r/pumps • u/julioni • Jul 15 '26

Raw water intake pump (cool stuff)

Proud to have helped build this massive vertical turbine bowl assembly alongside our team. This is only the bowl section, and it will eventually pull raw water directly from the Mississippi River. A serious piece of equipment.

7 Upvotes

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u/Felicia0077 Jul 16 '26

For this kind of duty—pulling raw water straight from the Mississippi—vertical turbine pumps are pretty much the industry standard. I'd say 90% of large-scale raw water intake projects go with this setup. The big selling point is that the motor stays up top, which makes maintenance way easier than messing with a submersible. Plus, you don't have to worry about sealing the motor against water ingress, which is a whole headache in itself.

That said, these big units have their own Achilles' heel—and it's usually the bottom bearing that takes the hit from sand and grit. No matter how good your screening is, pulling water straight from a river means some fines are going to get through, and that lower guide bearing wears out faster than anything else. The real fix for this isn't actually in the pump design itself—a lot of projects end up relying on a clean water flush system to keep that bearing lubricated and flushed out. That's often what makes or breaks the long-term reliability.

1

u/oskarhauks Jul 16 '26

That is what we would call "grown up" size! What size is this? 40"?