Comparison Between Compression Packing and Mechanical Seals

a. Mechanical seals reduce the need for seal water to a great extent. Many industrial installations found that they were wasting a lot of money in providing sealing water to pumps. Use of mechanical seals reduces this type of wastage. Also, as time goes by, value of water is increasing and it is difficult to get operational licences for systems that waste water.

b. Mechanical seals are much more expensive.

c. To maintain or install a mechanical seal you need an experienced millwright, but in the case of compression packings, experienced operators can perform similar tasks.

d. Mechanical seals have much longer operational life.