We have a small hunting camp run by a generator next to a river. The camp is located up a small hill from a clean flowing river and we wanted to buy a small shallow well pump/tank combo to pull water from the river to the camp. On the advice of the hardware store guy (first mistake?) we bought a 1/2HP Flotec Shallow well pump attached to a 6gallon tank. We also bought 125' of 1.25" flexible discharge hose to pump the water up from the river to the pump and wired the pump to the generator. The lift is about 15' in elevation over 125'.
Now, it does work, but it runs constantly and when we do anything with it we have to continually stop and let the pressure build up then it has decent pressure for about 30 seconds before going limp again. The pump runs continuously.
One thing we noticed is when the pump runs the flexible discharge hose we are using to suck the water out of the river is contracting. When the pump shuts off it relaxes. So here are my questions:
1. Would another type of pipe work better?
2. If yes to 1, would a smaller diameter pipe (say 1" make pumping easier)
3. Or did we just use the wrong type of pump system for this application?
Thanks.
Now, it does work, but it runs constantly and when we do anything with it we have to continually stop and let the pressure build up then it has decent pressure for about 30 seconds before going limp again. The pump runs continuously.
One thing we noticed is when the pump runs the flexible discharge hose we are using to suck the water out of the river is contracting. When the pump shuts off it relaxes. So here are my questions:
1. Would another type of pipe work better?
2. If yes to 1, would a smaller diameter pipe (say 1" make pumping easier)
3. Or did we just use the wrong type of pump system for this application?
Thanks.