| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Solomon |
Water butt pumpI have 2 water butts. One is connected to the drainpipe (A), and the other (B) is at the other end of the garden, but B's at an elevation of about 7'.I want to be able to get the water from A into B, as cheaply as possible. I could just leave the water in A, but it's way under capacity for the amount of water we get (our drainpipe covers 3 houses), so lots of water is wasted, plus I'd need to pump the water over an 12' high wall to water the garden with it. If I get it to B, I can use gravity to water the garden. I've seen an electric pump at work, specifically designed for the job, but it's £49.99 (£39.99 with staff discount) and I can't justify the price. Solar powered versions are out, because unfortunately, the garden faces north.  I was thinking perhaps of something foot powered (I need the exercise  )?
Does anyone have any recommendations/ideas? Please don't say "a bucket".
Budget is about £30 max. Preferably less. |
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| Penny |
I sooooo mis-read that
Sorry 
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| nettie |
How about a pond pump of some sort? | ||||
| Gervase |
...and so did my child bride. Wash your heads out with soapy water, the pair of you! |
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| Treacodactyl |
They certainly work, do they ever come up on freecycle? I know a few people with ponds and they often upgrade their pumps and I wonder if you could pick up a pump very cheaply or even free. |
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| dougal |
You might try a discharge pump from an old washing machine - and it ought not to cost anything.
That should certainly lift it by 3 or 4 ft at least. But the "suction side" of the pump needs to be pressurised (ie below the water level in the first water butt) - they don't suck *up to* the pump. If you can get such pumps, you might get two... ... and install a small 'header tank' above the first one at the house so that one pump feeds the header, and the second one pumps from the header to the far butt. Divide and conquer. Step by step up the ladder! And IMHO, it'd be easier to have your 'half way up' tank close to the house rather than half way up the garden - simpler for the electrickery and supervision. |
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| Solomon |
Re pond pump, that's an excellent idea. A relative of mine keeps fish and such, so I'll ask him if he has anything.
Thank for the very speedy replies, folks. 
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| MSASTLES |
I got a pump off ebay for £6 to do just what you are looking for. They come up quite often, have a look.
Cheers MS |
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| dougal |
Thing is, AFAIK, most pond pumps are designed for flow rate, not output pressure. Most won't give you more than an output head of 2m. And you want to lift at least 7 feet, and presumably go some distance (100 feet or more) by presumably narrowish hosepipe. I'd agree that its well worth searching eBay, but with a £30 max budget, I'd be trying to see what I could get for free, hence the washing machine pump suggestion! |
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| Treacodactyl |
Would a washing machine pump be any better? Surely it's only designed to move a smallish amount of water about a meter up? Depending on what pond pump you find some can lift 4 meters or more but are expensive unless you can track down a second hand one.
What about something like this? http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/hippo-3-11-4in-submersible-water-pump Maximum head (lift height) 6M, under £50 new so could be reasonable second hand? As time to pump the water isn't important, is there a way of making something wind powered I wonder? |
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| dougal |
If one were lucky enough to obtain a 'proper' pump with a 4m delivery head within budget, then great - BUT personally I would expect that considerable luck would be needed to obtain such a thing.
I suspect that pumps from scrap machinery would be much more generally available! That Hippo does look well suited to the task, though... |
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| Solomon |
Thank you all for your suggestions. I've now got the job done.
I popped into work this morning, and found a pump that seems really suited to the job, for £19.99, with 1yr guarantee. It's very similar to the Hippo pump previously mentioned. I'm dead chuffed with it, and it only took about 10 minutes, probably less, to shift the water. Plus, I can also use the pump for watering the garden, seeing as the fence it would have to pump over is nowhere near that height. 
Max Head Height - 7m Output Diameter - 38mm Max Particle Size - 4mm Max Output - 130L/min |
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| dougal |
Solomon - it might be useful to others if you could post sufficient details for others to find and potentially purchase such a pump... 
Most water butts are around 250 litres capacity, so 10 minutes means about 25 litres/minute ... The Hippo is 220 watts. So, 1/5 of a kw for 1/6 of an hour means about 1/30 th of a kwh unit of electricity. So rather less than 1/2 of 1p of electricity. Useful stuff, eh? |
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| Solomon |
The closest one I can find is this one - http://www.drapertools-online.com/b2c/b2citmdsp.pgm?pp_skmno=35465. Apparently, Draper don't manufacture this particular model any more.
That said, if you call your local Wickes, ask them for SKU (pronounce it "skew") 154663. You might be lucky. |
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| dougal |
Thanks for that Solomon! | ||||
| Solomon |
Some statistics.
The butt was completely full. When emptied, there was about 2" of water in the bottom. Emptying took 13 minutes. Energy statistics. 245.3 volts. 0.87 amp. 204 watt. 49.9 hz. 0.04 kwh. By comparison, to boil 1L water in my kettle, it took: 244.4 volts. 8.94 amp. 2195 watt. 49.9 hz. 0.08 kwh. All measured using my latest gadget, a kill-a-watt. Hope these are of some use to someone.
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