How Deep Can A Hand Pump Draw Water

A Bison mitt pump in Halifax, Vermont. The pump fits into the same well casing every bit a standard deep-well submersible pump. Photo: Alex Wilson

Terminal month Jerelyn and I enjoyed a four-day vacation in Maine—a combined trip to visit family, explore Acadia National Park, and go to the Common Ground Off-white—my first visit at that place in two or three decades!

The highlight of the Common Ground off-white for me was coming across a little company, Bison Pumps, based up near Fort Kent, Maine (in WAY northern Maine) that makes actually slick hand pumps. These pumps are sort-of like the ones our grandparents used, but they're built with much greater precision and work much ameliorate.

Why hand pumps are important

Here in rural Vermont—similar rural areas everywhere—the biggest challenge when ability is lost is frequently access to water. Living beyond the achieve of municipal water systems, we have drilled wells with deep-well submersible pumps to pump water into pressure tanks in our basements. Without ability there's no h2o. If those wells aren't as well deep, hand pumps tin can be used as a back-up pumping option.

Later on returning from Maine I learned that my colleague at BuildingGreen, Tristan Roberts, who lives off-filigree, has used a Bison Pump for several years (run into photo).

He also told me well-nigh another visitor, Simple Pump, that's been making hand pumps since 1999—the same year Bison Pump was founded—and their pumps tin can work with greater static head are highly rated in various reviews I read.

With either of these deep-well pumps, the same well can firm both a standard electric submersible pump and the in-well components of the hand pump. With a vi" well casing (the most common size) there's plenty of room for the two pumps, and the portion of the Bison or Simple pump that is to a higher place-footing fits right onto the well casing, replacing the standard sanitary cap.

These mitt pumps are popular for people living off-grid, but they too make sense for those of usa connected to the ability grid who want to achieve greater resilience—who want access to clean, potable water (albeit with a little work) during power outages.

SP-pump-yard — A hand pump from the Simple Pump Company in Nevada. Photo: Simple Pump

Using a Bison or Simple Pump

With a Bison or Simple pump in the same well as your conventional deep-well pump, you would use the electric pump in normal functioning, but have a backup available whenever the filigree is downwardly. They tin bring h2o up from pretty deep: performance to near 200 feet of static caput with the Bison Pump and 350 anxiety of static head with the Simple Pump.

The deeper the pump is installed, the more than expensive the installation and the more than work pumping the h2o. Note that a well that'southward 350 feet deep ofttimes has a static head that'due south non well-nigh as deep. In other words, while the well may be drilled to a depth of 350 feet, the water tabular array may exist significantly above that—say 150 feet down. The static head is the depth to the standing h2o in the well.

In cold climates, freeze protection is provided past a drain hole located 8 or ten feet below ground level. After utilize, the water in the meridian of the pipe trickles dorsum into the well, while the rest of the pipe—downwardly 150 feet or whatever—remains filled with h2o. This means that once you start pumping, you get h2o after just a few strokes of the pump handle. A large difference between these ii pumps and the ones our grandparents used is precision milling of the parts, which maintains the prime number for many months. (With those older pumps in that location were often leather bushings that leaked water, then they had to exist primed—filled with water—prior to use.)

Both the Bison and Simple pumps have standard-size hose fittings, so y'all can adhere a potable-h2o hose to deliver water to your firm. Yous tin can buy drinkable-h2o hoses from recreational vehicle suppliers; they take a protective plastic lining on the inside of the hose to protect the potable h2o from the (usually PVC) hose cloth—which often includes heavy-metal stabilizers and plasticizers along with the PVC itself. (Don't bulldoze over those hoses, though, as that volition crack the protective lining.)

Adding solar power to a hand pump

Uncomplicated pump has a nice choice for using a minor, solar-powered DC motor that can be powered with solar-generated electricity. Almost deep-well electric pumps have loftier ability draw; Elementary Pump developed an pick that uses a much smaller (ane/5 horsepower) pump that produces a much smaller catamenia of water, but is much more affordable.

SP-Motor_MedRes — Simple'southward affordable DC motor that can exist hands powered by a moderate-sized solar-electrical arrangement. Photograph: Simple Pump.

Limitations and pricing

Hand pumps won't work in every application—for case, in places where the h2o table is 500 feet deep—but they can be a bang-up pick for many rural homes that practice not have admission to municipal water. With relatively moderate depth (less than 150 anxiety), the pump cost will probable exist $ane,600 to $ii,000 range. Cost information is bachelor on the company websites.

Forth with founding the Resilient Blueprint Institute in 2012, Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. and executive editor of Environmental Building News. To keep up with his latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed .