Although water hammer type pumps have been known for almost two centuries, they generally have not been developed to the point where they may be made available for general private and commercial use. The two major defects preventing such use are:
1. The highly destructive force of the water-hammer tends to decrease the life of the pump and, over a period of time, damage the two main valves responsible for producing the water hammer. To protect water conduits and valves from this destructive force, relief valves and bursting plates are sometimes used. However, there still remains the problem of noise and vibration caused by the constant opening and closing of the valves, making such a pump undesirable for use in urban and residential areas.
2. To create the water hammer to operate the pump, it is necessary to install a waste valve which shoots "waste" water out of the pump at every stroke of the water hammer. While this is relatively unimportant for agricultural use when fresh water supplies are abundant, it is impractical to pump precious treated water to supply schools, factories, homes, and offices for human consumption with such a wasteful device.
It may be seen that the enormous savings of energy attained through the use of a pump operated by a water hammer are often offset by the waste, noise and limited life of such pumps.