Does anyone know where I can buy a hand pump for a water well right now? I'm not interested in placing an order and waiting because that's being done for me right now.

-- Walt (longyear@shentel.net), May 12, 1999

Answers

Walt...we can buy them from hardware stores here. Also Sears used to carry them. You might talk with them. I suppose you have already tried Cumberland. They seem to have a great collection of them. Another place that I see them all the time is antique stores.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), May 12, 1999.

Try Northern Tool 800-533-5545 new book has them listed.

-- && (&&@&&.&), May 12, 1999.

One assumes you have tried Lehman's.

-- chuck, a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), May 12, 1999.

Don't forget to check your local farm supply store.

jh

-- john hebert (jt_hebert@hotmail.com), May 12, 1999.

Agway

-- Dave Cornell (dbc100@cornell.edu), May 12, 1999.

We called a well driller and he gave us the name of a store where he gets his supplies.

-- Lori (ABaby72@aol.com), May 12, 1999.

Ace Hardware. Also- Harbor Freight=1-800-423-2567

You do know that they only work to a depth of 20-25 feet??

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 12, 1999.

Anita,

Help me out here: I thought the depth a hand pump was good for was a function of type and price. i.e El cheapo "pitcher" styles in the $40-80 range are easy to install but only good to 25'. But if you are willing to spend the $400-800 (or more) for a quality (a la Lehmans) hand or windmill style with the necessary hardware you can readily get over 150'?

jh

-- john hebert (jt_hebert@hotmail.com), May 12, 1999.

John- I think we're talking apples and oranges here. If you're talking windmill, etc, with a $$ pump designed for deeper wells- yes- probably so but i don't know about those kinds- will look in Lehmans and other catalogs for you. I thought you meant el-cheapo hand pump- the kind you pull the lever up and down on- you can get them for $25 or more- more expensive ones have special "can't freeze" designs, etc- those are only good for 20-25 feet depth- shallow well applications only. Don't know how deep your well is. another very simple and cheap alternative is a well bucket design- lehmans has those for about $35- you lower the "bucket" down the well with a cord and bring it up full. You can also make these yourself- design in a recent countryside mag. these can be used for deeper wells than cheapo lever hand pumps.

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 12, 1999.

Lehman's catalog claims you can pump water from up to 200 ft. with one of their better hand pumps. The trick is that the pump must sit directly atop the well casing/well point, with no horizontal runs. Thus if the well is 100 ft from the house, you have to mount the pump out there. But if it is in the basement, you could mount the pump there and have it "indoors."

-- ejj (ejj@peconic.net), May 12, 1999.

further: a shallow-well hand pump contains the pump cylinder (the part that produces the lift for the water) in the hand pump itself. In a deep-well application, the pump cyclinder is suspended down through the casing by a linkage until the cyclinder is immersed in the water source. From there it "pushes" the water up the casing. It is because of the dangling linkage, which must drop totally vertically, that one cannot pump at all horozontally with this type of application. The shallow-well pump, on the other hand, can accommodate horizontal runs of at least 60 ft, in my experience.

-- (ejj@peconic.net), May 12, 1999.

My well is 134 feet deep. I didn't want to pull the electric pump to install a hand pump and have to hand pump all my water from now on. (That was what my local pump company said I would have to do.)

I found the "stalwart hand pump" on the net and installed it side by side. It just sits there until needed, and in the meantime, I continue to use my electrical pump. http://www.coolandunusual.com/y2k/y2kstore/y121twok/waterpump.html

It works nicely for household water (2 gal per min+). Would take a lot of pumping to irrigate, though. Will use my generator to fill the gravity feed holding tank for that. Its pvc, so it may not have a terribly long life, but I was delighted that I won't have to haul water up the hill from the creek and filter it. Was expensive, though. Oh -it pumps uphill.

(BTW, I have no financial interest in the company that makes them.)

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), May 13, 1999.

This is a tricky, but important question for you folks who know something about well pumps.

I have a well in my basement, 22 feet deep. Next to it, sitting on the floor, is a big green electric well pump.

The well is exclusively used to provide water for our underground sprinkling system, but I'm told by the previous owner of our house (who dug the well himself by pounding a hole in the floor with a rod every night after work--which means the well is probably pretty narrow--)that the water is o.k. to drink.

There is a free standing pipe with a hose type faucet that is connected to the well plumbing in the basement. I've never tried it, but I assume that water can be diverted from the sprinking system to this faucet.

Question: is there any way a hand pump could be connected to the faucet itself, to pull water out of the well?

I'm a real newbie at this type of stuff, and don't expect much help from hubby because he doesn't view Y2k as a problem.

I'm storing water, but would like to have all the bases covered, just in case.

Suggestions? Thanks!

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), June 09, 1999.

Just a guess here. Let's assume you can get a hand pump like I've got (screws into the top of a 55 gal drum bung hole, pumps water vertically 3-4 feet to a u bend outlet pipe.)

The suction for this thing would be any 1" pipe going "down" from thehand pump - going into anything that would connect to water - don't know the suction would have to be submerged or not. Don't think so.

Water can flow "through" the impeller of a standard centrifugal pump if the motor is off with only limited resistance at "low" flow rates. Can't do it at high flow rates, but you're only talking a hand pump here.

So, from this threaded fitting on outlet of existing pump (horizontal ?), run a pipe sideways and up a short distance. Put an adapter there to fit between the pipe and the suction threads of the hand pump. Isolate the sprinkler (irrigation) system (close the sprinkler supply valve from the pump - you don't to "suck water backwards from the sprinklers).

Hook hand pump into threaded adapter - you should be able to create a limited vacuum from the base of the hand pump, through the new pipe into the electric pump discharge piping, through the electric pump itself, then to the suction piping of the electric pump = which equals the ground water.

If the ground water is too far below the electric pump suction, you'd need a "new" separate vertical shaft.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 09, 1999.

I agree with Robert. We mounted a shallow-well hand pump on top of the water pump in our basement. Connected it via the auxiliary opening in the top of the electric pump, which just had a standard plug in it. The hand pump sits atop the electric pump on about 2 feet of pipe to bring it to a workable hight. Also added a cutoff to isolate house system from hand pump. The sucker pulls from a well that is about 25 feet deep and situated 60 ft. away from the house. Good water flow. Got the pump through local plumbing supply house, which had it in stock.

-- fake (fake@out.com), June 09, 1999.

I just bought a hand pump at "Harbor Freight" (a tool store) for only $27. made in China. Works real good!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), July 09, 1999.