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Hand Pump Inside the House

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58K views 68 replies 36 participants last post by  jdemaris  
#1 ·
Hey, all. Wanted to get this thing hooked up to see if it would work like the guys at Bison Pumps said it would.

I live in the country and have a well, fairly shallow, with a submerged pump that supplies my pressure tank system. Anyways, I picked up a Bison shallow well pump and hooked it up to the feed inside the house that comes from the well. I just cut into the 1" plastic pipe in the house and ran a tee off it to supply the hand pump. I've got two ball valves on it so that EITHER the hand pump is on OR the electric system.

Anyways, it works like a charm. When the power goes off (it does a lot here in Nova Scotia), I just close the ball valve to the pressure tank and open the one to the hand pump...presto, fresh well water and lots per pump. Man, this is a great pump!!! Oh, in case you're wondering, the hand pump just pumps water right through the submersed pump with no issues to the pump at all.

This is a great way to QUIETLY have a supply of water in a SHTF scenario without having to expose myself at an exterior pump.

Anyways, here's a pic. It's a crappy pic but to the right of the pump is the inlet pipe with the tee and the feed to the pump out the vertical part of the tee. Following the tee on both lines are the ball valves to isolate each system. Pretty easy setup woth flexible plastic pipe between the fittings.

Oh, and get this....with this pump, I can run a heavy duty hose from the outlet of the hand pump to the faucet on the pressure system and actually pressurize my system by hand! Dang.



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#6 ·
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words so here's 3000 words.

Of note, the oreder of my fittings from the inlet hose (1" plastic) is as follows:

adapter 1" plastic to 1" threaded male; 1" galvanized tee; 1" plastic nipple (you should never directly attach galvanized to brass fittings); 1" brass ball valve (a plastic one should work but I went overboard); 1" adapter male threaded to plastic pipe; then back into the existing inlet pipe.

On the tee to the hand pump I have... 1" adapter threaded male to plastic; length of plastic pipe to turn the corner; same brass ball valve with plastic pipe adapters on each end; then plastic pipe to take it to the Bison pump. Oh, out of the bottom of the Bison pump I had to attach an adapter to go from the female 1 1/4" bottom of the pump to the plastic pipe. The 1" plastic pipe seems to feed the pump very well so I'm happy as a clam.

Hope this helps.

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03
 
#59 ·
canukatc said:
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words so here's 3000 words.

Of note, the order of my fittings from the inlet hose (1" plastic) is as follows:

adapter 1" plastic to 1" threaded male; 1" galvanized tee; 1" plastic nipple (you should never directly attach galvanized to brass fittings); 1" brass ball valve (a plastic one should work but I went overboard); 1" adapter male threaded to plastic pipe; then back into the existing inlet pipe.

On the tee to the hand pump I have... 1" adapter threaded male to plastic; length of plastic pipe to turn the corner; same brass ball valve with plastic pipe adapters on each end; then plastic pipe to take it to the Bison pump. Oh, out of the bottom of the Bison pump I had to attach an adapter to go from the female 1 1/4" bottom of the pump to the plastic pipe. The 1" plastic pipe seems to feed the pump very well so I'm happy as a clam.

Hope this helps.

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03

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By canukatc at 2011-03-03
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Max. I'm not sure I can say it any better than the pictures, especially the third one. I cut the pipe that comes in from the well and added a tee to allow me to use my hand pump to pull from the well. Since, when I use the hand pump, I don't want to pull water back from the normal system, I had to put in a valve to shut it out that was on the tank side of the tee. Also, since I didn't want my pressure system pushing water into my Bison pump when it was working, I installed a valve that allowsw me to shut off the Bison pump from the rest of the system. That third pic shows all of the stuff you need with the pipe from the well at the back and the Bison pump in the foreground.

Blessings
 
T
#9 ·
I love your setup! That is one option I have been trying to figure out. But it doesn't look like it will work for me. My static level is about 50'.

And I have figured out that no matter what I do, a backup system for the well isn't going to be cheap.

My first thought is to have a backup pump that is solar capable. But I don't have the solar system yet either. So the manual option would be faster (could afford it sooner) and I love the idea of being able to pressurize the system and use it. Willing to bet the girls would take shorter showers if they had to get the other to pump for them. :)
 
#10 ·
Speed, it's easier than you think. Just a matter of tapping off the existing inlet pipe for your pump. The ball valves let you isolate each system, the electric or the hand pump system. Too easy.

6556, Yep, some of my system near the pressure tank is galvanized. About a foot in total. All the rest in the house is copper. I'm not too concerned with the small amount of galvanized...I grew up with galvanized pipe and it didn't affect me....much. I've ensured that in my additions galvanized fittings are not attached to the brass ball valves. There are plastic fittings or plastic pipe between them.

Tigers, Bison makes a pump that's good for longer pulls, that is more than 25' vertical, I think. My pump was around 800 bucks and I don't think the deep well version is that much more. From my perspective, with the electricity so fragile here in rural Nova Scotia, and the real potential for a SHTF thang coming down the pike, I've no regrets having doled out the cash for the 100% water solution for my house. It lets me get on with the other priorities with no worries about water storage.
 
