“So let me get this straight. You want me to pull the electric pump out so you can put in amanualpump?”
My husband and I nodded at the man who had come to remove our broken electric pump. He scratched the back of his head, a funny sort of half-smile creasing his cheeks. “You know, most folks are goin’ the other way.”
The idea of hand pumping water in the 21st century must seem a little backward at first glance, but we (like many other homesteaders, farmers, and preppers), knew that having a system that allowed us to fetch water with nothing other than two arms and some time could have serious benefits.
Manual water pumps should be a consideration for anyone who has a well run by an electric pump, and should even be considered by those on city water. Though water towers create water pressure with gravity, the only way water gets up into the tower in the first place is bybeing mechanically pumped.
And when you realize that all it takes is a long power outage to cut off your water supply, I bet most of you would like to be able to access it no matter what the circumstances. Manual water pumps are one way to build a little resilience into your homestead, whatever the size. Read on to learn more about the basics of what it takes to use a little hand power to draw your own water.
Manual Hand Pump Options
The world has changed quite a bit since the Laura Ingalls days of drawing water with a bucket on a pulley. If you decide to make the switch to manually-pumped water, you may find that that there are two companies that really dominate your searches.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUyNlEjhUaE/
BothSimple PumpandBison Pumparewell-established (pardon the pun) hand-operated pump businesses with a solid customer base and lots of experience. Though there are other companies that offer manual pumps, both Bison Pump and Simple Pump are made in the USA and are relatively easy to incorporate into an existing well.
How Hand Pumps Work
虽然设计已经现代化,但所有井的功能基本相同。在地下钻一个足够深的洞,到达蓄水层,然后想办法把水带到地表。手动泵和电动泵并没有太大的不同,很明显,你的手臂,而不是电网,是在抽水。
When you pump the handle up and down, you are moving a rod and piston within a long PVC pipe that has been lowered below your water line. Every time you pull the handle down, water is raised up, and every time you allow the handle to go up, the pump is lowered into the water, loading itself for the next push.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaVC581F4Jl/
For those curious,Simple Pump has a good explanation of each part and piece of their system. The nice thing about both of these modern pump designs is that there is no priming needed and very little maintenance. As in, you’ll need to give the entire system a once-over probably every five years or so.
All-Weather Manual Pumps
手动泵应该在所有季节工作,只要他们有一个所谓的“抽水孔”安装。这个简单的hack就是在低于冰点的PVC管上钻一个洞。在你抽完水之后,水会慢慢流出,直到达到平衡,确保管道本身不会冻结成固体。
As someone who has personally pumped water on a 1-degree morning, I can guarantee that this makes it possible to use a hand pump in temperatures well below freezing. To be clear, my pump is operating in Ozark winters, not Alaskan winters. If you’re in an area with deep permafrost, make sure you do your research before installation!
How to Incorporate a Manual Pump With a Modern Home
When you install a manual pump, it’s up to you how off-grid you want it to be. You may choose to have it be your main source of water, or you can use it as a backup. It may give you peace of mind to know that it’scompletely possible to install a hand pump side-by-side with an electric pumpwhich gives you both convenience and water security. If you do decide to have a manual pump only as a backup, however, you’ll need to make a point to pump some water every other day or so, just to make sure the system is in good working order.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqu4dYHlWg7/
If the idea of lugging buckets for your daily water use is not for you, it is also possible to use a manual pump to pressurize the water inside a house. Not every manual pump is capable of inside use, so be sure to do your research! Using this system, you can manually pump water from your well, through a hose, and into a pressure tank.
The tank can then allow water to flow from faucets and into toilets so much of your house functions as “normal.” Pumping water into the pressure tank will become just another one of the daily chores.
Hand Pump Costs
It is hard to give an exact figure on how much a hand pump will cost you. The overall cost depends on how deep your well is and what model you want.
