Well pump

I've been looking for an "affordable" hand pump for my well in case power goes out for an extended period of time.

My well is >400 feet deep and the water level is at about 85 feet (plenty of storage). I can't do any kind of suction from that depth, so it's either a mechanical pump or straight up bailing it out. I'd rather have some sort of pump, but not one that runs off a generator. A good old arm powered unit is what I'm looking for.

Anyone have any experience with depths like this? I have seen pumps ranging from about $300 (look cheap as hell) on up to thousands. I'm looking for recommendations.

(Also, I did a search. Got timed out 3x, so decided to post. So sorry if it's a repost)

IIRC Hbar is running a manual backup system. If he doesn't reply today, pm him.

Look into treadle pumps that they use in poverty stricken communitites in Africa.

What about a bicycle powered pump? Some sort of very cheap geared pump that you could throw a bicycle on. Seems like you could out something together yourself for very cheap and it could very reliable

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sniper7

What about a bicycle powered pump? Some sort of very cheap geared pump that you could throw a bicycle on. Seems like you could out something together yourself for very cheap and it could very reliable

---

The problem is with depth. You can only "pull" water about 25 feet before the pump will just cavitate, so the pump has to be within that distance of the surface of the water AND be capable of pushing water the remaining distance to the surface. Old school well pumps use a pump mechanism that is submerged in the well and linked to the well head by a pullrod. The mechanism acts like a one way valve, and the lever at the well head allows enough mechanical advantage to allow one to lift the water column all the way to the surface.

Except for the price I've never seen anything nicer than hbars setup. Factor in the child labor available and its a great deal.

This company also makes a similar design.
http://bisonpumps.com/

Actually this company makes a prettier pump and I almost went with them. I read up on both and picked the one I did because of pumping ease.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HBARleatherneck

www.simplepump.com

It is going to cost you between $1800-$2200 to go that depth (im guessing) , but it works and we are very happy we bought ours. the peace of mind knowing you will "always" have water is worth the costs. Our kids use it to get water when they are outside. On several occasions this year we have had power outages and used it. Sure we have a ton of water stored in the house, but why go through the trouble for a short outage to use it? My wife and I installed ours and its no problem. And before we list this house for sale we will pull it and take it with us. Not like most Americans care about prepardness and Im sure they wont want to pay for it.

---

I looked at this one as well as others. This one looks pretty kick ass. And the ability to pump into a pressurized system is HUGE. Have you hooked this option up HBAR?

Sure you might have to take quick showers and they'd be cold, but that's better than a sponge bath! Just having water flowing into a toilet or out of a tap would be a luxury.

One of my neighbors has the old style hand pump. It is on a second well. No clue how deep it is. IAEF, I have access.

I'm also interested in alternate pumping methods.

Is there a way to build a sort of manual rampump that would be able to pump out of deeper wells?