#16 ·
Big Island, you can do it yourself with a hack saw, plumber's tape and the fittings. Oh, don't forget a couple of clamps for every joint from a fitting to the plastic pipe. I grew up in a plumbing home but those lessons were loooong ago. Once I came up with the plan and had the pipe, clamps, and fittings on hand, I did the deed in about 30 minutes. I'd estimate a plumber would charge an hour for the whole thing if you had the pump already mounted in a sink.
 
R
#17 ·
Just so I'm clear... The way you have this pump installed allows for pumping the water direclty out of the pump only, and not into the pressure tank... Correct?

In other words, you are NOT able to recharge your pressure tank so that water can be supplied to the toilet/shower/sink/etc... fixtures in your house.

?
 
#66 · (Edited)
Water flow through a deep well pump.



Most electric submersible well pumps are centrifugal designs. All centrifugal pumps have a continuous pathway between the intake and output of the pump. A centrifugal pump uses a spinning impeller to impart motion to the liquid to be pumped. As the liquid is spun in a circle centrifugal force moves the fluid to the outer ends of the impeller into a portion of the pump called the volute. As the spinning motion of the impeller forces the liquid out into the volute pressure develops that forces the fluid out of the discharge opening of the pump. When the impeller is not spinning there is still a continuous pathway from the intake through the spiraled groves of the impeller out into the volute to the discharge port. There is nothing in the way of the water flowing through the pump casing when the impeller is not turning. The drawback is that a centrifugal pump cannot pump gasses such as air. If the pump is run without a liquid already in the pump casing the impeller will act a a very inefficient fan. Centrifugal pump impellers must be immersed in the liquid they are to pump. If the pump casing is above the surface of the fluid it is to pump the casing must be filled with liquid by some other means before the pump can move any of the liquid. That is called priming the pump. One way to do that is with a positive displacement pump such as a rotary vane or piston pump. Positive displacement pumps can pump gasses such as air.

In the OPs case his hand pump is a piston pump. As the hand pump removes air from the pump line the pressure inside the pump line becomes lower than the atmospheric pressure of the three hundred mile deep layer of air that is pushing down on the surface of the water in the well. The atmospheric pressure will remain at about 14.7 Pounds on each square inch of the water surface. As the pressure in the well pipe is reduced by the piston pump removing air from the piping the water will flow from the well, through the submersible centrifugal pump, through the well pipe and into the pump body of the hand operated piston pump.

This image shows the internal parts of a centrifugal pump. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_pump#/media/File:Centrifugal_Pump.png

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Although the narration is awkward the animation in the video located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaEHVpKc-1Q will help show the water flow through a centrifugal pump that is locate above the water it is to pump.

This short animation shows the flow of water through a submersible centrifugal pump in a well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_NChxpnc20 Between the three links you can get a fairly clear idea of the nature of the unobstructed flow path through a centrifugal pump. When the centrifugal pump is not turning it behaves like ab pipe with a lot of twist in it. that is why the piston hand pump can still cause water to flow through the well pipe.

--
Tommy
 
#19 ·
Good questions.

River. This pump has the ability to charge my system if I want. If you look at the galvanized pipe in front of the pressure tank, (best pic is the third in the series) there is a check valve that stops water from flowing backwards down the well once it's been pumped to the tank. When I shut off the electric pump and switch to my hand pump, I go around this check valve...so, if I hook a hose (one that can take 50 or so PSI) from the output on the hand pump and run it to the faucet at the base of the pressure tank, (pretty sure that the faucet is used to drain the system) I charge the tank with my hand pump. Now here's the thing to remember: once I open this faucet, the hand pump is now part of the pressure system. If there is lots of pressure in the tank, it will put back pressure on the hand pump. Fortunately, there is a check valve at the base of the hand pump (it came with the pump) that would prevent the pressure system from pushing water backwards to the well. In short, the hand pump is doing the same job as the in-well pump, that being the increase of pressure in the system of the house.

Necred, the submersed pump that's in my well allows the water to be drawn right through it. There are vents on the pump that allow water into the pipe if there is a draw. When the electric pump is on, it just forces water up into the pipe and then the foot valve stops it from coming out when the pump is done. Apparently most of the in-well pumps are designed this way. My brother, a very experienced plumber, corroborated the story that the Bison Pumps guys told me about this functionality of the in-well pumps.

Hope this helps.
 
C
#22 ·
When I was house hunting about 10 years ago, I looked at a house that had a well in the cellar. No need to go outside to get water, just dip a bucket or set up a pump.

I thought that was a pretty good idea. If I was to build a BOL, I would incorporate that into my house plan.
 
#23 ·
It's a good idea, gunner. I've seen a few places like that when I was helping my Dad's family plumbing business. This hand pump thing is about as close as I can get to that with my well in the front yard.
 
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