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Can I use this hand pump in place of electric?

2K views 13 replies 12 participants last post by  PromptCritical 
#1 ·
#2 ·
You definitely need to know the depth your well. The specs on this say less than 30 feet. Often times your pressure tank will have a badge that at least indicates who installed the well or serviced the well in the past. They may have records on the depth of the well - or often the badge will have the well specs on it.

My parents added a hand pump to their “relatively” shallow well - it was outdoors and worked great.
 
#7 ·
My pressure tank is buried four feet deep beside the well.... Thankfully this is a very rural area with little population so everyone knows everyone else past and present. The two well guys that have been on my place both immediately knew exactly who put in my well just by how it was set up. I have since completely redone it as having my 220 electric box with the pressure switch and that friggin two foot long metal rod that had to speared into a receptor two feet below with a big electric box connected to the top was a nightmare to get back in place when you had to work on it.

I used many a hand pump well growing up, they were great but as others are posting they don't pull water from very deep.

Worst case scenario you could run a windmill to mechanically run a surface pump and ball valve at the bottom, outputting the water into a cistern system as farmers used to do way back when. When there is enough wind you are slowly filling your storage tank.

I bought a large hand pump years ago for pumping old oil out of shops oil storage tanks so that I could use it on my farm, man just getting 20 gallons of oil out of a tank is quite a feat by hand. It takes a surprising amount of power to pull any fluid up against gravity.
 
#5 ·
I am guessing those are not cheap. They do not show pricing at all kind of if you have to ask you can't afford it????
They do look like a quality product

You need to measure how far down the water is not how deep the well is!

Drop a weighted string down and see how far down the water is. After that you can made some educated decisions.

There are several manual pumps that are designed to live with electric pumps. Most can be used anytime you want without bothering the electric pump.
SD
My well is 100 feet away from my house in take and makes 2 90 turns from the head which is sealed.

My take is I will hook up a hand pump if it does not work I will dig a well (high water table) dump a bunch of white rock and pull water from say 10" down with it to have something/anything
We also get a lot of rain in Florida and managing the dry season is doable if one has a brain

Another option is to drive a deep well to the artesian aquifer. Even if the pressure does not bring the water all the way up it is usually within a few feet (depending on your elevation)
Likely the best idea
 
#4 ·
You need to measure how far down the water is not how deep the well is!

Drop a weighted string down and see how far down the water is. After that you can made some educated decisions.

There are several manual pumps that are designed to live with electric pumps. Most can be used anytime you want without bothering the electric pump.

SD
 
#8 ·
You need to know the static water level + the draw down for the amount of water you will be pumping. That should not be a problem with a hand pump. When putting a pump like this put a foot valve on the drop pipe inside of the well casing. Also keep the leathers wet and in good condition on the pump.
 
#11 ·
Six months later...

How did the pitcher pump work out for you?
My neighbor just installed one this weekend. The point is about 25 feet deep and we did pump water but it pumps hard. The pump we used is identical to the Boshart pump from Amazon linked in the original post. There were 7 of us trying to brain storm the situation but we decided to search the forums for answers.
 
#12 ·
instead of a pitcher pump I would be tempted to use a well cylinder, sucker rod and drop pipe. By going that route a small hole can be drilled in the drop pipe about five foot down. This hole allows the water to drain down to that level and it wont freeze. With a pitcher pump the handle will need to be pulled up and break vacuum to allow t to drain but then it will need to be primed again. If the well is in a warm area all this really don't matter.
 
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