Need engineering help! water pump

Farrier1987 · Post by **Farrier1987** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:27 am

One more thing, the closer you can put the pump to the water level where you are drawing is the best. So a windmill up top but mechanically linked by drive shafts to a pump below could work. You only need vacuum to feed the pump and that "work" is completely lost, so get close as you can to water level.

The other one I thought of is that there are stock waterer pumps available, not big volumes, but pretty reliable. These are solar panels charging a car battery that runs and electric pump. They use them out west in community pastures and water a lot of cows. Like I said, not huge volumes, just a trickle, but pretty steady. Thinking about it, this might be your best bet, simple, reliable and low dollar and sweat investment. Put in a cistern, stock tank, then use from there as required.

Farrier1987 · Post by **Farrier1987** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:37 am

One more thing, when looking for a pump, they will be rated in psi, kpa or feet of head. That feet of head is the .433 psi per foot I mentioned earlier. So all you need to know is how high you want to lift it, in your case minimum is 30 ft of head, to overcome gravity, the rest is available for overcoming friction.

I am guessing you have no real current in the drainage ditch you are pumping from. If you do, you can use that for a paddlewheel that will pump water for you.

One more idea, haw far back up the ditch do you need to go to be at the level of your pond? If you can go there with a hose, gravity will do it all if you get the hose in it at say ten ft above your pond level, and bring the hose down but only slightly to get to your pond. Would have ten feet of head from gravity (4.33 psi) bringing your water to wherever the end of the hose is. The hose has to be mostly level all the way, no real hump in it. Works more or less like a siphon, so with a hump in it and an air bubble, flow will stop.

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 10:33 am

There is a current in the creek, two feet per second or so. The top of the ravine is higher than the pond, which is around 250 feet away from the top of the ravine. I'm guessing thrity feet straight up from the creek to the top of the ravine, but it's not straight up, maybe 150 feet from the creek uphill to the top of the ravine.
How would a paddle wheel pump? This has to be a very cheap installation, Anything beside the creek will probably be stolen by the same jerks that broke my cable and took my Honda pump.

Farrier1987 · Post by **Farrier1987** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:28 pm

The gravity, no pump thing is what to concentrate on I think. How far up the creek would you have to go to get level with your pond? To where water level in the creek is at or above your pond level?
then, just a hose, never coming up, but dropping all the way across the sidehill will get you water to your pond. So if the creek drops say 1 ft in 100 ft of run, you drop you hose 1 ft per 200 ft of run and and you get water to flow through the hose. think of it as a road coming out of a mountain valley, starting say at Banff and getting to Calgary. You put a hose in at Banff, follow the contours of th land always going down, but not to the river level. You could end up with water in your hose way higher than the river and way higher than Calgary, half way from Banff to Calgary.

Hard to describe. Wish I could draw you a picture.

Bu I am thinking the best and easiest is a photocells running a stock pump. The cells and the battery can be up top away from the creek, and it is a small pump that goes in the water on the end of the hose, and a wire coming down to it. Gets grown over with weeds and things, and hardly shows, and not terribly appealing to someone that doesn't know what it is to steal. Can run just about all the time, and over weeks will fill your pond and keep it there.

Farrier1987 · Post by **Farrier1987** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:38 pm

Search on the net for
solar powered water pumping for livestock
You will get lots of designs, DIY info and things. Some don't need the battery. You should be able to get one that the wires go inside the hose to the pump, so all someone else see's is a hose with a funny doohickey on the end. Make sure whatever you get has a check valve in it, so that if the sun does away and the pump stops pumping that you don't have everything in the hose drain back down. That way when the sun comes again, it starts where it left off, not all over again.

Farrier1987 · Post by **Farrier1987** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 1:08 pm

for what I am talking about with the wires inside, you want a solar powered submersible water pump.

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Tue Jun 28, 2016 3:06 pm

Check valve is a very good idea, I'd forgotten about that. I'll do a bit of looking around for a DC pump, thanks Farrier!