In news headlines around the country recently, there have been a few about schools having various mechanical issues that cause early dismissals or closings, as maintenance teams scramble to correct the problems with a water pump.

In one case, it was a broken water pump, which caused the school to be closed for the day.  This academy serves students who reside on campus, and therefore had to address the issue of the kids who would need running water in their dorms.

Fortunately, the female housing had bathrooms operated on a different pump, but some of the boys were forced to walk across the street to a town owned building in order to use the facilities.

Obviously, problems like this can be very disruptive, and it is not just a school that would feel the impact of such an issue. Therefore, it is important to properly maintain such systems, and to gauge their performance, looking for signs of impending trouble before it occurs.

In order to prevent such a catastrophe at your own organization, it is important to regularly monitor your system. The trouble is that, over time, the water can cause deterioration to the internal components of the pumping system, and that can, of course, spell trouble.  So, a pressure transmitter can be used to track the water pressure supplied by the pump.  It will detect a drop in pressure, which could indicate that the pump isn’t operating correctly, and the issue can be dealt with, before the pump fails completely.  That means that the repairs can be made in the off-hours, rather than interrupting the usual activities of the facility.

This school might have prevented the malfunction completely.  School wouldn’t have been shut down for the day.  The kids in the dormitory wouldn’t have had to visit the town building in order to use the bathrooms.