The deeper the well, the more expensive it will be, as you will need a larger number of sucker rod and pipe segments. Additionally, if you have no well drilled already, the price will rise exponentially. On our homestead, we opted for using the well that had already been dug, and added the manual pump to the system.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFLJ6LvF67m/
Our well was fairly deep, so the final price for our entire system was a little over $2,000. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include the price of getting the original well pulled out. Also, we saved money by choosing to do the installation ourselves.
In your minds, this may small price to pay for having consistent, weather-proof access to your water. Additionally, wit allows you handle and understand every piece of the unit as you do oyur installation. It can certainly give you confidence that you could fix the pump yourselves if trouble struck.
Hand Pump Water Depth
So, how deep can you hand pump water? The answer to this question is entirely dependent on the type of pump you decide to install. The Simple Pump I use is capable of working from a depth of325 feet static water level.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnmFtyng3iI/
Before you get any pump installed on your property, take the time to find out all of your personal well’s specifications so you can make the best choice. Finding our well’s information was only possible by having a service come out and pull the old well for us, so you may have to do quite a bit of work if the information is not on record.
Is Hand Pump Water Safe to Drink?
这是一个复杂的问题,因为这完全取决于你个人的水井,它挖得有多深,周围地区有什么,以及用什么方法运输水。在很久以前,人们可以直接饮用井水而不用担心污染,但现在,当涉及到管理你的水时,你需要少一点信任,多一些主动。
In general, the deeper the well has been dug, the safer the water, but I would still recommend having your personal well water tested once you have access to it. Personal wells are not monitored and protected by agencies like the EPA, so the responsibility falls into your hands. Thankfully, there are relatively cheap kits you can order to test the water yourself, and there are plenty of services you can find online who can give you a “report card” of what’s in your water.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgYs-RPH6_y/
On our homestead, all of the water that we use for drinking and cooking goes through aBerkey Water Filtration system first.这些过滤系统得到了我的最高推荐,如果你正在寻找一种使任何水都安全的方法,我认为你找不到更好的选择。
I’m not sponsored by them or paid by them — I have just depended on our Berkey system for many years, and the faithful thing has worked without a hitch. The filtration system is expensive, admittedly, but when it comes to something as vital as water, many of us are more than willing to forgo some nights out to eat and department store clothes in favor of having decades of safe water.
Tips From a Manual-Pump Homestead
If you are doing research on manual pumps to see if you could switch your home or small farm over to hand-pumped water, then you’re just as passionate about self-reliance as we are. As such, I have some tips and tales for those of you who are willing to forgo modernity in favor of some sloshy, hand-pumped goodness.
First off, nothing will make you more aware of your water use than pumping it yourself. In order to depend on a manual pump, youmustchange your mindset when it comes to water use.
The average American uses an astounding80-100 gallons of water a day. That wasteful, thoughtless manner of living is just not possible with a manual pump.
I see that as a good thing.
你认为只使用50加仑的水就可以度过一整天吗?20吗?10 ?我告诉你一个秘密——一个人只需要5加仑的自用水就能舒适地度过一天。我将把它留给你去弄清楚如何使它工作。
But what about laundry day, you may ask? Or watering animals? Here’s my tip — there’s no need to have your hand pump be the sole source of water for the homestead. If you pair your manual pump witha rain catchment system, then you will have more water than you know what to do with. Use rainwater to water animals, the garden, and wash laundry. The you can reserve the work of hand-pumping water for drinking, cooking, and dishes.
另一件有利于手动泵用户的事情是一些真正的好桶。食品级的5加仑水桶可以用于你的家园中任何与水有关的东西。你可以订购新的,或者查看当地的Craigslist网站,为食品行业的旧桶注入新的用途。
你可能会认为抽水对你来说太费劲了,但就像其他事情一样,你会习惯的。第一周我们把手动泵用于日常使用,我承认我很累。But now that I have years of pumping and bucket-hauling under my belt, I’m much stronger, more grateful, and much,muchless wasteful. Best of all, no power outage can take my water from me again.
Do any of you hand pump your own water? Or, if you’re considering installing a hand pump, what questions drove you to make the switch? Let me know in the comments below!
