Dual return pumps for redundancy! Good idea or just a waste of money?

[robbyg]

I use AC pumps, in particular a Reeflo Dart. It's pretty quite and has tons of flow.
My main gripe with DC pumps is that if they fail it's typically a sudden event. AC pumps almost never fail like that. Typically they just start to get louder and that loudness will increase slowly each year. You can decide when it's too loud and just change the bearings.

I always have a spare pump on hand and while having two in parallel would be easier to deal with. It's really not a big deal for me to unbolt the head of one Pump and change the motor to my spare unit. It only takes about 30 minutes and I am back up running again.

Spare pumps are a must. Two inline at the same time is a nice luxury but not really needed.

 

[robbyg]

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Checkvalves are notorious for failing - either leaking or clogging - and have a bad reputation in the hobby. This is probably one of the better, lower risk uses for them, IMO.

Yep they always leak but the good thing is that they prevent a turrent of water from back flowing and instead you just get a slow trickle. That gives me plenty of time to shutdown my valve. So IMHO they are still a good thing to have in the line.

 

[wsoldier]

These are the ones I have used and work great.
CHECK VALVE

Get the true union ones, they are easily taken apart and cleaned.

Thanks for the info and visual! I was thinking about what a dual pump hard plumbed solution would look like. I'm curious why you decided to have another valve on the left top side instead of just putting an elbow... ?

 

[K7BMG]

Thanks for the info and visual! I was thinking about what a dual pump hard plumbed solution would look like. I'm curious why you decided to have another valve on the left top side instead of just putting an elbow... ?

I posted earlier in this thread on the H valve set up.
Page 4 post #69. explains everything I am doing.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I, on the other hand, have had 2 return pumps fail.

Lessons learned: buy quality, have a back up, and plan on having crashes while you are away.

Both at the same time?? That would suck!

 

[jason17star]

I think one pump should be enough, dont think it gives that much of a benefit.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I use AC pumps, in particular a Reeflo Dart. It's pretty quite and has tons of flow.
My main gripe with DC pumps is that if they fail it's typically a sudden event. AC pumps almost never fail like that. Typically they just start to get louder and that loudness will increase slowly each year. You can decide when it's too loud and just change the bearings.

I always have a spare pump on hand and while having two in parallel would be easier to deal with. It's really not a big deal for me to unbolt the head of one Pump and change the motor to my spare unit. It only takes about 30 minutes and I am back up running again.

Spare pumps are a must. Two inline at the same time is a nice luxury but not really needed.

I've noticed this too. AC pumps tend to go out with symptoms, but DC pumps just quit.

 

[DLHDesign]

I've got two COR-20's running into my main DT, plus a COR-15 running the manifold and (when it's not being used as a QT) the frag tank.
I run all three pumps at reduced power (40-50%) to help extend their life. That also gives me some room if one of the main pumps should fail, I can boost the other and maintain something close to my normal flow rate.
All three pumps have check valves on them just above the pump so that I can remove a pump to clean without having to shut down the system. I do make sure to test every so often to ensure that my sump can hold the full water volume of the system in the case of a check valve failure. This is generally done when I'm cleaning the check valves, in fact.

 

[LadyMac]

I see the value of two, but one for backup. I can’t fit a second in my sump.

 

[lefkonj]

I run two. This way any issues can easily be managed without much stress. Additionally the battery backup on my system can easily run a single pump for 2 hours without issues.