Hand pump

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Boycedrilling

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I've drilled quite a few domestic wells for people off the electric grid, either by choice or economics.

One customer ran his house on a 2000 watt Honda inverter generator. Before I drilled them a well, they had 2 55 gallon barrels in the back of a pickup. They filled them once a week at a community well. They bought a bigger generator to run the pump in the well to fill their reservoir.

Another customer found it was going to cost between $30 and $50 thousand dollars to get power extended to their property. They bought a used diesel generator for five thousand dollars. He told me he could buy a hell of a lot of diesel for the rest of the money.
 

ACWxRADR

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Also if you do go off grid with a generator use a grundfos sq pump. They do not have start surge.

This is a very good point! Most small scale "off-grid" electrical systems won't handle the operation of standard pumps. A simple backup power system may not handle the load that is needed to operate a pump. You would have to invest a lot of money and wise engineering into the "off-grid" power system to accommodate everything you want to run in a home.

A diesel or LP gas generator is probably the best option, from what I have learned. If you want to go solar or wind power, it is going to be a major engineering feat because you must consider that you have to capture the solar and wind power in moments and store the charge for future use. This feat is not as easy as most people might think.

RADAR
 

Smooky

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ACWxRADR

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My advice, personally, would be to install a propane fueled generator. The propane will never go bad as gasoline or diesel will so you can have it on standby virtually forever. The maintenance issues would be much less. With the generator, you can not only have power to run your water pump, but all the other household amenities. Do you have a deep freezer full of food? You can keep that running, too. How about powering your computer? Water heater? Oven and range or at least the microwave? Clothes washer and dryer? Power tools? And, if you are in a colder climate, how about the furnace? Even if you have a gas furnace, you need power to run the blower fan.

I would save my money on the hand pump project and put it towards the generator and LP tank and fuel. You would be much further ahead on all issues and the generator would be a selling point for the home if you move.

I would investigate Generac generators: http://www.generac.com/for-homeowners/home-backup-power

RADAR
 

Michael Linehan

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Simple Pump has a very good reputation. It is not cheap. It can pump from hundreds of feet.

I hope you won’t mind a few points from Simple Pump Co.

Shallow well - pitcher pump: Yes, cheaper for shallow wells, but cannot pump to your pressure tank. So extra cost to pump to pressure may be worth it to you. Pricing for Simple Pump is actually less than for any other comparable pump, such as Bison and Baker.

To pump from inside your house, you have to suck the water up. That can only work down to about 18-25’ (depending on altitude).

One vital question about any pump… How much effort is needed to pump from your water level?
- Simple Pump from 33’ is extremely easy. From 33’ AND into the pressure tank is still easy.
- Most hand pumps require 4-5 times as much effort as the Simple Pump.
- SP can pump from 300’ water level with only 18 lbs of force. Moderate effort for the average person.

Yield — at a fairly brisk but not ridiculous pace, the Simple Pump will give you 5 gpm.

Generators are great as long as you can get fuel and fuses. I’ve spoken with people in Oklahoma about not having power for 2 months and not being able to get fuel within a hundred miles. Wouldn’t take a big disaster to produce similar circumstances.

Please be in touch if you'd like to ask us anything.
Michael Linehan
www.simplepump.com/Contact.html
 

PumpMd

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I hope you won’t mind a few points from Simple Pump Co.

Shallow well - pitcher pump: Yes, cheaper for shallow wells, but cannot pump to your pressure tank. So extra cost to pump to pressure may be worth it to you. Pricing for Simple Pump is actually less than for any other comparable pump, such as Bison and Baker.

To pump from inside your house, you have to suck the water up. That can only work down to about 18-25’ (depending on altitude).

One vital question about any pump… How much effort is needed to pump from your water level?
- Simple Pump from 33’ is extremely easy. From 33’ AND into the pressure tank is still easy.
- Most hand pumps require 4-5 times as much effort as the Simple Pump.
- SP can pump from 300’ water level with only 18 lbs of force. Moderate effort for the average person.

