of extender packs can be added to protect multiple-unit installations.

It also offers a support system for roof-top air conditioning equipment, including splits, VRF, air handlers and other applied products. The support system again comes flat packed and in a modular format that can be extended to accommodate multiple condensing unit installations or equivalent larger units.

It has been an uphill struggle in the heating market. Many installers and maintenance engineers do not realise heat pumps, for instance, need cages. 'It is a case of educating installers about the pitfalls of leaving outdoor units unprotected,' says Greengrass.

In spite of the downturn in the air conditioning market Pump House has not been hit as hard as others because of the new products. It expects to double its turnover during in the next five years. Even with the recession, Pump House is doing the business.

Background

Pump House is owned by three men, Paul Ludlow, Craig Peebles and Dave Bass. Ludlow and Peebles started the company nine years ago and Bass joined them in 2007. There are four sales people on the road including one who works exclusively on DiversiTech products.