Pump rentals are strong; 76 percent of respondents in a recent Equipment World survey say they’ve rented a pump. Almost 25 percent of those surveyed said they rented four or more pumps in the past six months.
Sixty percent of respondents say they rented pumps because they needed an extra one, while 53 percent did so because they didn’t own the correct size pump for their applications.
There were a variety of responses when renters were asked how they used pumps. Fifty-four percent say they used pumps when installing utilities, 48 percent used them in earthmoving and 25 percent in sewer rehab. (More than 66 percent of respondents told us they were utility and site preparation contractors performing applications such as excavation, utility installation and grading.)
Almost 24 percent of respondents say they plan to rent one pump during the next six months – which was the same as those who didn’t plan to rent one at all – and 23 percent planned to rent four or more. Twenty percent will rent two pumps and just over 9 percent will rent three. Most respondents preferred to rent on a weekly basis (47 percent), followed by daily rentals (36 percent). Only 16 percent rented pumps on a monthly basis.
Centrifugal trash pumps were the top rental choice of 63 percent of our respondents. Forty-six percent of those surveyed rented submersible pumps while 37 percent indicated dewatering pumps as their rental choice. Diaphragm pumps rounded out the top four rentals at 24 percent. (We accepted multiple responses to this question.)
Close to 90 percent of the respondents who rented a pump say it performed as expected and 5 percent say the pump performed better than expected. Of the 6 percent who say the pump performed worse than expected, the reasons cited included lift issues, problems with seals, pick up and priming problems or the pump not having the required volume for the job. Other reasons included holes in the suction hose that caused excessive air intake, maintenance problems and pull cord or quality issues.
When it came to renting a pump and getting it to the jobsite, 84 percent of respondents say they transported the pump and returned it when they finished the project.
