What are the opinions on the best well pump heads? Motors not included.

[Ballvalve]

I see Grundfos, Myers and McDonald with full on stainless steel pump heads including impellers. Grundfos looks best, Myers are quite a bit less, Mcdonald I don't know. Grundfos makes it's own, don't know about Myers an McDonald. Can I buy on price or is their actually any increase over plastics in quality, grit handling and longevity in these pump heads? There are so many pumps on the market, it is a headache to do any shopping. If you include the Chinese like Vevor for $169 1 HP all stainless with wire and box, it gets really bad.

 

[Valveman]

When the patent for Grundfos expired, someone started selling SS sheet cutting machines to other companies. Now there are many copies of the Grundfos pump end. Pretty much any pump that has a SS impeller is a Grundfos copy. The copies seem to be about as good as the original. As for longevity and grit handling, there probably isn't much difference between plastic and SS. In the early 90's Grundfos redesigned and made the SS much thinner. Now they do not handle grit any better than a plastic pump. Over the years the major pump brands have cheapened up their pumps until there is not much difference between them and the off brand pumps you can get for 150 bucks. The $150 pumps seem to be holding up well so far. It is just hard to spend a thousand bucks for a brand name pump when you could replace the cheap pump several times for less money than a brand name pump.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ballvalve]

Crazy situation really. And prices all over the place.
"Myers S15-10-01, 4" Submersible Well Pump End, S Series, 1-1/2 HP, 21 Stages, 1-1/4" NPT Discharge, 580 ft. Shut-Off Head, 10 GPM Best Efficiency Flow, Stainless Steel Body" $804 pump end all SS only. Then endless Chinese lower head units motor box and all for $160. Some of the Franklin pump and motor units are reasonable in cost, Mexican made. Still don't trust the Chinese in my water. Do you sell a specific brand line?

 

[Valveman]

I don't sell pumps anymore. I can't make any money when anyone can buy one on the Internet for 160 bucks. But I am glad to help people choose pumps, as I need to make sure they are compatible with my CSV. Even with the $800 brand name pump there isn't much room to make any money. That $800 is already discounted from a list price of $1200 or so. There is always someone on the Internet willing to sell them for a few dollars over their cost.

The problem is most of the cheap brands don't have a lot of models available. They have all the most common models, but like the 7GPM is not usually an option. But again, the brand name pump companies have spent years cheapening up their pumps until there isn't much if any difference between them and the cheap pumps. They are all basically made the same way out of the same materials. Franklins Mexican made pump is a good example. It was changed from a floating stack design to a floating stage, which is cheaper and easier to produce and not nearly the quality of a floating stack design.