Electric pump/ Water tank question

[davidst01]

We rent a building in the sticks of Isan. When we moved in, there was a water tank in the back yard and one on the top floor of the building- outside. 

 

The city water system supplied the water to the tank in the back yard and we upgraded the pump there. It supplies all floors with water. The pressure is a bit low on the 2nd and 3rd floor. 

 

Last week I looked inside the old tank on the top floor. It was dirty inside and I decided to bring a specialist to look at it. I was thinking that I would like to use this tank as a backup in case the city water suddenly stops for a day or 2. It does sometimes. 

 

He said he would clean it up and yes it could be used for this purpose. But after he cleaned it up and added a new floater device and pipe outside the tank we tested it and of course it didnt work. He said because he didnt design the system originally he didnt understand the set up. 

 

He later told my wife that he could set up new pipes from the upper tank to supply all floors in the building. Buy a new pump for up there?

 

Im confused about it all now. Is he saying that we should pump it up from the garden tank up to that tank and then pump it down to the rest of the building. Is this the correct. 

 

Please assist me or should I say educate  me on the best set up

thanks

[Hummin]

How high is the top tank above the top floor?

 

 

[In the jungle]

Yes I think your understanding of what he wants to do is correct.  Pump and tank on the roof should work well.and you will get much better pressure than pumping the water up to a third floor from ground level.

 

Using the tank on the roof also has the advantage that you will continue to get water in the event of a power cut albeit at lower pressure.

 

I clean and sterilise the water tanks and pipework here every year.  For sterilisation I use bleach (blue Haiter) at one litre per one thousand litres of stored water.  The water will have a slight smell of bleach for a couple of days but it will not do you any harm.   The cleaning is just done with a good blast from a hosepipe.  We have heavy duty gasoline powered pressure washers here but it really isn't necessary to go to those lengths.

 

It may well be that the city water pressure is sufficient to pump the water to the top of the building without a pump but you would have to measure the pressure with a gauge to find out.

[lopburi3]

I suspect the ground water tank was designed to be the holding tank for water outage and to supply the 3rd story tank which would then be pumped to house so you would have good water pressure everywhere.  Expect there were two pumps and one failed so someone just used the remaining pump to feed home from ground level tank.  I would just do as he says and get a new pump for upstairs to supply house.

[Yellowtail]

Is the roof tank stainless steel? 

 

We have a tank on the ground and a tank on the roof. 

 

City water fill the ground tank. 

We pump it up to the roof tank

We pump it down to the house. One advantage of this is that you still have water when the power is out, at least as long as your gravity is working. 

 

I would look for a cluster of valves somewhere that are configured for bypassing the roof tank. 

[davidst01]

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Is the roof tank stainless steel? 

 

We have a tank on the ground and a tank on the roof. 

 

City water fill the ground tank. 

We pump it up to the roof tank

We pump it down to the house. One advantage of this is that you still have water when the power is out, at least as long as your gravity is working. 

 

I would look for a cluster of valves somewhere that are configured for bypassing the roof tank. 

The way you describe is how I thought it would work. 

 

I need to ask our specialist where does the water come from when he turned the tap on up there and filled that tank on the top floor. I suppose I could test it by standing at the pump in the back garden and ask someone to turn on the tap up there (or just alter the height of the floater in the tank to start the water flow). If I hear that pump activated then I know that the system is basically pumping the water up there. Is this correct? thanks

[Yellowtail]

11 minutes ago, davidst01 said:

The way you describe is how I thought it would work. 

 

I need to ask our specialist where does the water come from when he turned the tap on up there and filled that tank on the top floor. I suppose I could test it by standing at the pump in the back garden and ask someone to turn on the tap up there (or just alter the height of the floater in the tank to start the water flow). If I hear that pump activated then I know that the system is basically pumping the water up there. Is this correct? thanks

I would not strain the float-valve. When you open the drain on the bottom of the roof tank and let some water out, if it refills, it is working. 

 

Follow the pipes to and from both tanks an look for valves.

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

8 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Is the roof tank stainless steel? 

 

We have a tank on the ground and a tank on the roof. 

 

City water fill the ground tank. 

We pump it up to the roof tank

We pump it down to the house. One advantage of this is that you still have water when the power is out, at least as long as your gravity is working. 

 

I would look for a cluster of valves somewhere that are configured for bypassing the roof tank. 

Our setup is similar, but the village water pressure is usually enough to fill the top tank as well.
 

Our ground level storage is 7,500 litres so if the village water is cut off (it happen about 2 years ago for 2~4 weeks) and during that time or if the water pressure is low, our ground level pump fills the high level tank. This happens occasionally but probably not more than an average of once a month. When the water supply was cut to the whole village we didn’t find out for a week or 2 and never needed supplemental water.

[bbko]

Best to post photos of your set up and give the make/model of your pump. Also those raw PVC pipes need replacing after 10+ years, the gunk build up could slow down the water flow.  PVC replacement is dirt cheap, either DIY or bite the bullet and let a local replace it for you for double/triple+ the actual cost.

[meatboy]

we have never had a problem with our pressure for our house [5bedroom] unless there is a burst pipe along the main supply,then you will find out after the pipe is repaired the water will be VERY DIRTY.so it needs emptying.

what i would like to know is,what is the difference between a WT-P hitachi pump and a WM-P PUMP hitachi both 200xx series.we now have a leak on our original pump [10yrs old]so it needs replacing.

[Yellowtail]

The WT-P is a bladder pump, and the WM-P is a constant pressure pump.

 

How is it configured? 

[meatboy]

18 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

The WT-P is a bladder pump, and the WM-P is a constant pressure pump.

 

How is it configured? 

thanks for that Y.T. as only 2 of us live in the house we are thinking of dropping down to a 150xx  150w.but we cant seem to find a wm-p 150xx on home pro's web sight only a wt-p.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, meatboy said:

thanks for that Y.T. as only 2 of us live in the house we are thinking of dropping down to a 150xx  150w.but we cant seem to find a wm-p 150xx on home pro's web sight only a wt-p.

Why go with a smaller pump? Given the last one lasted ten years, the differential in the purchase price is not that significant. 

 

One story of two? 

 

The pump is drawing from a tank at ground level and pumping directly to the house, yes? 

 

 

[Yellowtail]

12 minutes ago, meatboy said:

thanks for that Y.T. as only 2 of us live in the house we are thinking of dropping down to a 150xx  150w.but we cant seem to find a wm-p 150xx on home pro's web sight only a wt-p.

It looks like it is miss-titled on the site: 

[meatboy]

thats fine y.t.we will stick to WMP200XX.

thanks again for your help.