How to increase psi in my gravity irrigation system?

[plowhog]

You can even get hose with emitters built in. The hose gets buried below the cultivation zone and can keep a "crop" well irrigated.

That could be very interesting around the fruit trees, since it's a good way to irrigate and would not conflict with mowing. Do you have a brand name or link for these?

 

[MossRoad]

Two irrigation needs: pasture grass and fruit trees. I believe the 1" brass impact sprinklers use 16 gpm each. (Need to check again.) I am can only run two at a time (32 gpm) so I don't overtax the incoming water (45 gpm.) And the fruit trees I "flood irrigate" by dragging hoses and leaving it run. I want to improve this method of watering the trees to drip or soaker hose around each tree. Soaker hose is probably better and less maintenance as I need to periodically remove all irrigation of this type before mowing.

The videos of Fleming (or other ram pumps) look very inefficient. It looks like it exhausts a *lot* of water out the bottom to only pump a little water uphill. So I am guessing it would take .... forever ....

Also, to use a ram pump, I would have to seal off the end of the 6" line that supplies the 45 gpm. The ram pump won't work otherwise. But once I seal that pipe off at the end I believe the flow would go significantly below 45gpm. The only "flow" would be what was being exhausted out of the ram pump.

From what I've read, ram pump waste is anywhere from 70-90%.

Fleming says 15-20% delivery, so that's in line with the thinking.

With that said, what's the elevation drop from your water box to your pond through that 3" pipe?

Using some of the ram pump calculators out there, is that drop in the 3" pipe with 45gpm enough to pump water up to a higher elevation tank that would supply enough PSI to your sprinkler system?

That pipe is flowing anytime you are not using irrigation water out of the box, correct? If so, you said the box gets 45GPM from the 6" pipe to the water box. So I'm assuming when you're not irrigating, the 45GPM is flowing out of the waterbox through the 3" pipe to the pond. With that flow, if you get just 10% out of a ram pump, you'd be getting 4.5GPM back up the hill to a taller storage tank. 4.5gpm X 60 minutes = 270GPH = 6480 gallons per day.

How much water do you use per day or per sprinkling session, etc....? Can you break up the watering schedule to consume less than 6480 per day? Questions like that.

I'd switch to drip as it uses a lot less PSI and can target better than impact sprinklers and you'd not have to change anything in your delivery system. Look at the costs of both methods. A ram pump on the 3" line if it's got enough drop + pipe back up the hill + large storage tank on legs could add up to a lot of cost that could be put towards a drip system that ends up being more efficient.

Good luck with your project. :thumbsup:

 

[plowhog]

With that said, what's the elevation drop from your water box to your pond through that 3" pipe?

I have about 45 psi at the pond. So probably a little more than 100 feet of drop from the water box to the pond (100 feet times .43 would be 43 psi)

The sprinklers at the pond have enough pressure, but ones elsewhere on the property, at slightly higher elevation, do not.

I'm going to investigate the ram pump. It would have to push water at least 148 feet uphill for me to get +10psi in the other location that only has 35 psi now. I don't know if it can do that. But I will look into it.

I'm not concerned with waste water at the pond since that is "overflow" anyway. So a ram pump there doesn't really have any loss. Good thinking.

 

[plowhog]

Using some of the ram pump calculators out there, is that drop in the 3" pipe with 45gpm enough to pump water up to a higher elevation tank that would supply enough PSI to your sprinkler system?

I found a very good ram pump writeup including formulas. Surprisingly they can pump water 10x higher than the incoming supply water (sacrificing volume of course.) After reviewing it, I am thinking of this:

1. Put a ram pump at the water box, not down at the pond. That saves pumping up hill 100+ feet.
2. Upstream from the water box, T off of the 6" incoming water line to have an extra, smaller incoming water line. Maybe a 2" or something like that. Angle the 2" "tap" from the 6" line downward, so the 2" is the preferred water source.
3. Run a short section of 2" line from that "tap" to the water box. Install a ram pump inside the water box using that 2" supply pipe.
4. Connect an output hose/pipe from the ram pump and run it uphill to another storage tank, sited high enough to get more psi.
5. Plumb that storage tank into the irrigation supply. I might need to add some valves so the irrigation system can "choose" which source to use, either the existing water box or the higher tank. If I have maybe a 1,000 gallon tank up there I could wait for it to fill up, then go up and change the valves to select the upper tank. The irrigation system would then have the extra head and psi to irrigate the areas that right now only have 35 psi.

This requires me to fiddle with it when I want more pressure. But, I'm willing to give it a try. I could use the ram pump for something, somewhere if it doesn't work out. So investing in one to try out is worthwhile.

Thanks again.

https://www.clemson.edu/extension/p...forages/Lf13-home-made-hydraulic-ram-pump.pdf

 

[pmsmechanic]

That could be very interesting around the fruit trees, since it's a good way to irrigate and would not conflict with mowing. Do you have a brand name or link for these?

Southern Drip Irrigation Product Catalogue This is the catalog from a store that is local to me. I found the hose by brousing through the drip irrigation section one evening when I was looking for ideas on how to set mine up. You could also just use regular drip hose and just install emitters where the trees are. You can bury the drip hose between trees for mowing.

I tried to post a link to the exact page you are looking for but it didn't work. So open the catalog and expand the page. Once you've done that then turn two pages to get to the index. Click on section "7- dripline"

 

[plowhog]

A very complete catalog and innovative presentation of it. Thanks!

 

[jaxs]

Here's another idea for brainstorming. Is the source moving water? If so,could stream be used to power a pump for lifting water to an elevated tank which in turn supply's 6" line? 6" line pressure at water box would then be sum of present head plus that of elivated tank. That might enable using the idea discussed earlier where 6"connect's directly to smaller line at water box with standpipe regulating pressure and dropping overflow into box where it flow's to pond.
As protracted discussions go,I find this one more interesting than stuck plugs or pallets.:scratchchin:

 

[3Ts]

About the drip irrigation. I tried that for an orchard - got the parts from one of the big box stores - and the ants ate the black drip hose. So that didn't last long, not quite a year.

 

[pmsmechanic]

About the drip irrigation. I tried that for an orchard - got the parts from one of the big box stores - and the ants ate the black drip hose. So that didn't last long, not quite a year.

Lets hope that Alberta ants aren't as hungry as Texas ants!

 

[jaxs]

Lets hope that Alberta ants aren't as hungry as Texas ants!

I'll bet Imported Fire Ants ate 3TS hose and it wasn't out of hunger, it was out of orneriness. :fiery: