I have a water well in my backyard. Right now it has an electric submergible pump. IN the event of power outages connected with Y2K, I am looking for an old fashioned type hand water pump. Does anyone know where I can buy one? What is a reasonable cost for one? If worse comes to worst, the well is 75 feet deep and water was hit at just 35 feet down, so I can lower a bucket on a rope and get small amounts of water at a time through the perforated casing.

Thanks, Ken

-- Kenton H. Reich (reich@iolok.com), January 22, 1999

Answers

My well was drilled last year to 650 feet, I guess I'm SOL. (I live on top of a granite mountain).

-- NoWaWa (NoWaWa@thirsty.com), January 22, 1999.

Sorry Ken, but about twenty five feet is all you can do with an old manual lift pump. At sea level, the theoretical maximum is thirty four feet, lesser at higher altitudes.

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), January 23, 1999.

try Lehman's site and call them for specs (lift height) on their chain pump. Looks like a good idea to me.

CR

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 23, 1999.

Hi Ken!...I typed pitcher pumps into the AltaVista search engine and got the following URL....http://lifewater.ca/manuals.htm

There's lots of information on various manual pumps in use around the world.....Hope this helps!

\/\/illis in OKC, OK on 01/22/19999

-- Willis (BANDIT1@ontheroad.com), January 23, 1999.

Ken, try this idea, your well is 75 ft. but you get water at 35 ft. right? then go to an RV dealer and by an RV 12volt pump,set it up with a switch from the battery and use it when you need to. The trick is to have a foot valve at the bottom of the garden hose you will use,because the fittings on the RV pump are garden hose type. In fact you will have three foot valves. One At 75 ft.the other at 35ft and the third at 15 ft. Why, because you can suction water from each section of hose as long as you have a valve to allow the water to enter it. It's not that complicated to make. Furie.

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), January 23, 1999.

We saw a hand pump at Lowe's last weekend, but I do believe 25 ft was the limit on it.....but you might check it out if you don't find anything else from all the other info above......

Sandy

-- Paul & Sandy Stambaugh (patches96@worldnet.att.net), January 23, 1999.

Try the manual well pump offered by the company linked below. Should go as deep as 225'. I've ordered other things from these guys and found them to be GREAT.

http://www.watertanks.com/hydpump.html

-- Runway Cat (runway_cat@hotmail.com), January 23, 1999.

Ken, Go to http://www.inntec.com/watersource/index.html Go to the bottom of the page and get the phone # and call and ask for Bob. He set me up with a good quality hand pump, foot valve, linkage, and garden hose adapter that will bring up water from 150-200ft. down for $639.15 . Delivery time is 8 weeks. It is by far the best deal and quickest delivery I could find.

-- Economan (economy@aol.com), January 23, 1999.

Hi Ken

By any chance is your well located at a higer spot than your house? This is probably not the case but if it is then you might be able to start a siphon effect with a garden hose. I have an inground swimming pool located in an area that is higher than my house. At times I have to take water from it so I lay out a garden hose and stick one end into the pool and the other to my outside spicket and fill the hose with water from the spicket. Once I know water is flowing into the pool I take the end from the spicket and start a siphom process. Not sure this would work for you but just a thought.

I have resolved my emergency water supply problem however with a water filter that filters rain, snow and swimming pool water into drinking water. The site is http://www.atkinsid.com/bottle.htm and if you put "Duane" anywhere on the form he will give Y2Kers a 5% discount. Good luck in your preparation for the events ahead that are yet to unfold.

-- Duane (Duane24062@aol.com), January 23, 1999.

A good source for well information is the catalog put out by Cumberland General Store

Also, try to buy the January/February issue of Countryside magazine. It has a good section on water issues, including how to make your own well buckets and even a small hand pump.

-- De (dealton@concentric.net), January 23, 1999.

I have mentioned before that our well is 165 feet deep. We just finished installing a 500 gallon reservoir next to the well. This is filled by a "tee" off of the water line (therefore, the submersible pump fills up the reservoir). A float valve turns off the water supply when the reservoir is filled. Into the reservoir, which is about 8 feet deep, we installed a hand pump. Another option would be to put in another pump into this reservoir -- a low amp, 120 V pump would require less generator power than the 8 amp, 240 V deep well submersible pump. Hope this helps.

-- lparks (lparks@eurekanet.com), January 23, 1999.

I drilled my own water well 70' deep with a rig from www.deeprock.com I then contacted www.windmills.net to order a handpump for the well. I am currently handpumping down to 63'(this model is good for 200' as well). This is not a suction type pump, but a cylinder/valve pump with a foot valve. Works great. Mine is a 2", but you can get a 4" as well. LOL.

-- James Chancellor (publicworks1@bluebonnet.net), January 25, 1999.

Paul and Sandy, thanks for the Lowe's tip. They were out of stock but the guy promised to call me when the next shipment came in.

One of other item of note. The Lowe's guy brought up the pumps on his computer. There were 0 in stock, 8 on order, 34 sold YTD. 34??? Talk about an awareness barometer!!! When I commented on the number sold YTD, he told me that 3 of them were sold to a mortician who used them instead of the regular tools of the trade in his business (cheaper and worked better). So maybe there are other uses. BARFEROO!

MoVe Immediate

-- MVI (vtoc@aol.com), January 25, 1999.

I have a well which is 25 meters deep and the water level stays at 10 meters (33 feet). I used a simple windmill- Cretian style -- for 10 months and got a good flow of water. When there was no wind, I just hooked the pump up to a wooden handle and hand-pumped to fill my 400 liter (100 gallon) tank in 15 minutes and viola -- water to use anywhere on my small farm or house!

-- Ted Gutmann-Gonzalez (marujated@hotmail.com), November 16, 1999.