Getting Water From a Drilled Well Without Power (electric, that is)
 

I thought this article was a pretty neat idea. I would like to see it in action.

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Works for shallow wells, but deep ones will require buckets or multi-stage manual pumping.

My well (when I lived in New Jersey) was 120 feet down. A 220 generator is your best bet for a situation like that (you don't want to drink shallow well water in NJ, sure to get dysentery or worse).

my well is 460 feet deep. their are times when the water is 200+ feet down before I start to pump !!!

In Houston, water is only about 12 feet down there.

WHat about a hand pump? That is what is on my aunts cabin. You have to have water to get water though as you have to primp the pump. My buddy used to use his windmill to pump water many many year ago.

There are two types of hand pumps, shallow and deep. The shallow kind need primed as the pump assembly is at the top and draws the water up from the suction. Limited to around 28 feet IIRC. The deep type have the actual pump mechanism at the bottom down under the water, the lever at the top hooks to a long rod running down the pipe. Can be used down to around 300 feet IIRC, you are pushing the water up the pipe instead of drawing. Unfortunately, the deep type would require it's own well casing or the removal of the electric pump equipment before it could be installed.

I just bought one of these. [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I ran the pipe down 135 feet. Cost me about $1500 shipped. My well casing is 7", so I had no problem running the pipe down the hole w/ my existing pump. Most electric pumps are installed 50'-75' below static water line. I ran my about 25' below the static line. No need the prime; however, my kit has a weep hole about 4' down so the line won't freeze if the powers out. Only takes a few pumps to get water flowing. I would highly recommend them if you can afford it.

My buddy's water in AZ is about 80 feet from the top of the casing. He bought a special bucket that can be lowered down his casing incase power is out for a long time. We had to replace his pump so as long as we had the pump and pipe out we tried it out. It holds about 1.5 gallons. It was major suckage and he has since bought a 3500 gallon water tank and installed a solar power pump to fill it and pumps out of it instaed of directly from the well.

-Yarro

That is what I need to do today. Check into water purification tablets.

I dont know what the max suction head would be,but what about pulling a vaccum in your storage tank ?