Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Product Review-Pump

With almost 24,000 gallons of water stored and the super summer season almost upon us, it is a shame that with out some kind of pump I would only be able to use it with the pressure of gravity. The tanks are 8' 4" tall and about a foot above the level of the upper most beds. With that height I would have about 4 lbs. of water pressure. Watering from our old tank with that kind of pressure took several evenings to do. It seemed like when you got through it was time to start all over again.


I have been looking since we put in our first tank, almost ten years ago, for some kind of pump that would hook up easily and be simple to use. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on one as I fully intend to have a filter and pump house with a pressure tank at some later date. Well, I think I've found one, and I bought it.



After a couple evenings of use I will say I think this is the perfect pump for the small time rain water collector if it will last. I got it from Harbour Freight mail order. I really hate buying any thing from them as most every thing they sell is made in China and isn't very good quality. That said I haven't been able to find any thing like this that is American made.



It's called simply Portable Utility Pump. It pumps at the rate of 25 gallons a minute or 1500 gallons an hour. The motor is 800 watt but what impresses me the most is it has a 120 ft. lift capacity. That means it will pump water straight up for 120' of elevation. For comparison the biggest pond pumps will only have twenty or so feet of lift. That to me equates to some real power. It's fairly small, less than 12" long and isn't too heavy even for a woman to move around.



It's best attributes though are that it can be used with any reasonable sized extension cord and, get ready for this, the inlet and outlet connections are for regular water hoses. That's right, garden hose for water going into the pump and garden hose coming out to water with. That is a great idea to do this, however, whoever decided to put male hose ends on both inlet and exit sides needs to be fired. After I found this out I had to go buy a washing machine hose, because they have female fittings on both ends of the hose, and put that on the pump on the inlet side. Other than that one little glitch, it was a cake walk to hook up and water with. I was a little disappointed to find that it is not supposed to pump against any pressure. That might mean that it wouldn't work on drip systems unless you were sure all the water it pumped would go out the hoses with out any back pressure. I'll have to think on this some more.



In a comparison to my favorite hose watering sprayer on our regular water system, it seemed to have almost, but not quite, as much spray coming out the sprayer. It is plenty to satisfy me though and I seem to be able to water every thing in about the same time as normal. I like it, am glad I bought it, and will recommend it if it has a reasonable life span for the $80 and shipping that I paid for it.

It would also work very well for emptying ponds or the big water troughs that are so popular for ponds. You could empty your pond and water your plants with pressurized water all at the same time.

6 comments:

Elgin_house said...

Hi Bob--I'm glad to hear that the watering system's still doing well! Someday in the medium-to-distant future, I hope to get the old cistern under our house back up and running for watering the yard and topping off the pond--so I'm glad to have your recommendation for a good, inexpensive pump!

Cheers--
Melanie

katina said...

we bought some little pump thingy from harbour freight too--only it needs to be hooked up to a power drill to work (uses the power drill to actually supply the pumping power), but it also uses regular garden hose connectors in and out so it's come in handy for emptying the rain barrel when it gets low.

ESP said...

Hi Bob.

It always amazes me at the resourcefulness of the Draco mind...the washing machine hose was a stroke of genius! It seems like that pump will serve you well. I have to say though whoever developed the contemporary hose connection...THEY should also be immediately fired. I cannot believe or imagine how much water is lost and wasted due to these connections perpetually leaking and spraying, but it must be a shocking amount annually. A study needs to be conducted!

I am fighting these connections all the time, and see the same problematic issues in other peoples gardens.

"And that is all I going to sat about that"...Forrest Gump.

Anonymous said...

Similarly to Melanie, I'm looking at Water Feature Pumps for my garden. So I am pleased I have came across this blog and recommendation! Thanks

harley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
harley said...

it is a great review of the water pump . in the pictures i saw that it gives the great great forces while giving the water to the plant .


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