Manual hand pump for wells

[widefat]

What's your experience with manual hand pumps for wells? 100-150 feet?
I am looking for something for extended power outages -

TIA~!

 

[BLSXJ]

How much water are you looking for?
I have a drilled well (250' ish feet deep), and after 1 day of no water use in the spring, the water level was less then 50' from the surface.

The problem is there is no pump that will suck the water up 100'... the pump mechanism needs to be at the bottom. there are some manual pumps out there that place the mechanism down low, but they are very expensive.


I've thought about the "extended outage" scenario, and the best solution I came up with was to use rain barrels, and a nearby pond for water to flush toilets. keep a pack of water bottles for drinking (12 Liters) use the water in my hot water tank for cooking.

AND if all that wasn't enough... I'd like to build a small water bucket out of 2" or 3" pipe fittings that I can lower down into my drilled well on a long length of para cord/ poly rope. just to pull clean drinking water.

 

[RNeumann]

Yes they work down about 100-125’ feet. You take a garden hose from the hand pump to a hose bib on the hose “circuit” and can “backfeed” the entire house. You shower- she pumps and vis versa. They drop in next to the existing piping and can typically just stay there without issue of freezing etc.
I saw one that sealed against the inner wall of the pvc pipe- I didn’t think that was the best idea but the company had a great reputation so who knows what the best style is.

 

[LouNY]

There are several available, googling deep well pitcher pump will get you started.
Stainless Steel Deep Well Hand Pump - Pump from as deep as 300'

Deep Well Hand Pumps | Product Categories | Bison Pump

 

[RNeumann]

I’ve talked to this owner and had his pump in my hands. See my thoughts above-

Storm pump emergency water pump for deep wells

 

[Egon]

The actual pump is set at below the water level. How deep depends on how strong you are.

 

[Arky217]

I bought the EZ Well Hand Pump; I got the deepest model, it was $240
and another $60 for piping.

You have to buy your own pipe; it takes 1" thin wall pvc and 1/2" regular pvc.
My regular pump is down 100'; water level is down 63', so I put the hand
pump down 80'. It takes 10 strokes to bring the water to the top.
Then it takes 10 strokes for a gallon of water.

You have to glue the 10' sections of pipe together as you are putting them in the well.

But the one I got appears to have a defect.
After you finish pumping, it drains the inner pipe rather rapidly (within 10 minutes).
Then it takes another 10 strokes to get the water back to the top.
Apparently, the check valve on the end of the inner pipe is not holding completely.
I contacted the company about it and they admitted that it wasn't working as
it should, but they refused to replace it, say that as long as it was pumping water,
that it was doing it's job.

I would not have bought this pump if I had realized that to pull the regular
pump, I would have to pull the hand pump first, thus cutting each 10'
section into to remove it.
I had forgot that the regular pump has a boot just above it to prevent the pump
from banging against the well bore when it starts and stops.
This boot would not clear the hand pump piping, so the hand pump would
have to be pulled first, which defeats the ability to manually pump water
if the regular pump must be pulled for repair or replacement.
But for loss of electric power, it would supply water from the well.

 

[MacLawn]

I've. Researched this a bit, Bison pumps seem good. But they a bit proud of them.

 

[fried1765]

What's your experience with manual hand pumps for wells? 100-150 feet?
I am looking for something for extended power outages -

TIA~!

My backup well is a separate 2" galvanized driven well (in sand).
The well depth is 40 ft., and it has a permanently mounted deep well rod type pump on top.
Works great.
The well and pump have been in place for 85+ years. It has occasionally been repaired, and I pump it (by hand) a few times each year, just to make sure everything still works.
Pitcher pumps will only work for depths up to about 20 feet.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

For the stated purpose it seems like a generator would be a better choice. Checking Amazon it seems like 240v units start around $250. Plus you can run everything else in the house.

 

[RNeumann]

For the stated purpose it seems like a generator would be a better choice. Checking Amazon it seems like 240v units start around $250. Plus you can run everything else in the house.

