OverWatch Cost: Sales Scripts

"I'll be straight with you. On a small lift station, under about 100 gpm, OverWatch usually costs significantly more up front than a basic submersible package. If purchase price is the only thing that matters on this job, this is probably not the solution.

But let me ask you — who's going to be pulling that pump when it's ragged up at 2 a.m.? Who's paying for the vac truck every year? Small stations are where wipes and rags hurt the most, because smaller pumps are more prone to ragging, and they don't have retention time. OverWatch doesn't clog, and there's no wet well to pump out. Over 20 years, the station that costs less to buy is often the one that costs more to own.

Can I run a side-by-side on 20-year cost for you? If the numbers don't work, I'll tell you."

"On a station your size, the pump isn't the expensive part — the hole is. A traditional lift station needs a wet well big enough to store flow between pump cycles, deep enough to cover the pumps, plus a valve vault. That's excavation, shoring, dewatering, concrete, and backfill.

OverWatch pumps directly from the inlet pipe — no storage wet well. That means a smaller, shallower structure and a lot less dirt moved. When we price the whole station, not just the equipment, OverWatch is often the lower installed cost on day one.

Can you send me the flow, the invert depth, and the site plan? I'll give you a side-by-side of the civil scope, not just the pumps."

"So the plan right now is to tear out the vault and build a new one? That's excavation, bypass pumping for weeks, traffic control, new concrete — easily hundreds of thousands of dollars before a single pump goes in.

With OverWatch, we don't need a wet well to store sewage, so we don't need a new vault. We install in the existing structure and turn it into a clean, dry pump room. IFS has done conversions like this in a single day — an Austin high-rise went live in one day, and a New York village plant in 11.5 hours.

What would it be worth to your budget to skip the new vault entirely? Let's get eyes on the structure and I'll show you what we can reuse."

"Here's something most people miss. In a dry pit / wet well station, half your structure — the wet pit — is already using its retention for storage. That leaves very little room for sewage in an emergency.

OverWatch pipes directly through the wet well, with a standpipe only for fringe emergency situations, so virtually none of your wet well is being used anymore. That frees up the old dry pit and wet well to be used as retention volume. You get a big jump in retention capacity for I&I or power outages — storage that would otherwise mean a new tank, more excavation, or just isn't possible on your site.

How much retention time do you have today, and how much do you wish you had? Let's calculate what the retrofit gives you."

"Let me ask you — why is this designed as two lift stations? Usually it's because of the guide rail concept. A traditional submersible seals to the discharge elbow using the weight of the pump. Push the head too high and that seal leaks back, so the design caps out and you end up splitting the lift into multiple stations.

OverWatch doesn't use a guiderail. It's a bolted, flanged, in-line connection, so it can run the higher head. In most cases, we can hit your duty point with one station instead of two.

That's one less structure, one less set of pumps, one less control panel, one less power service, and one less site to maintain — easily hundreds of thousands of dollars. Can you send me the duty point? I'll tell you if we can do it in one."

"The purchase price is a one-time number. The operating cost is a bill you pay every year for 20 years. Let's look at the bill.

Clogging: OverWatch has a shredding impeller and a smart drive that senses torque, reverses, and cuts through rags on its own. No 2 a.m. call-outs, no crews pulling pumps.

Vac truck: There's no wet well collecting grease and debris, so there's nothing to vac out. That's typically around $8,000 a year per station. In IFS's Village of Sherman case study, the documented savings were $8,480 a year.

Longevity: The body is stainless steel. It doesn't corrode like cast iron in an H₂S environment — it lasts for decades, so future repairs drop.

Safety: No wet well means no confined-space entry for your crews.

Multiply $8,000 a year by 20 years, and by every station you own. What's your team spending today on your worst station?"

"Every submersible sold today says 'non-clog' on the nameplate. I'm guessing you've still pulled a few of them full of rags.

Here's what I can tell you from our own installs: Rhino Pumps has never had an OverWatch clog. Not once, across every system we've put in the ground. That's not a brochure number — that's our service department.

I can't put an exact dollar figure on a clog that never happens. But you can. What does one call-out cost you — the crew, the truck, the overtime, the vac truck, the risk of a backup or an SSO? Now multiply that by how many times a year it happens today."

"When your submersible fails, who can fix it? Only the manufacturer. The motor, the mechanical seals, the temperature and seal-fail probes — all proprietary. One source for parts, one price, one lead time. And while you wait, that station is running on one pump or on a bypass.

OverWatch uses a standard IEEE motor. If it goes down, you have a whole market of motor manufacturers and motor shops to choose from — often off the shelf. The wet end is simple to rebuild compared to pulling and tearing down a submersible, and it's done in a dry, clean room, not over an open wet well.

In our experience, repair downtime on an OverWatch is an order of magnitude less than a submersible. What did your last submersible repair cost you, and how long was that station down?"

"Let me ask you about your last Flygt rebuild. How many parts were in that pump? Who did the work — your own crew, or a Flygt-trained technician? How long did you wait on parts coming out of Europe? And what did the invoice look like?

Here's the challenge with Flygt: it's a great-engineered pump, but it's a complicated one. There are a lot of parts, it takes a specialized technician to rebuild, parts often ship from Europe with long lead times, and if it isn't reassembled exactly to spec, it fails early. You pay a premium for all of that, and you're locked into one source every time.

With OverWatch, the motor is a standard IEEE motor you can source from any major manufacturer, and the wet end is simple enough for a good pump shop — or your own crew — to rebuild. Which of those would you rather be calling at 2 a.m.?"

"Can I ask you something that isn't on the bid sheet? How hard is it to hire and keep good operators right now?

Think about what a bad lift station does to your crew. 2 a.m. call-outs. Pulling a pump full of rags. Climbing down into a wet well with H₂S. Weekends on call because that one station always acts up. That's the work that burns people out and sends them to the city next door.

OverWatch takes that work away. No clogs, no confined-space entry, no vac truck, and repairs happen in a clean, dry room. Your people spend their time on planned work instead of emergencies.

What does it cost you when a trained operator quits — the recruiting, the overtime to cover, the months before the new hire is up to speed? If this station keeps even one good person on your team, what's that worth?"