Busch vacuum pumps

[daddy]

Is anybody using a Busch pump on 900 taps and if so how do you like it?

[miohman]

I used a Busch 1144 on 600 and it was a little over powered. Never ran it full speed. Over sized a little but better than undersized. I wouldn't buy one again for that set up but I got a good deal.

[elienman]

I've installed a Busch 1144 as well last year on my 1000 taps... Works great, nice and quiet and pulls good vacuum. I had an oil flooded 3hp as my old pump and the Busch seems cleaner, quieter, and less maintenance. I installed it with a pretty inexpensive phase converter drive from ebay... A CFW10. I was a little nervous the drive would fail during the season but it worked flawlessly. (The drive converter converts my single phase power into 3 phase power that runs the Busch pump). The awesome thing about the phase converter is you can adjust the hertz from near zero to 60, which means you can run the pump at say 30 hertz (half speed) and use half the electricity. So if it's just above freezing I can drop down the hertz until I see the vacuum start to fall, then leave the pump running at low power usage while still getting good vacuum.

[maple flats]

Do you need to adjust manually, or is it adjusted automatically to hold the vacuum steady?

[GeneralStark]

Do you need to adjust manually, or is it adjusted automatically to hold the vacuum steady?

I can't speak for all VFDs but many have the capability of automatically controlling the speed of the pump motor when coupled with a vac. transducer. Generally the transducer is mounted on the releaser manifold or on the vac. line between the pump and releaser, but should ideally be located where the vac. is most constant. On some VFD models a power supply is required but many can power the transducer. Some programming is required but some vendors will set it up for you, or will talk you through over the phone.