When a single pump is all that stands between a poultry farm and a production stoppage, pump redundancy isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. A leading poultry breeding company with multiple sites across New South Wales was expanding its operations and required a pump solution that would keep up with on-site water demand, supplying water to the cold water chillers and cooling systems serving four large poultry sheds. Now, a Lowara dual pumpset is doing the quiet but critical work of keeping chilled water, and production, flowing.

Cold chicken, safe chicken

In line with specific Australian food safety standards, poultry processors must rapidly chill carcasses after slaughter and defeathering to reduce core temperatures and control bacterial growth. This is essential for both quality and food safety. Achieving this requires a continuous, reliable supply of water at the right flow and pressure to the chiller during production, so it can maintain the required chilled conditions. This makes the performance of the pumping system critical.

The site was originally serviced by a single Lowara 10SV06 vertical multi-stage pump, equipped with a Hydrovar variable speed drive (VSD). It had been operating reliably for about four years. However, as the farm expanded and production increased, overall water demand grew meaning the single pump was no longer sufficient to meet peak site demand.

“On hot days, when cooling fans and misters all cut in together, the original single pump was doing it pretty tough,” says Russell Nott, Owner of Notts Rural and Domestic. “This left little margin for further expansion and no built-in redundancy”.

With only one pump in service, any failure or unplanned downtime would directly impact operations and the farm’s ability to process birds. The farm, already planning for future expansion, needed a solution that would not only meet current demand but also support additional capacity later while providing redundancy to protect production.

Dual pumpset and seamless installation

Brown Brothers Engineers Australia manufactured and supplied a dual Lowara 10SV06HPS-M variable speed booster set, with each pump fitted with a Hydrovar Gen 5 controller. The factory-assembled system includes an 18 L pressure tank, stainless steel manifold, non-return and isolation valves, all mounted on a stainless steel base. The complete pumpset was supplied to Notts Rural and Domestic, who managed the installation and site works at the poultry farm.

The Hydro-Pac units combine Lowara e-SV Series vertical multistage pumps with a Hydrovar microprocessor controller mounted directly on the pump motor, delivering a simple to use water management system that arrives built and ready for installation.

The farm was already using the same configuration as a single unit, making the upgrade to a dual set a logical choice. “One pump now carries the day-to-day load to the chillers and sheds, while the second automatically cuts in during heavy-duty cycles when cooling fans and misters are all operating together, then cuts back out as demand drops,” Russell explains. This arrangement provides built-in redundancy and ensures the system can keep up with peak demand while avoiding unnecessary energy use.

The pump shed had adequate space allowing the new dual set to fit seamlessly into the existing footprint, using standard manifold sizes to match existing pipework and minimise modifications to the infrastructure. The original single Lowara pump and drive, still in good working order, has been retained on site as an additional backup unit, providing further redundancy and future-proofing the system.

The site includes two elevated storage tanks at the top of the property, fed by town water and a bore, as well as two large storage tanks adjacent to the pump shed, from which the booster set draws.

During commissioning, discharge valves and system pressure settings were adjusted to suit the site’s storage configuration and varying demand conditions. Since then, the system has operated reliably under both normal and peak loads.