TL;DR
A pump curve is the manufacturer's performance graph showing the flow a given pump delivers at each value of total head, the combined lift and friction it must overcome. Well contractors plot the system's demand—pumping level depth, pressure tank setting, and pipe losses—against the curve to choose a model that lands near its best-efficiency point.
What it means
A pump curve is the manufacturer's performance graph showing the flow a given pump delivers at each value of total head, the combined lift and friction it must overcome. Well contractors plot the system's demand—pumping level depth, pressure tank setting, and pipe losses—against the curve to choose a model that lands near its best-efficiency point. A pump chosen off the curve either starves the house at peak demand or cycles excessively and dies young.
Where it sits in the glossary
Pump curve is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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