Across the UK temperatures have plummeted bringing blizzards and heavy snowfall which will take their toll on the invisible, underground infrastructure which keeps our country moving. Then within a matter of weeks, it appears spring has arrived….English weather for you! Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen a surge in enquiries from panicked business owners, dealing with burst pipes, broken down boiler systems and flooded grounds. That’s because the sudden onset of cold temperatures brings a specific set of challenges which, if you don’t take action to prepare against, can bring your premises to a halt.

So, how do the dramatic changes in weather affect your pumps, heating systems and drains?

Booster Pumps & Building Services

  • Cold weather places extra pressure on heat pumps to perform and if they haven’t been recently serviced, they can fail completely resulting in leaks and other long term damage
  • Pump failure then goes on to affect boilers, which stop functioning because the pump isn’t supplying enough pressure for it to continue operating
  • Additionally, as the pumps lack the pressure to perform, inlet and discharge pipework will become frozen and will eventually crack

Sewage & Storm Pumps

  • There’s already increased pressure on sewage and storm pumps as so many people are at home more, but melting snow and ice increases the flow into the systems and causes them to become overwhelmed
  • The control panels of these pumps are housed in underground kiosks; if they haven’t been serviced recently, they’re unlikely to be adequately sealed. Any excess moisture which enters the control panel can cause major faults with operations and electrical systems
  • The additional silt entering sewage and storm drains from melting snow can also cause blockages, which puts our underground systems at risk of overflowing – which is why we experience flooding at ground level

Our weather is becoming more volatile, so it’s vital to take some small, simple, proactive and precautionary steps to ensure your pump systems can remain in full working order when cold weather takes hold. Because pumps which aren’t sufficiently maintained throughout the year are much more likely to fail at the time they’re needed most.

At Willow Pumps, we offer pre-planned maintenance (PPM) which not only protects your systems from harsh weather conditions (and all the year through!) but also works out more time and cost-efficient for you, and means you’re likely to have your system repaired faster than if you contact us as a new customer.

On multiple occasions across a year, we’ll service your pump so we can spot and conduct any work necessary to prevent potential failure of your system before it occurs. Depending on your needs, we’ll visit quarterly, six-monthly or annually, helping to reduce the costs of emergency call outs when a failure occurs.

Our PPM services offer you a host of benefits, including:

  • When you contact us in an emergency, you’ll be prioritised over our non-contract customers
  • You’ll also receive a discounted rate – non-contract customers have to pay more for an emergency call out than our PPM customers
  • The cost of a PPM service is less than a reactive call out to fix the issue– with just one service a year, you’re much less likely to need reactive support saving you money
  • A critical benefit for pump stations under higher load is that our expert engineers are on site with you multiple times a year, ensuring that even the slightest hint of a potential failure is repaired before it becomes disruptive to your business

As we embark on Spring, you might think there’s less risk to your pump system but the warm weather and climate change means we are at an increased risk of flooding !

If you start taking steps to mitigate against year-round flooding you’ll be protected from whatever the future holds. And we’ll be alongside you, to ensure that should the worst happen, you’ll be back up and running as soon as possible.

Find out more about our PPM services, and the impact of cold weather on pump systems, by getting in touch today.

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