Manual Well Pumps

[ZacsDad]

I have a second well on my property that we discovered amongst the weeds. 6" pipe, has water about 25 - 30 feet down. Haven't checked but it's probably about 100+' deep (the primary one is about that). Was likely used as the injection well for the geothermal system that failed (and I removed). When I had it, the geothermal was a pump n dump (no injection well used). Long story short....How good are those hand pumps for wells? have seen them everywhere from $40 to $400. Cheap ones say they will only draw about 25'. How real is that estimate? Do these suckers Freeze up in the winter? I was thinking that I'd like to have something I could draw water from "just in case".

 

[Ron in Nebr]

Can't answer your question about how far up they'll pull water from...my guess is it's directly related to how long ya wanna pump the handle......around here we have windmills which are about the same thing except of course wind powered versus manual. When first turned on they'll bring water up from a LONG ways down if you sit and wait long enough.

What I CAN answer is- they won't freeze up if the static water level is below the freezing depth of your soil. On our windmills we always file a little groove on the check valve in the plunger so the water can drain back down if the wind quits during freezing weather.

 

[Ron in Nebr]

PS- of course you know you'll need a smaller diameter pipe put down inside that existing 6 inch pipe.

 

[Coloken]

Pump will pump any depth if the piston/cylinder is down in the water at the bottom with a pump rod inside the pipe. No pump can "suck" more that 15 to 25 foot. About 4 or 5 foot down make a little "seep" hole, like a sixteenth of and inch, in the pipe so that it drains back and not freeze.

 

[rhouston]

I have to agree with no pump will suck more that 15-25 feet. It has something to do with air pressure and the weight of the water which makes the water turn to a gas and you loose your suction.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I believe shallow well pumps will raise water from
a depth of 28 feet. Now if your talking a pitcher
pump, they have to be primed every time you use them
because the water drains back out of the pipe when
you are not pumping. If you type Pitcher pump into
the Google search , most of them say 25ft.

 

[RobMD]

Just buy yourself a 2 gpm portable electric pump and a long piece of hose and run an extension cord.

 

[T_Bone]

Hi ZD,

Sounds like a good place to use a jet pump. If you use check valves in the up pipe then you won't need to prime the pump each time. After sitting for a long time with out use, most any pump will need primed.

Another pump choice would be submersible pump.

T_Bone

 

[Anonymous-0]

It's going nothing to do with being cheap - in regard to the pitcher-pump. Laws of physics don't allow any hand pump to suck water from any deeper than 30 feet - and in reality - they're pretty useless past 20. We have two - elcheapo Chinese pumps we bought for $19 each - but with each one the water is only 10 feet down. One is in our kitchen hooked to the old dug well. We never have to prime them unless they go unused for a long time - like a few months.

As others have mentioned - any hand-driven pump can work at any depth - but the pump mechanism itself goes down the well - and gets hooked up top with linkage. There are hand pumps in Africa that goe down 400 feet. I've got one at another property with a 220 foot well with the water "head" 80 feet from ground level. We have an Oasis hand pump that is all PVC. Lehmans sell them. Built kind of crappy, and costs over $300 but it does work. We don't have electric there and don't need much water. Otherwise, I'd install an electric pump of some sort. I've been considering installing a solar-pump - but they are real pricey.

 

[paul]

The cheap pitcher pumps are good to 15 feet.

The best ones are good to 28 feet.

You need one that has the piston down at the end of the pipe, with a rod up the middle. They cost more, work great. Can go 100 feet down easy, can go 400 feet but then you get into the weight of the rod/cost issues.

Solar electric low-flow can work too, look into remote livestock watering companies for more on them.

You likely need 20 feet or more of water to draw down to make the well useful, so if you see water at 30 feet, you would want the pump intake at 50 feet anyhow. Deeper is better, depends on the refresh rate of the well of course.

--->Paul

 

[Eric SEI]

The Aeromotor Windmill Company website has a good explanation of pumps.

 

[Oldmax]

Go to this Web site and it will explain how a wind mill and deep well pump works .
Wind mill working