Pump Products recently held a grand opening affair for its new Westwood, New Jersey facility. Sponsored by Liberty Pumps, the event showcased innovative new products to customers and the local community. The Westwood facility comfortably houses an expansive inventory of virtually every kind of pump, including sewage pumps, sump pumps and well pumps. A vast library of repair parts and control accessories (such as float switches and control panels) are also available for pick-up at the counter or for shipping. Having a large inventory on site means that a wider variety of products will be available to customers, as opposed to dropshipping from the manufacturer.
"If your pump has a broken part you want to get a replacement part immediately. This facility makes it easier for us to get certain items to customers sooner," says Pump Products employee Matt Carr. "It's a really exciting time here... everyone really loves the new office." The excitement of a grand opening provided a perfect opportunity for Liberty Pumps to demonstrate its wares. Liberty also graciously provided food and drinks. as well as equipment for display. Sales representatives Mike and Sal came from Liberty headquarters in New York to showcase new products, perform demonstrations and discuss the future of the pumping industry with Pump Products employees, as well as customers. Of particular interest to bystanders was the demonstration involving Liberty's famed grinder pumps. Specifically, the Liberty reps displayed the LSG-series Omnivore and the PRG-series ProVore lines. Liberty grinder pumps feature the patented V-slice technology which can macerate even tough waste solids into a fine slurry for easy export.
A crowd of pump enthusiasts at Pump Products' Westwood, N.J. grand opening.
"The Omnivore line really put Liberty on the map when it first came out about 10 years ago," Mike said. "Of course, the Omnivore is really built for commercial and light industrial applications, so it made sense to make an equivalent for residential use. That's why the PRG Provore was developed." The Liberty reps demonstrated the awesome power of these grinders during several demonstrations throughout the day. Sewage basins containing the grinders were set up outside. The reps would then feed various solids into the basin to be fed to the V-slice cutter. Items fed to the ProVore basin included plastic wipes and disposable latex gloves - basically the type of stuff that might find its way into a home sewage system.
Denim being fed to the Omnivore basin.
Items fed to the Omnivore basin included cotton towels, disposable gloves and even denim pants. Heavier objects can sometimes be found in commercial wastewater systems; imagine you run a motel and inconsiderate guests try to flush items that should be disposed of in the garbage. The images above and below show what happens when denims meets the Omnivore. 
Liberty's Omnivore Grinder Pump makes a fine slurry out of denim.
Onlookers expressed surprise when the Omnivore successfully turned denim jean shorts into a gelatinous blob of slurry. "No way!" one said. The pumping process also did very little to disturb the piping in the display. Other products on display included the Liberty NightEye system. The Nighteye is a sophisticated pump monitoring system and alarm for sewage and sump pumps. It can be controlled from the Liberty app on a smartphone.
"It's hooked up to a sump or sewage pit by way of float switch. When the switch flips over due to high water level, it will sound an alarm and send an alert to your phone," Mike says. "It can be ordered with most Liberty sump and sewage pumps or it can be ordered by itself and retrofit into a pumping system."
In addition to monitoring the water level the Nighteye also detects the status of a WiFi connection, power outages and the temperature of a basement (important when winter comes and pipes start to freeze). A key convenience of the Nighteye is that its "smart monitoring" capabilities prevent extraneous nuisance notification. The system can be tested, activated or deactivated through the Liberty Nighteye app on a smartphone. There is no service or subscription fee for downloading the app, but standard data messaging rates may apply.
"This is just the first generation of what we see as the long life of the NightEye technology. On the residential side, it can be used in so many applications - vacation homes, multi-family units," Mike says. "You can put up to four contacts on one system, so you could send an alert to your contractor or your next door neighbor who has a spare key."
On the commercial level, Mike sees the NightEye being particularly useful for buildings with centralized sewage systems. The monitoring alerts could be sent to a building manager or maintenance supervisor. He also hinted at continuing developments in the area of smart technology and remote monitoring from Liberty, all with a focus on practical application for a homeowner or businessperson. "Liberty's engineering team is the best in the business. They spend a lot of time in the field," so they understand the need for applications that work in real world situations, Mike says.
In addition to the demonstrations, Pump Products employees gave guides tours to customers, showing them the large warehouse and robust inventory of pumps. Pump Express general manager Ed Drejman gave a talk outlining the benefits and services of Pump Express as well its sister business Pump Products. Pump Express handles service and repair projects.
