Electric Barrel Pumps: 5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Manual Fluid Handling

Electric barrel pumps (otherwise known as drum pumps) are designed to transfer or dispense any liquid from a container like a barrel, drum, or IBC – hence the name. They are used in a variety of industries from food manufacturers that pump ingredients and cleaners, to manufacturing businesses that pump chemicals and oils.

Fluid handling in some production lines is still done by hand to save money. For example, a business making small batches of cooking sauce may transfer the liquid ingredients from one container to another by hand. This may be cost effective initially, but there are many reasons why using an electric drum pump would be more beneficial and cost effective in the long run than continuing to manually handle it.

Let’s look at the 5 reasons to upgrade your manual fluid handling processes to an electric drum pump below:

1. Increased productivity 

Using a barrel emptying pump is quicker and more efficient than moving the fluid by hand. Manual transfer is very time consuming for an operator, so if your business begins to upscale production, or demand becomes greater, it becomes less feasible for an operator to keep up. Using an electric barrel pump is a faster, less labour-intensive solution that will significantly free up your workers’ time to spend on more value adding tasks.

2. Safer for operator and workspace 

Using an electric drum pump means a reduced risk of spillage and operator exposure to hazardous fluids. A spill, which is much more likely during the process of manually scooping and pouring fluid, would mean wasted product and a clean-up required. The fluid being stored in a drum barrel or IBC can sometimes also be unsafe to manually handle e.g. chemicals or flammable liquids and therefore mean PPE would need to be used and always worn by operators to keep them protected. A drum pump means a clean, spill-free, transfer with much less risk.

3. Accurate measurements of fluids

In many processes, the quantity of fluid needing to be dispensed may need to be an accurate amount. For example, if an operator was filling a certain sized container whilst packaging a final product, or they were adding a specific amount of an ingredient into a mixture or recipe. Doing this by hand could cause measuring errors and inaccuracies, causing an incorrect or inconsistent final product. By using an electric barrel pump with a batch meter, not only is it much quicker for the operator but will prevent manual error to create product consistency.

4. Product purity 

Manually moving a fluid leaves it open to contamination from the air or general environment. Very special care would need to be taken to ensure no external debris gets into the container being used to transfer it – which is absolutely vital in certain industries like food and cosmetics. As another example, the fluid being handled may need to maintain its temperature during the handling, but the manual process of moving it by hand can impact this and effect final product results. Using an electric barrel pump means the fluid being pumped is safely contained with the barrel pump, hose and pipework and protected from external contaminants and environmental conditions.

5. Cheaper in the long run

Whilst manual handling may have less cost associated that purchasing a barrel pump in the beginning of production, eventually demand and operator priorities will outgrow this. Using a drum emptying pump means reduced labour from the operators, giving them more time to focus on other essential tasks, less product waste and less clean up required if a spill occurs. All of this adds up and saves money in the long term.

Castle Pumps are suppliers of barrel pumps and have been for over 15 years. With a product range suitable for fuel, chemicals, fats, resins, paints, or food products, our electric drum pumps can handle low and high viscosity fluids, shear sensitive mediums and those with solid content.

Unsure which drum pump you need? Our technical sales can provide product selection advice and help you select the right the electric drum pump for your application.