Water is necessary for all sorts of things from floating aircraft carriers to making a pot of coffee to get you going in the morning. But whether it’s a blessing or a curse to businesses depends on where it is and why it’s there. Since standing water is of little use for anything but boats, fish and mosquitos, most of the time it needs to be moved, and that’s where pumps come in.

Water pumps perform two basic functions—getting water onto things and getting water out of things. The industry calls those functions “watering” and “dewatering” and there are dozens of types and sizes of pumps for each job.

Because the water being moved is clean, watering pumps can be less robust than dewatering pumps, which may need to move waste materials along with the water. The choice of pump depends, then, on what’s in the water.

The four basic pump designs are centrifugal, diaphragm, trash and submersible, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. A submersible dewatering pump works on water that is relatively clean—the sort found in sumps, excavations or collection ponds. Centrifugal pumps move large amounts of water quickly, but can jam if large or heavy solids clog the impeller. A diaphragm pump works sort of like a piston, so there’s no impeller to clog, making them handy for moving water with a lot of mud or silt, especially in shallow depths where submersible and centrifugal pumps are ineffective. That’s why they’re often called “mud hogs” or “mud suckers.”

Trash pumps are pretty much what the name implies. They’re heavy-duty pumps with rugged impellers and housings to handle water that contains up to 25% solids. That’s why they’re favorites on construction sites where excavations can fill from rain and runoff that washes in lots of debris. They can be either centrifugal or submersible designs.

Whether you want to use water or just get rid of it, Ace Cutting Equipment has pumps to get the job done. We have rugged submersible electric pumps by industry leader Tsurumi for either 120 or 240 volt operation in both dewatering and trash removal models as well as heavy-duty gas-operated pumps from Tsurumi powered by Honda GX engines.