The following is a discussion by our factory manufacturer of all of our pump stations regarding the use of our standard high pressure “General Pump” in all of our high pressure systems since 1989.
All the high pressure pumps we use are triplex plunger pumps. These include Interpump (Called General Pump in the US) and CAT. Both of these are reasonably similar in terms of design and performance.
We use mostly General simply due to the fact that we have been using their pumps since day 1 (1989) and have always experienced good reliable performance. We also use CAT although mostly due to customer requests.
CAT does have a solid reputation which is at least partially a result of years past when their units were considered more of an industrial design. Over the years, however, other manufacturers have improved their products such that today, there is little actual performance advantage between the different options.
Our experience has not shown that the CAT pumps can run longer or need less maintenance. The main issue for causing pump maintenance is the pump seals and how long they last before they need to be replaced. Our experience indicates that there is little difference. The biggest factor in terms of seal life is the actual water condition and operating parameters of the pump itself. Both of these manufacturers have similar design (they would appear identical to the average user) although there are some specific differences that each proposes makes their units unique. Because we see little difference in terms of performance but a huge difference in terms of cost, we primarily use the General pump option unless a customer makes a specific request. It is hard to convince some customers of the advantage of CAT based on the cost difference.