Ray Unseitigsays
We had a hand pump on the farm in Wheatfield Indian. No elec, no phone: builds muscles, about 20 feet deep in glacial sand and silt. Best water I ever tasted.
Wren Everettsays
Thanks for your comment, Ray! I’m so glad that someone else out there knows the joy…because it IS a joy…of doing thing the “hard” way. A hard-working life is a good life. Hope you have a lovely spring!
Jasonsays
I’m moving off grid to a cabin in Montana. Rain catchment will be the primary source of water. My design is to pump water from the 2,000 gallon ferrocement catch tank up the hill behind the cabin to two connected 2,500 gallon ferrocement tanks to create a gravity feed system. I’m researching a simple type pump that I can power with a windmill. The property is in escrow and the water system in on the drawing table. I’ll start building the water system sometime this summer (2019).
Wren Everettsays
Rain Catchment is the way to go! We are working on getting our systems in place so that it can, one day, become our primary source of water. The Simple Pump system that we’re using for well water isn’t the best for windmill power, but the website recommends that you can hook the windmill to a generator, and then use that generator to power the Simple Pump.http://www.simplepump.com/support/questions/windmills/Hope you find a good plan that works for you!
Marxsays
Could any of these pumps (or another solution) be used to draw water from a lake?
Wren Everettsays
嘿,马克思。我在文章中提到的泵(特别是Bison泵和Simple泵)是为钻井而设计的。当提到从湖中取水时,有一些单独的考虑要记住,比如对抗重力,合法性(如果你不是这个湖的所有者)和处理沉积物。I don’t have experience with using our personal surface water for anything beyond an occasional bucket drawn from the pond, so to help you in your search, I recommend checking out Country and Cottage Water Systems by Max Burns (http://www.worddust.ca/pages/ccws.html). There’s a section on surface water that may be useful to you. It also depends on what you intend to use the water for–watering a garden (https://cabinlife.com/articles/article/how-to-pump-lake-water-for-an-outdoor-faucet) will require a lot less hassle than turning lake water into household water.
I hope that helps!
L. Mooresays
My wife and I bought raw property in Central Texas. It had a well but it is 700′ to the water level, so we chose not to install a pump on it. After building our homestead house I built a rainwater harvesting system with 5,000 gal of storage. It has met our water needs for the last 12 years with absolutely no problems. I wish we could have a hand pump but the depth of the well excludes that possibility.
Wren Everettsays
到目前为止,收集雨水是我最喜欢的获取我们需要的水的方法!听起来你的宅基地有一个很棒的系统。我真的无法想象,用手泵到700英尺高的地方需要多长时间才能让水流起来……
Love hearing stories like yours. Thanks for your comment!
Alan R Estessays
I hope the pump I need exists.
My spring and cistern (6 ft deep) are 400 feet from my house and about 20 feet lower.
Want to hand pump from the house and hoping that is possible.
Any help appreciated.
Alan
Ella Starrsays
How interesting that you talk about how it is not necessary to have a hand pump be the sole source of water for the household. I am starting a new business this summer. I will find a good pump puller company in my area for this as well actually.
LYNN P. STEBBINSsays
随着我们文化的瓦解,这位80岁的老奶奶想知道我们是否已经进入了“最后的日子”。我要预备我的家产,好让跟随我的人活下去,可能是我的一些年轻的亲戚。我想要一个可靠的、不需要电的水源。野牛看起来不错。
When I was a child, we had only hand pumped water. I know we can live with that. I was 10 when electricity came to our area. No matter what will happen in our near future at least we can have water to drink, wash in, cook with, etc.
Deliasays
Photo/Attachment:
I have a picture of a hand pump in a house I’m buying but not sure make and model. Realtor said it was stuck any thoughts? Can’t get to the house till after closing
Edsays
I have a jet pump in my basement with 2 pvc lines going out about 30′ to the well, then down the well about 115′ deep to a foot valve. Is there a manual pump system available that can be attached to the existing piping inside the basement?
Timothysays
Watch Engineer775 on YouTube