Water Pump Questions....

[jaideeguy]

The 3 wells on my property give me only very hard water [900ppm on my tester] and most of my neighbors have equally high calcium content, causing many problems from ugly stains on dishes, glasses, windows, car and swimming pool tile.

Hopefull solution is a big lake that is 250mtrs from house and it keeps filled with ricefield runoff, tests at 150ppm...quite soft.

What I wonder is if my standard household pressure tank pump will draw the water up 3 mtrs, then level for 250 mtrs, where the pump will be located and then hopefully up to a holding tank @ 6 mtrs?? Or do I have to locate pump closer to the source??

There is very little particulate matter in the lake and could easily be filtered out and we would only use the water for bathing, laundry, dishes, and topping off swimming pool......of course not drinking. Could be minimal chemical residue, but being that the lake is mostly fed by runoff from flooded ricefields, would that be a concern?? if the intake is a meter from the bottom, would there be less of that pollution?? Do chemicals sink to the bottom??

And any bacterial contamination could be treated with chlorine, right??

Thanks in advance.....

[Naam]

I wonder is if my standard household pressure tank pump will draw the water up 3 mtrs, then level for 250 mtrs, where the pump will be located and then hopefully up to a holding tank @ 6 mtrs?

your "standard household pump" will not draw a single drop if you don't manage to prime the suction line all the way from pump to lake which is a near impossible task.

can't comment on chemical content.

[Crossy]

Yup, I'm with Naam, zero chance with a 250m suction.

Lift pump at the lake to storage at the house will work, then your household pump can do it's intended job and provide local pressure.

Size your 250m cable appropriately or use a gas powered pump at the lake to fill your tank every couple of days.

[jaideeguy]

Sad to hear that, I thought that might be the case because of the limitations of sucking verses pushing the water......correct?? Problem is the lake is located in a semi public location and I would worry about someone hauling it away some dark night and the other consideration is running all that copper wire that will be worth a small fortune to some poor drunk local.

What if I placed a few priming Ts along the 250mtr run of pipe?? and/or connected the pipe to the tank on the tower to fill it with water??

[jaideeguy]

I wonder is if my standard household pressure tank pump will draw the water up 3 mtrs, then level for 250 mtrs, where the pump will be located and then hopefully up to a holding tank @ 6 mtrs?

your "standard household pump" will not draw a single drop if you don't manage to prime the suction line all the way from pump to lake which is a near impossible task.

can't comment on chemical content.

Dr Naam, you say my 'standard house hold pump' won't do the job......is there a pump that WILL do the job??

[jaideeguy]

More info on my existing pump Hitachi 250watt [1/3rd HP?] and suction 9 mtrs, lift 18 mtrs.

And I just paced the total distance off and it turns out to be 170mtrs [approx].......i'm a bad estimator for distances.

Does this info make any difference??

[Pacificperson]

Trying to work with 250 meters of suction line will most likely be a nightmare anyway you go.

You could use a submersible pump and bury both the pipe and the cable.This way everything would be out of sight.

It might be better to invest in a water softener for your well.

[Crossy]

If you're going to run the pipe anyway it can't hurt to try, if it won't pump you can always add a pump at the lake end.

I suggest:-

A non-return valve every 25m or so will help you maintain the prime (but every one will cause a little bit of suction loss).

The biggest pipe you can afford (probably 2") to keep the flow resistance down.

A means of filling the pipe for the initial start.

To be honest, by the time you've done that a tank and portable pump that you take to the lake every couple of days seems attractive.

[lopburi3]

Any possibility of running the pipe below water level to house in a trench and let gravity bring to to you? That would solve the prime issue.

[jaideeguy]

Yea Crossy...if I go for it, I'll have to lay the pipe anyway, but a non return valve every 25 mt would be upping the cost and still a gamble.

And no, lopburry...the trench would be too much work and $$ and the lake drops to 2 mt in dry season....too deep to dig.

And Pacperson...maybe a submersible pump with buried pipes would be the best/safest, but how high will a submersible pump and can adapt an auto shut off to it?? Water softener I have already but too much maintenance for my super hard water and I gave up on it.

Thanks all

[Pacificperson]

I use a lot of half horse submersible pumps from mainland China. They top out at 7-8 meters. They are really high volume, low lift pumps, but you only need to get the water to your main pump. As far as an auto-switch goes, maybe a float valve in the holding tank hooked into the hot side of the cable going from the house to the lake.

If you are going to splice cables, a good trick is run a foot long piece of PVC over one of the cables before you slice them. Do the splicing and center the splice in the PVC pipe and tape up the bottom. Fill with fiberglass resin and it will be waterproof after 24 hours. Make sure you insulate the splice. Don't count on the fiberglass to insulate them from each other.