Koolance PMP-500 Pump

Hydraulic Performance Pump Testing

Unlike many reviews where they test one condition, I like to do the full performance curve via digital manometer and flow meter.  I do this because pump curves vary significantly in both slope and shape, so a single condition test doesn’t complete the picture very well and it’s very common to have two different pumps each perform better than the other depending on restriction.  High restriction loops usually flow around 1.0 GPM where low restriction loops may flow upwards of 2-3 GPM.  Depending on your particular setup, you can review the data that is most important to you.

Test Setup

Also any review that doesn’t show you their test setup is not worth reading further, here is mine.   I am using:

• Mastech HY3005D DC power supply to regulate voltage
• Cen-tech P98674 Digital multimeter to read molex plug voltage
• Crystalfontz CFA-633 + WinTest B1.9 to monitor and smooth RPM
• Dwyer 477-5 Digital Manometer to read Pressure Differential across the pump
• King 7520 (Valved) to measure flow rate and adjust restriction

Detailed Test Results

Using the variable test power supply, I tested the pump at 5V, 7V, 10V, & 12V to cover the range of voltage possibilities as well.

So that captures the detailed results, now on to a summary of curves.

Summary Curves

Taking the above curves and combining them into one.

You can see above, that the pump has very good range and may be dial down to a 4W pump or turned up to a 30W pump depending on voltage supplied.

Comparison Hydraulic Performance Curves

While not apples to apples with a single pump, I was asked to also compare it to the 35X2 which has two very strong 35X motors running in series with a dual top.  Here is how that looks:

The 35X2 with two very efficient and high powered pumps does produce more pressure, but at $200 per pump, you could nearly buy three of the PMP-500s so it better.  The PMP-500 fall somewhere betteen a single 35X and the 35X2, however notice the differences in power consumption too.  The 35X2 draws upwards of 52 watts where the PMP-500 max was about 31 watts.

But for a true apples to apples 12V single pump solution, let’s look at the competition:

It is king of the compact 12V pumping power area even topping the highly optimized MCP35X in power.  It is producing about double that of the PMP-450 in the 1.5GPM range, so it’s capable of what two PMP-450 pumps can do in series, very impressive!

Bottom line the PMP-500 is about equal to two PMP-450 pumps in series,  nearly as strong as the mighty $200 MCP35X2 (two pumps in series), and stronger than any other 12V single pump it’s size.

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