Yield — at a fairly brisk but not ridiculous pace, the Simple Pump will give you 5 gpm.

Generators are great as long as you can get fuel and fuses. I’ve spoken with people in Oklahoma about not having power for 2 months and not being able to get fuel within a hundred miles. Wouldn’t take a big disaster to produce similar circumstances.

Please be in touch if you'd like to ask us anything.
Michael Linehan
www.simplepump.com/Contact.html

On a 2 1/2 inch cylinder for a normal hand pump size, it takes 5 strokes to produce roughly 1gal of water on a 10in stroke.

What stroke length is being used on a Simple Pump? I can't remember if it was adjustable on the simple pump, for the one we installed in Oklahoma.
 

Texas Wellman

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I hope you won’t mind a few points from Simple Pump Co.

Shallow well - pitcher pump: Yes, cheaper for shallow wells, but cannot pump to your pressure tank. So extra cost to pump to pressure may be worth it to you. Pricing for Simple Pump is actually less than for any other comparable pump, such as Bison and Baker.

To pump from inside your house, you have to suck the water up. That can only work down to about 18-25’ (depending on altitude).

One vital question about any pump… How much effort is needed to pump from your water level?
- Simple Pump from 33’ is extremely easy. From 33’ AND into the pressure tank is still easy.
- Most hand pumps require 4-5 times as much effort as the Simple Pump.
- SP can pump from 300’ water level with only 18 lbs of force. Moderate effort for the average person.

Yield — at a fairly brisk but not ridiculous pace, the Simple Pump will give you 5 gpm.

Generators are great as long as you can get fuel and fuses. I’ve spoken with people in Oklahoma about not having power for 2 months and not being able to get fuel within a hundred miles. Wouldn’t take a big disaster to produce similar circumstances.

Please be in touch if you'd like to ask us anything.
Michael Linehan
www.simplepump.com/Contact.html
Michael,

How much does the pump that goes in a 4" well along with a normal submersible pump produce?

I have now installed two units and they are indeed high quality.
 

PumpMd

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Pumping rates from the Simple Pump vary directly with the frequency and length of strokes of the lever arm. In normal operation, Simple Pump delivers up to 5 gallons per minute. Pumping water from normal depths is easy. The actual force required is dependent on the static water level, not the total length of drop pipe assembly. For a common installation, a well with a 100-foot static water level, it takes approximately 12 pounds of downward force using our 24” lever arm. A child can easily do this. Even at a static water level of 325 feet, it takes only approximately 16 pounds of downward force, using our 36” lever arm.

With the Simple Pump, pumping water from normal depths is easy. The lever handle that is standard equipment with our pump system works on common leverage principles and provides a leverage ratio of 3.3:1. The actual force required is dependent on the total length of drop pipe assembly. For a standard installation of 100 feet, it takes approximately 12 pounds of downward force. A child can easily do this. At 200 feet, you would be using our 3 foot lever arm. The effort is halved - and is still only 12 lbs. At sets deeper than 225 feet, we would be swapping to the 100CA-SS pump cylinder. This decreases the effort per stroke further, to only 17 lbs at 325 feet static water level.
 
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Reach4

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Note that the Simple Pump in the photo has extra holes. Moving the vertical piece shown on the right to the two unused holes would put your pumping into a "lower gear". I see they also offer more than one length of pump handle, which I expect lets them trade the force required for increased movement by the operator. I expect the choice would be affected by water depth and operator strength.
HAND-WATER-PUMP.jpg
 

Michael Linehan

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On a 2 1/2 inch cylinder for a normal hand pumpsize, it takes 5 strokes to produce roughly 1gal of water on a 10in stroke.

What stroke length is being used on a Simple Pump? I can't remember if it was adjustable on the simplepump, for the one we installed in Oklahoma.

