The difference between an electric, air operated, or hand operated drum pumps

The perfect pump for your situation depends on its design and power source. This can make selecting the right pump difficult as there are so many to choose from. Let’s clear up some of the confusion by comparing and contrasting three major pump types to help you make the correct choice.

These are: Hand operated, electric operated, and air operated pumps.

What is a hand operated drum pump?

Sometimes simply known as a “hand pump”, these pumps are, you guessed it, powered by good old fashioned elbow grease. Usually, this involves moving a force rod up and down, which in turn moves the piston, diaphragm or rotary vane internally. This movement causes a pressure differential which either sucks or pushes the fluid through to the outlet.

Looking at some of the hand pumps we supply, such as the Hand Drum Pump TP-02, these pumps are perfectly suited to pumping materials like oil or diesel, as well as thinner fluids including alcohol and other chemicals. Our Rotary Hand Drum Pump is even easier to operate and takes some of the hard work out of the equation.

Advantages of hand operated pumps include:

• Simple design and easy to use;
• Small footprint compared to electric pumps;
• Can be moved easily from one container to the next;
• Relatively inexpensive;
• No electricity required.

What is an electric operated drum pump?

Electric operated drum pumps are designed to do what a hand pump does, but without the need for hard work. Because the power rating of such pumps can be scaled up, they are capable of moving much more material than their hand pumped counterparts.

This design incorporates one of two popular ways to power a pump, the other being compressed air, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

The electric motor sits on top of the pump tube or spear and drives an impeller which sits at the bottom of the pump tube submersed into the liquid being pump. The impeller is connected via a long shaft. The pump then uses centrifugal forces to push the liquid up and out of the pump.

These pumps are suited only for intermitted use, such as decanting a whole 200 litre drum.

What is an air operated drum pump?

Air operated pumps come in a number of forms, but they all use compressed air as a power source instead of electricity. Still using the same pump tubes available with the electric options, these are great for when pumping flammable liquids or where electricity is not readily available.

Electric, air, or hand operated pump?

As you can see, there are a number of benefits to each design. When choosing the right pump for your needs, it's important to completely understand your safety and volume requirements. Electric operated pumps take the hassle out of having to manually pump materials, but they cost a little more upfront than hand operated pumps. Air operated pumps reduce wear and tear and remove electrics from the equation, but they also require an air supply.

If you would like to learn more about these or any of our other pumps, please check out our FAQ or contact our sales teamdirectly, today.