I fed my house through the spigot after I cut my water line when I built a basement. It worked that way for months.

 

When my down the hole well pump went out (hole in galvanized fitting at the pump) with 4' of ice on the well head; I hooked up a 12 V DC RV pump to a tank and connected the output to a tee I put on the cold water line to the sink. Worked for months until late spring when I could get to the well.

Was really nice, I could shower, flush the toilet and do dishes just like before. Pump kicked on at 30 and off at 50 automatically. The foot valve under the house kept the water from going back into the well.

 

Get a genny to power the well.

 

This is exactly why I have a generator

The well is hard wired to the house so Im not sure how I would power it. I have thought about it before

I simply cut the power wire for the pump inside the pump house and installed 30A twist lock plugs. It's as simple as unplug pump from grid and plug in to generator. Also get a 220V 30A drop cord with corresponding ends.

 

2 problems:
1) you faucet might have a back flow preventer ( called a vacuum breaker) to prevent this. For normal residential faucets it is screwed to the hose bib outlet (the garden hose threads) they are generally intended to be non removable. The washing machine box has the same threads (GHT) but no vacuum breaker.

2) my tractor FEL has a maximum lift of around 10’- this give you 4 psi at ground leveL- you will Not get the flow you expect from normal faucets.

 

we really just need enough to run toilets and even a trickle from the shower is better than nothing. but even is the shower doesnt work we can just use a rag i suppose

 

The well is hard wired to the house so Im not sure how I would power it. I have thought about it before

 

You might want to get an electrician to do it, but should be pretty simple. Lots of ways to do it.

It is probably 220 Volts, so the generator will need a 220V outlet.

Like this.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pow...jh5YO0yJPmAhUwJzQIHUuaBbAQsxh6BAgNECk&biw=1366&bih=625#spd=16057159753465382257

Around 5000 to 7000 watts should work, depending upon the inrush on your well pump.

A cheap way is to install 30amp plugs on everything. Then just unplug the well from the house and plug into the genny when needed.

 

If it's just a power problem, get a backup generator for a few hundred bucks and run it when you need water. Where I live nearly everyone has one. For a temporary setup, you can tie into the well pump pressure switch. Just trip the breaker so you don't parallel the generator with the mains. A more permanent setup uses a transfer switch that only allows the generator to connect when the mains are down. Well pumps aren't particularly sensitive so no need to spring for an inverter generator but make sure the generator can provide the surge current when the pump starts.

 

My well went down and the neighbor volunteered to hook his house to mine through a garden hose spikot while I fixed it, I couldn't tell the difference between getting water from his well and my own. I think I shut a valve to keep water from going down the well.

Now I am using a 110V RV diaphram pump to pressurize my whole house. It has worked fine for about 5 years now.

 

It will work, just shut off the water to the regular water supply. Since you have a tractor to lift the drum, you could attach a SurFlow 12 volt water pump (with the pressure shutoff) to the line at the drum and run it off the tractor battery, that and the elevation should give you very good water flow. On the hose for the connection, go to Walmart and get you a couple of the white RV water supply hoses. They’re good for potable water and no taste. And the shorter the hose run the better.

 

Just lifting the barrel with the loader may not get you enough head to get more than a trickle. Also is you gave it on tap and flushing toilets 110 gallons isnt much. People tend to have much more respect for the amount of water they use if they have to transfer it by hand.

If the lifted barrel doesnt give you enough pressure you could look into a 12 volt water pump from a camper with a pressure switch.

 

https://www.practicaldiy.com/plumbing/ball_valves/ball_valves.php

 

While describing the type of thing in general your link does not go into detail. So you proved nothing by posting it. However there is no point in arguing. If you can shut the flow of your water going to your toilet to a trickle and it works without problems than you have a great toilet.

Considering all the things in the design and engineering to make a toilet fill and flush properly is beyond the scope of the thread.

 

A friend who was too lazy to pull his well pump wanted to connect his house temporarily to a water tank. I installed a transfer pump just below the tank outlet that was operated by a switch that was plugged into an outlet in his bathroom. The pump's GPH wasn't very high, but when the pump pressurized the 50' hose that connected the tank to his watercock, the hose became an additional accumulator to the main pressurized one that helped to maintain a fairly decent flow rate over short periods. When we finally pulled the pump, we found that the impeller was jammed with mineral buildup, so when the pump tried to start it blew the start cap. We put in the new pump, but after chipping away the buildup and putting in another start cap the old pump worked fine. Best part was that one of the local construction rental shops rented us a pump puller that had a wheel powered by an electric motor that clamped onto the pipe and pulled it out of the hole so the job only took a couple hours on a Saturday.

 

We call that a tractor . Jack up the rear end so the tires are off the ground. Our pump is 80’deep, water is 20’ deep, so pump is 1/2 hp, and not a ton of stages. You still have to pull on the pipe but the tire does most of the work.

 

While it is obvious from the OP this is a case of a separate well supply in the rural area, I hope later readers don't get the idea of trying this if you are on a municipal supply in hopes of having water when the water provider cuts off.

A municipal provider would just flip out over potential backwash contamination and bring lots of hate and punishment.

Service from your own well on your own private property is a completely different situation and trying to be clever by applying these ideas in case of a municipal outage is a very bad idea.

Rural well setups are isolated from other properties and all mistakes that result end up limited to only that property. When Big Brother is taking care of everyone's water needs they get pretty harsh when you get to potentially threatening the neighborhood supply.

 

Something that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that front loaders leak down over time. Obviously some leak a lot faster than others, but they all do it. Provision will need to be made to support the barrel so that it doesn't come crashing to the ground or against the house when the buckets leaks down.

 

I happen to have a new “Fluid Mater Universal Toilet Fill Valve”, 400A that they claim to be the #1 seller.
and I “could not blow air through the valve” at any position.
I hoped to gravity feed my toilet with a rain water storage tank elevated about 3ft above the toilet tank level, but that is not going to work with this valve.
When I remove the old one I will see if I can make it work with a gravity flow.

 

Personally, I'd put in a disconnect at the panel or at the well itself for the pump. At that point, you could add in a generator feed to just power the well. The easiest option is to have some form of backup power (which generators are getting dirt cheap depending on what you need).

For backup water... a 55 gallon drum and a cheap shallow well pump will maintain line pressure.. but still need power to operate the pump.

 

12V Rv pump and a car battery

 

When we lived on the desert we built a shop just a little above the house and in the loft we put 3 tanks and a full indicator so I could see when it was full.
I had a tank in my truck and filled it where ever I could and when I got home used a 12 volt air compressor to charge the tank and ran the water hose from the truck tank to any spigot on the house till I saw water coming out the over flow indicator.
It might have been 10' of fall and it was plenty for all our needs.
Even had 2 passive solar water heaters that were more than adequate for the job.

 

Several years ago when my street was torn out and rebuilt,
the city ran surface pipes and fed each house through
outside faucets.

Worked fine.