It’s a 10-inch max stroke. Of course, someone can choose to pump more briskly, with shorter strokes.
 

Michael Linehan

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At sets deeper than 225 feet, we would be swapping to the 100CA-SS pump cylinder. This decreases the effort per stroke further, to only 17 lbs at 325 feet static water level.

UPDATE: About the 100 cylinder... Previously we offered a 5gpm cylinder from 0-225' water level, and the 3gpm 100 below 225'.
Just recently, the 100 was superseded by a re-engineerd 125CA cylinder which gives up to 5gpm. The limit for this configuration is 300 static water level.
The pumping effort is still just 18lbs. This is quite moderate pumping for the average person.
 

IDtheTarget

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Generators are great as long as you can get fuel and fuses. I’ve spoken with people in Oklahoma about not having power for 2 months and not being able to get fuel within a hundred miles. Wouldn’t take a big disaster to produce similar circumstances.

I just built a house in rural Oklahoma. We lose power regularly during ice storms, and can be out for days to weeks. I had a transfer switch put in during building and am purchasing a generac generator large enough to power the entire house with a propane supply large enough for about two weeks.

But I'm also putting in a hand pump in case the power outage is longer than the propane tank can last, in case the propane company can't resupply.

Water is too important to my family's lives for me NOT to be a belt-and-suspenders man.
 

Ballvalve

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After your propane and gas runs out and the town has been taken over by zombies, you will all be pulling the pump and cutting a hole in the bottom of a long and tall can or pipe fitted with a flap valve. Moral of the story: keep a lot of rope on hand in your survival kit. Might be more important than all that damn ammo people are hoarding and driving the price of target shooting out of "range".
 

PumpMd

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My uncle still has one that works. Me, I would just make my own hand pump out of PVC like the one we pulled out of a well because they couldn't lift it back up after testing it before they went over seas with it. Someone in OKC came up with it for people over seas that have limited supplies they can get ahold of. They also teach them how to drill their own well with limited supplies as well.

http://www.water4.org/
 

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jenz

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Hand pump was good solution for low area of ground and find deep ground water.i have also use this some times back.
 

CdnMaple

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A generator is the way to go as Boycedrilling said. With a generator you can use it to power other things too. They come in handy for lots of other projects where there is no power. Easy to sell too.

We recently built where power outages are common, so the electrician suggested we install a "GenerLink" at the meter box. When the power goes out, we just need to connect the Generlink plug between our generator and the power box. It automatically disconnects the hydro and connects the portable generator to our house system. As long as our power consumption is less than the power supply from the generator, and we have a supply of gas on hand, all is good. (We are fortunate to not be in an area where hurricanes and other nasty storms occur, just in a remote area under serviced by the power company.)

The cost of the GenerLink and installation might be less than the Simple Pump, and it provides more benefit in my humble opinion. I'm not sure of what the cost is, as it was included in the total cost of hooking up the house to the grid.
http://www.generlink.com/about_generlink.cfm
 

PumpMd

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Generac

When I throw power off to the pump from the outside breakers. Does your "generator" automatically power up to put voltage back to the pump wires? You can even throw the main breaker in the "off " position and your generator is still powering everything. We need a way to cut power to the generator as well, for servicing the well in the future (electrician).

Most of the time the home owner is not home (at work) and it's nice to have everything outside, so we don't need the home owner to be home or you giving us the code to open the garage door on the key pad.

Some home owners don't like the pressure tank and switch in the garage because of the horrible clicking noise from the pressure switch or any type of flow reducer devices making terrible flow reducing noises throughout the house. Putting the flow reducer in the well to eliminate the terrible noise inside the house, Buried tanks, or well houses come into play for the home owner. DO NOT cover your well without having easy access to pull the pump in the future.

Craigpump,

Nope, I've only seen 3 Dole valves. One I installed, one on my shelf and one on my son in laws tank T.

The one on my son in laws install makes a terrible noise thar you can hear from every room in the house...
 
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