BADU Powerstar propeller pump for suction filter systems

In addition to its standard pump ranges for swimming pool systems in public swimming pools, SPECK also offers the BADU Powerstar, a pump range designed for use with non-pressurised suction filters.

In recent years, SPECK has launched a range of new pumps for the public swimming pool sector. These include the BADU Powerstar, which is designed not so much for use in conventional pool systems in public swimming pools as for applications such as aquaculture and flow channels. However, it also serves its purpose as a raw water pump for suction filters. It is particularly better suited to suction filters than conventional centrifugal pumps.

Industrial pipework featuring several BADU Powerstar propeller pumps from SPECK for efficient water delivery in aquaculture and suction filters.

3D representation of a suction filter system with multiple pipes and pumps for efficient water filtration in aquaculture.

To clarify: a raw water pump supplies the open suction filter with the water drawn from the raw water storage tank. Until now, standard suction pumps with pre-filters have been used for this purpose. In future, a BADU Powerstar can also be used for this. “Compared to a conventional pump, the BADU Powerstar offers a number of advantages when used with suction filters,” explains BADU Technical Coach Frank Kramer. “This is because centrifugal pumps have a sealed impeller and operate at higher pressures. However, such high pressures are not at all necessary with a suction filter, as these systems inherently require large delivery heads and only need to overcome a height difference of around one metre between the surge tank and the filter. As a rule, there is also little pipework resistance, so a centrifugal pump is more efficient and therefore better suited.”

Suction filter technology has actually been around for several decades. Open filters are still in use in swimming pool technology, however, because they offer a number of advantages. The filter is open at the top; the water pumped in flows slowly through the filter bed and is drawn off at the bottom by a ‘Normblock’ pump. Thanks to the slow filtration rate, these filters generally deliver good filtration results, which is why the technology still has many supporters today.

In the past, large open concrete tanks filled with a bed of sand and gravel were usually used. Today, the used swimming pool water is pumped into the plastic tanks using a raw water pump and then drawn out again by a second pump, the filtrate pump. This technique therefore always requires two pumps. Both pumps are speed-controlled and matched to each other in terms of flow rate. This is because, logically, the volume of water pumped in at the top must be drawn out again at the bottom. A propeller pump such as the BADU Powerstar is ideally suited as the raw water pump for this technique.