How long for a trash pump to suck water?

[Grumpy John]

This last watering in the orchard saw us having a long wait for our Honda powered 3" pump to suck the water up and start pumping into the pipe.  It has an 8 metre head and is set at about 7 metres from the dam bottom.  It's a 12 metres suction hose with about 3.5 metre laying on the bottom.   The flapper valve has been removed.  We use putty to seal the join before wrapping with strips of Tyre rubber.  The dam had a Good metre of water in it when we started.  At WOT it took about 15 minutes to get into action.   The pump is 6 years old and has done about 40 days of work. How long should it take? 

[Crossy]

We have a rather smaller self-primer which takes an age to suck up water from any depth.

 

Add an over-size foot valve and fish-basket to the suction end and fill the pipe manually and it pumps almost immediately.

 

What suction lift are you asking of it (vertical distance from water surface to pump)?

[farmerjo]

As Crossy says put a foot valve on it.

Best way to tell if sucking air somewhere if it loses prime.

Check your impellor for weed or snails,debris.

 

[Grumpy John]

7 hours ago, Crossy said:

We have a rather smaller self-primer which takes an age to suck up water from any depth.

 

Add an over-size foot valve and fish-basket to the suction end and fill the pipe manually and it pumps almost immediately.

 

What suction lift are you asking of it (vertical distance from water surface to pump)?

 7 metres lift.  When we used to prime the suction hose before putting it on the pump we were in action straightaway but after the job was done we couldn't get the hose off!  So I kept on cutting the hose off.  We just bought a new suction hose for this watering. We use a foot valve made of plastic, similar to the pix, and up until the last watering left the non-return valve inside but took the valve out to see if it would be better.....which it is not!  We have a rope connected to the foot valve so we can lift it out of the water to make sure it is clear.

 

The cure to the problem is to use camlock fittings.  I ordered the required fittings from an Aliexpress seller in China in December....28th from memory.  When I will receive those fittings is as big a mystery as who shot JFK!  Hose on and off easy, priming no problem, no air leaks.....when they get here.

[farmerjo]

11 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

 7 metres lift.  When we used to prime the suction hose before putting it on the pump we were in action straightaway but after the job was done we couldn't get the hose off!  So I kept on cutting the hose off.  We just bought a new suction hose for this watering. We use a foot valve made of plastic, similar to the pix, and up until the last watering left the non-return valve inside but took the valve out to see if it would be better.....which it is not!  We have a rope connected to the foot valve so we can lift it out of the water to make sure it is clear.

 

The cure to the problem is to use camlock fittings.  I ordered the required fittings from an Aliexpress seller in China in December....28th from memory.  When I will receive those fittings is as big a mystery as who shot JFK!  Hose on and off easy, priming no problem, no air leaks.....when they get here.

If you ordered extra's,i will take some off your hands.

[carlyai]

Don't know if it will work, but have you tried one of these tools to get the pipe off?

[CGW]

13 minutes ago, carlyai said:

Don't know if it will work, but have you tried one of these tools to get the pipe off?

I bought a set of these years back, handy for fitting like these!

[Grumpy John]

3 hours ago, farmerjo said:

If you ordered extra's,i will take some off your hands.

Sorry, I didn't.  

[Grumpy John]

2 hours ago, CGW said:

I bought a set of these years back, handy for fitting like these!

I have a small one for oil filters,  almost useless!    Much bigger one would be the same I am thinking.  I have a steel chain and bar which is also useless! I ground off the flutes but then the vibration caused problems.  The camlocks will solve the problem once they arrive.  

[carlyai]

On 2/23/2020 at 9:58 PM, Grumpy John said:

 7 metres lift.  When we used to prime the suction hose before putting it on the pump we were in action straightaway but after the job was done we couldn't get the hose off!  So I kept on cutting the hose off.  We just bought a new suction hose for this watering. We use a foot valve made of plastic, similar to the pix, and up until the last watering left the non-return valve inside but took the valve out to see if it would be better.....which it is not!  We have a rope connected to the foot valve so we can lift it out of the water to make sure it is clear.

 

The cure to the problem is to use camlock fittings.  I ordered the required fittings from an Aliexpress seller in China in December....28th from memory.  When I will receive those fittings is as big a mystery as who shot JFK!  Hose on and off easy, priming no problem, no air leaks.....when they get here.

Just looking thru my Super Products catalogue for irrigation stuff and I found the camlocks, so Global House may have them with the sprinkler section as they stock Super Products.

[farmerjo]

Well Grumpy John,i just had one of your moments except mine went for 3 hours.

Suction line onto pump,tyre bandage,prime,start,nothing.

Rinse and repeat.

Then off down the hardware shop for a new foot valve,fit,nothing.

It wasn't till i gave up i found the problem when dismantling the suction line.Nearly slipped into the dam when it came out.

Back together and have half flow so pull apart again and clean head out of impellor.

Full systems go.????

 

[Grumpy John]

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

Well Grumpy John,i just had one of your moments except mine went for 3 hours.

Suction line onto pump,tyre bandage,prime,start,nothing.

Rinse and repeat.

Then off down the hardware shop for a new foot valve,fit,nothing.

It wasn't till i gave up i found the problem when dismantling the suction line.Nearly slipped into the dam when it came out.

Back together and have half flow so pull apart again and clean head out of impellor.

Full systems go.????

 

Even the wildlife hate farang!  Our resident water snake took off for a water filled dam when we had ours cleaned out.  The goong will be back and we will stock the dam with some kind of fish when the rainy season begins.  I am not a I fisherman but it's a joy to watch the wife with a bamboo stick a few metres of line and a hook baited with sticky rice fill a bucket with fish in about 5 minutes!   When I was a kid dad would take me fishing and if we caught 1 or 2 He was as pleased as punch......while I was bored shi-tless!

[Grumpy John]

9 hours ago, carlyai said:

Just looking thru my Super Products catalogue for irrigation stuff and I found the camlocks, so Global House may have them with the sprinkler section as they stock Super Products.

That is interesting!  I haven't seen any camlock fittings at Global House in Phitsanulok.  Will have to get to Phitsanulok next month to buy some timber so will go to GH to find out.  Thanks for letting me know. ????