I see where FMJalink is coming from; I wouldn't want to start a largish centrifugal pump against a fully closed discharge valve either, especially not if the discharge valve is manually operated and I'm going to be the person on the handgrip end of the wheel wrench
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Indeed, in the steam plant where I began my career, the units all had three condensate extraction pumps [CEPs], and with the units off line and shut down it was common [actually, required] practice to have the discharge valve on one of the three pumps only cracked open 10% or so, for operational purposes, to wit:
Following shutdown, the standing water in the boiler would steadily lose temperature [at some factor of the natural logarithmic rate ], and shrink in the process. Boiler top-ups were therefore required . . .
The first step in the top-up process, once sufficient water was confirmed available in the hotwell below the condenser, was to start the throttled CEP, filling and pressurizing all the lines and low-steam-pressure regenerative condensate heaters with condensate, right up to the deaerator's condensate admission point. Then, and only then, would a CEP with its discharge valve fully open be placed into operation, following which the throttled unit would be shut down, and the rest of the top-up procedure ensued.
Upon unit start-up, once the turbine was rolling on steam and accelerating to synchronous speed, the throttled discharge valve would be opened wide and same reported to the turbine/boiler operator. Upon shutdown, once all fires had been pulled and steam consumption ceased, one CEP discharge valve would be throttled in to ~10% open; this was reported to the TBO, and the TBO would place a brightly colored information tag bearing the word "THROTTLED" on the start/stop pistol-grip control switch for that pump.
CR
"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." [Proverbs 27:17, NIV]