Is that a split phase gen

 

[widefat]

Good stuff here, thanks. I need to measure the depth and static water level to see exactly what will work.
We have two bold year-round creeks on the property, but both are fed from cattle farms. In a pinch, we could use them as a water source with proper treatment. We have a seeping periodic spring, but dont know if it could provide enough water. We also have a small generator hooked to the well pump and furnace. We have used that for shorter outages (day long for example).

 

[RNeumann]

Static water levels can fluctuate- be sure and check it at the end of a dry season.

 

[PILOON]

I agree on the generator approach.
12-13 years ago we had what was a predicted long power outage and I called my favorite tool supply house and the said that a truckload of gensets were on route so I reserved and showed up at 4:30 left at 5:00 with a battery started 5000 watt genset that they filled with oil and did a quick run test and then loaded my car.
I wanted electric start as I have had just too much grief with cantankerous small engines.

Best thing I have done in a long time.
I regularly exercise it (under load) and keep a battery tender connected so that it is always ready to start.
A proper manual transfer box completed the installation at a later date.

The supplied battery died within a year so I replaced it with wet cell ATV battery and the tender has kept it fully charged for 8 years.
My total outlay is about $600. and during frequent power outages we can cook, watch TV, surf the net and read.

The only lacking convenience is hot water as the tank* simply draws too many amps but the water pump (220 VAC) and septic pump operates just fine.

Main thing is water, septic, fridge and freezer which are all covered. The rest is luxury in such situations.

*one longish outage I opted to shower no matter how cold or cool the water would be and was surprised that the remaining tank water was quite comfortable and that was 4 days later! Todays tanks are extremely well insulated.
LOL, I did not need to mix hot with cold either.
Cooking is a hot plate and microwave with hot water boiled via hot plate with coffee or tea nuked 'by the cupful'.

For heat we have a fireplace and slow combustion stove.

U regularly 'exercise' my genset and use a plug in heater to provide a load.
It is stored in my attached woodshed with an extension on the exhaust to run it thru a dedicated hole in the wall.
In my area, end of the road, we see 4 or 6 outages a year with varied durations, most are short lived, thankfully.

 

[TheGoose]

I've installed two simple pumps (similar to the bison pumps) in wells alongside the normal pump (it goes in the well above the regular 4" pump alongside the wire and drop pipe). They are fairly expensive, and they don't pump a lot of water. Yes, you can tie them into your tank and backfill your tank, but in my opinion they just don't put out enough water to do this reasonably.

If it were me, I'd have a separate well drilled and install a dedicated hand pump made for volume. Fill any buckets etc needed like in the old days. The ones that go in your well with your regular pump won't do a lot of volume because they have to be small to fit in the casing with all the other pipe/wire.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The actual pump is set at below the water level. How deep depends on how strong you are.

Deep well piston pumps are fitted with a counterweight on a rocker arm or pulley that compensates for the weight of the sucker rod and part of the water column. Oil wells use a pittman arm/traveling beam arrangement, but 100 years ago a simpler arrangement in the pump house for water pumping was used.

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

 

[Egon]

Deep well piston pumps are fitted with a counterweight on a rocker arm or pulley that compensates for the weight of the sucker rod and part of the water column. Oil wells use a pittman arm/traveling beam arrangement, but 100 years ago a simpler arrangement in the pump house for water pumping was used.

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

The hand operated well pumps don't got no counterweight. Today's hand pumps work just like the ones one hundred years ago.

Downhole oil well pumps got a little different configuration than the standard simple water pump.

 

[4570Man]

For the stated purpose it seems like a generator would be a better choice. Checking Amazon it seems like 240v units start around $250. Plus you can run everything else in the house.

Agreed. It seems cheaper and easier. Even if you only had 5 gallon of gas that would pump a lot of water.

 

[PILOON]

Agreed. It seems cheaper and easier. Even if you only had 5 gallon of gas that would pump a lot of water.

For sure!

Add Staybl to your gas, maybe run carb dry after using and every 5-6 months dump the gas into the car and replace with fresh gas.
And do exercise the genset every month or so.
Another recommendation is to use non alcohol gas (HI-TEST) in all small engines. (Hi test is purer, i.e. less or no alcohol)

 

[4570Man]

I still have the option to buy alcohol free gas. It’ll sit in carbs for a year with no treatment or problems. My generators get used a couple times a year and that’s the existent of their exercise.