We don't sell pumps in boxes.We work out what goes in them.
Channel Pumps is an industrial pump distributor based in Nottinghamshire, UK.
Founded by Paul Foster in 2001 after a career on the manufacturer's side at Worthington Simpson, ITT Flygt and Alfa Laval.
The job is finding the right pump, whoever makes it.
Paul spent his career on the manufacturer's side: an apprenticeship and then sales engineering at Worthington Simpson, ITT Flygt in the field and then as Municipal Market Manager, and Alfa Laval, where he ran the wastewater half of the positive-displacement business. He started Channel Pumps in 2001.
Working inside a manufacturer teaches you exactly what its range is good at, and where somebody else's pump is the better answer. That is what we bring to a duty. We can weigh the options across the manufacturers we carry and choose on merit, rather than fit your application to whichever catalogue we happen to hold.
What that gives you is a single point of contact for every pump on your site, whoever made it: selection and sizing, spares and service, and the awkward ones nobody has got to the bottom of yet.
Most pump questions come down to one thing: which pump for this duty, and why not the other one.
A datasheet tells you what a pump does, not whether it suits your system. A filter panel can't weigh a medium against a seal, a material and a motor. That judgement is the part we do, and it is the part that decides whether the pump is still running well in ten years.
Positions, not preferences
Flow rate, then the pipework and the total dynamic head, then the medium. We ask the questions rather than expect the brief, so you don't need a finished specification before you call.
We choose on merit across the manufacturers we carry. Where a repair beats a replacement, or a change to the system solves it, we'll tell you that instead. It has won us more work than it ever cost.
We'll tell you what a pump is good at and where it stops. Every selection costs something in capital, maintenance, efficiency or footprint, so we name the trade-off and let you weigh it.
The enquiries we're built for
Nobody has worked out what the pump should be. Send the flow and the medium and we'll start from there.
Solids-laden, abrasive, hot, viscous, shear-sensitive, or in a hazardous area.
It fails, gets replaced, then fails the same way again and nobody can say why.
Engineered around your application: pump, motor, baseplate and controls, rather than a unit off a shelf.
You've been told the pump is no longer supported. That is often not the end of it.
You have a specification already and want it checked before you commit to it.
On a large project we'll bring the manufacturer's own engineer to site. Part of the job is knowing when a duty warrants it.
The questions we'll work through with you
You don't need all of this to get in touch. Most enquiries start with a flow rate and not much else, and these are the questions we'll fill in together.
- 01Flow rateUsually the one number you already have.
- 02The pipeworkStatic suction head, required discharge head, then length, bore and how many bends and valves. That gives us the total dynamic head.
- 03ViscosityIs it water, or as water? How thick does it get, and how much does it vary? We design for your worst case, not the typical one.
- 04Hygienic or notWhich sets the wetted materials. Stainless steel, or is cast iron fine?
- 05TemperatureWhich, with the medium, drives the sealing arrangement.
- 06The sealSingle, flush, double or cartridge, and what a seal failure would mean for your product.
- 07Power and motorRead off the performance curve once your duty point is fixed.
A curated set of manufacturers, one point of contact
Carrying more than one manufacturer is the point: it means we can choose on merit rather than fit your application to a single catalogue.
Paul Foster founded Channel Pumps in 2001 and has worked in pumps since 1977. He served an engineering apprenticeship at Worthington Simpson in Newark-on-Trent, rotating through inspection, deburring impellers, assembly and motor build. He has had pumps apart, which is why he explains a failure by its mechanism rather than its symptom.
From the shop floor he moved into applications and sales engineering: Worthington Simpson, then ITT Flygt, selling submersible pumps and package pumping stations before becoming Municipal Market Manager. At Alfa Laval he ran the wastewater half of the positive-displacement business, finishing as Environmental and Export Manager. Working inside those manufacturers is where he learned what each range does well, and when another maker's pump is the better answer.
Day to day he works out what should go in the box rather than just shipping the box. Flow rate first, then the pipework and the total dynamic head, then viscosity, temperature, materials and the seal. Most enquiries arrive without half of it, which he treats as entirely normal: the job is asking the right questions, not expecting the right brief. Paul writes and reviews the technical guidance published on this site.
Send us the flow, head and medium. We'll tell you what the duty needs, even when that isn't a pump we sell.