Pictured: Davey Customer demonstrates the level of flooding which his Davey pump withstood. 

One of the consequences of the recent extensive flooding in many districts throughout Australia is that many pump installations were submerged or were simply unable to be relocated to higher ground ahead of the water.

Richard King who farms about 53 hectares in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria has a case in point.

He has a Davey electric pump which over the past ten or eleven years of drought he has progressively lowered to place it closer to the water level in one of his property’s dams.

The electric pump delivers water from the dam up to a tank storage on the property.

Consequently when there was a heavy downpour in the area in January, in fact over 350mm or about nine inches of rain over a four days, the catchment dam filled quickly and the Davey pump went under water where it was completely immersed for almost a month until the level of water in the dam receded.

Richard was then able to disconnect and recover the pump and remove it to his workshop with the fear that it would be beyond repair.

He says that he was surprised to find that the electric motor cover had completely sealed the motor and although some moisture had been trapped he was able to dry the housing with a hand held dryer.

”I reassembled the pump and put it to the test and in ran perfectly, so it is now back on duty adjacent to my dam.

“I was delighted to find that it had withstood a month or more of inundation which I attribute to the quality of Davey’s manufacture and dependability.”

Davey Water Products General Manager of Marketing Colin Nash says that both Davey and its Master Dealer network have received numerous reports about Davey pumps which were inadvertently submerged during the floods which were able to be recovered with only minimal repair work needed.

 “Often the damage has only been to seals or bearings which are readily available from our spare parts inventory” Mr Nash says.