Rayzen
New Member
I live alongside a river in the Pacific Northwest (Washington) and have been pumping water out of it, every summer, in order to water my lawns and veggie garden. It has worked great.
The river lies about 100 feet, horizontally, from the yard, and about 30 feet below the level of the yard (We are situated on a high bank above the river, itself).
I have always used two pumps in tandem, each one being a 1/2 h.p. shallow water jet pump, with the output of the second pump going into a pressure tank. The first pump is located at the same level as the river, but about 65 horizontal feet, next to the bank, and the second pump is in a pump house, up on the lawn, about 30 feet above the first pump. The pumps are activated by a regular pressure switch which I adjusted to about 35 p.s.i.
The system has been working great, until just a few days ago, when one of the pumps finally had a bearing seize up. I might mention that the motor and pump were very old (about 35 years old), and when I tried to take it apart, the long bolts holding the motor together all snapped off, due to being rusted almost entirely through. After struggling with it for a while, I realized that I have gotten more than my money out of the poor old thing, and that the cost and hassle of trying to fix it (drilling out the broken bolts, resizing the holes, buying new bolts, replacing the seals, etc.) just wasn't worth it, making it a better choice to just go buy a new one. Then I began to wonder if I actually need a second pump, anyway. I have never actually tried to pump water out of the river with just a single 1/2 h.p. pump, so I don't know if it would work or not.
So here're my questions: 1) Do I really need to run two pumps in tandem like I have been doing, or can I get away with just hooking up the system to the one 1/2 h.p. pump that I have up in the pump house, given the distances that I have cited? I am not, by any stretch, a hydraulic engineer, so I don't know how to calculate the equipment needs for such a set-up, hence my question to you.
2) If I really should keep using two pumps, then how expensive of one do I need? I looked on Lowe's website, as an example, and I saw quite a variety of pumps and prices, ranging all the way from about $180 all the way to over $400. Obviously, I don't want to spend more than I have to, so I would like to know what I can get away with as cheaply as possible, yet having something that's not going to break down on me due to being overworked or whatever. Any recommendations on that? Some of the pumps that I saw were called 'transfer' pumps, whatever that means. Others appeared to be portable, even coming with a handle. Still others were pretty heavy duty looking, such as the ones I have been using. Not really knowing much about pumps, it would be nice to have some professional advice as to what I should shop for.
3) (This one's going to be a bit hard to explain) The pump which went bad was the one down alongside the river bank, leaving the one up in the pump house still working. If I can, in fact, get away with using only one pump, then I would actually like to be able to get away with leaving the existing pump in the pump house at the top of the river bank. This is because it is already plumbed in with metal fittings and all, ready to go, so I would like to be able to not disturb it, if possible. If I could do that, then all I would have to do is just connect the 'suction' hose from the foot valve (i.e., the input hose to the old, broken pump) to the 'output' hose (i.e., the output hose from the old, broken pump) that goes up to the pump in the pump house and everything would be good to go. This would be a really quick, easy fix, being just connecting a hose connector/reducer, which would take only about five minutes and cost probably $5 at the most. However that creates a new question: The old 'suction' hose is (I think) 1 1/2", but the old 'output' hose is (I think) 1", so is that going to create some kind of a load on the pump? It would, of course, reduce the possible maximum flow rate, but then all I'm ever running are a couple (at the most) Rain Bird sprinkler heads, so it wouldn't seem to me to be a problem. And, anyway, the existing pump which would now be doing all the work was already using that same hose as its input, before the first pump broke, so I don't see how it would change a thing.
I sure hope all of this makes some sense. And I can just imagine that most viewers/possible helpers might look at all of it and not even want to give it a read, since it's kind of a lot of explanation.
But, anyway, thanks, in advance, for your help, if you did bear with me through all of that.
The river lies about 100 feet, horizontally, from the yard, and about 30 feet below the level of the yard (We are situated on a high bank above the river, itself).
I have always used two pumps in tandem, each one being a 1/2 h.p. shallow water jet pump, with the output of the second pump going into a pressure tank. The first pump is located at the same level as the river, but about 65 horizontal feet, next to the bank, and the second pump is in a pump house, up on the lawn, about 30 feet above the first pump. The pumps are activated by a regular pressure switch which I adjusted to about 35 p.s.i.
The system has been working great, until just a few days ago, when one of the pumps finally had a bearing seize up. I might mention that the motor and pump were very old (about 35 years old), and when I tried to take it apart, the long bolts holding the motor together all snapped off, due to being rusted almost entirely through. After struggling with it for a while, I realized that I have gotten more than my money out of the poor old thing, and that the cost and hassle of trying to fix it (drilling out the broken bolts, resizing the holes, buying new bolts, replacing the seals, etc.) just wasn't worth it, making it a better choice to just go buy a new one. Then I began to wonder if I actually need a second pump, anyway. I have never actually tried to pump water out of the river with just a single 1/2 h.p. pump, so I don't know if it would work or not.
So here're my questions: 1) Do I really need to run two pumps in tandem like I have been doing, or can I get away with just hooking up the system to the one 1/2 h.p. pump that I have up in the pump house, given the distances that I have cited? I am not, by any stretch, a hydraulic engineer, so I don't know how to calculate the equipment needs for such a set-up, hence my question to you.
2) If I really should keep using two pumps, then how expensive of one do I need? I looked on Lowe's website, as an example, and I saw quite a variety of pumps and prices, ranging all the way from about $180 all the way to over $400. Obviously, I don't want to spend more than I have to, so I would like to know what I can get away with as cheaply as possible, yet having something that's not going to break down on me due to being overworked or whatever. Any recommendations on that? Some of the pumps that I saw were called 'transfer' pumps, whatever that means. Others appeared to be portable, even coming with a handle. Still others were pretty heavy duty looking, such as the ones I have been using. Not really knowing much about pumps, it would be nice to have some professional advice as to what I should shop for.
3) (This one's going to be a bit hard to explain) The pump which went bad was the one down alongside the river bank, leaving the one up in the pump house still working. If I can, in fact, get away with using only one pump, then I would actually like to be able to get away with leaving the existing pump in the pump house at the top of the river bank. This is because it is already plumbed in with metal fittings and all, ready to go, so I would like to be able to not disturb it, if possible. If I could do that, then all I would have to do is just connect the 'suction' hose from the foot valve (i.e., the input hose to the old, broken pump) to the 'output' hose (i.e., the output hose from the old, broken pump) that goes up to the pump in the pump house and everything would be good to go. This would be a really quick, easy fix, being just connecting a hose connector/reducer, which would take only about five minutes and cost probably $5 at the most. However that creates a new question: The old 'suction' hose is (I think) 1 1/2", but the old 'output' hose is (I think) 1", so is that going to create some kind of a load on the pump? It would, of course, reduce the possible maximum flow rate, but then all I'm ever running are a couple (at the most) Rain Bird sprinkler heads, so it wouldn't seem to me to be a problem. And, anyway, the existing pump which would now be doing all the work was already using that same hose as its input, before the first pump broke, so I don't see how it would change a thing.
I sure hope all of this makes some sense. And I can just imagine that most viewers/possible helpers might look at all of it and not even want to give it a read, since it's kind of a lot of explanation.
But, anyway, thanks, in advance, for your help, if you did bear with me through all of that.
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