pumping lake water

[hendersond]

I purchased 2 of these fuel transfer pumps from GSA last winter. they fired right up after I hooked up a gas tank. I made a strainer out of 2" PVC pipe. Took them to the lake today. Impressed with what they pump. Unfortunately it sucked my hose flat, but still pumped some water for the pics. I will buy an adapter on ebay to use 1-1/2" fire hose. I will have to add a pressure guage when I put a fire nozzle on. Just curious.

 

[armytruck63]

I rented a civilian pump similar to this to pump out the green swimming pool at a house my son was renting. Home Depot gave me two outlet hoses instead of the correct suction hose. Just like your experience, the pump sucked the hose flat.

When I went back and found someone who knew what they were doing, I got the correct suction hose. It is made not to collapse and had a metal strainer on the end. We had the pool drained in about two hours.

 

[hendersond]

It was a hard hose, but it was stored with some bends in it. It collapsed at those spots. I may just make the suction hose out of PVC and use 12" of rubber hard suction to reduce vibration.

 

[emmado22]

Make sure your strainer has enough holes in it to meet and exceed the pump's intake ability. Somewhere there is a math formula for figuring it all out, but I dont know where. If your choking out your pump by not giving it enough water, it will cavitate, and that is BAD.

It is rated for 100 GPM.

The TM is 10-4320-256-14P downloadable here at LOGSA. https://www.logsa.army.mil/etmpdf/files/050000/055000/056793.pdf

 

[Tlauden]

Very nice!! Just make sure when you buy your hose and adapter it's the same threads. Our fire Dept uses all national standard hose thread. But there are threads such as 6 thread, 8 thread, and some other weird ones.

Just throwing it out there. Don't wanna see ya get screwed with multiple threads

 

[emmado22]

Yes, if your buying "Fire Hose" try to get NS, NST, or NH (all the same thread pattern, just different names) It's what MOST of the Fire depts in the USA use..

 

[armytruck63]

The formula to find a circle's area : π×(radius)2 usually expressed as Πr2 where r is the radius of a circle.

So if you have a 2 inch diameter inlet, the radius would be 1 inch, and the area would be: 3.14 X (1 X 1) = 3.14 square inches.

Now if you drilled a 1/2 inch hole in your PVC pipe, the area per hole would be:
3.14 X (1/2 X 1/2) = 0.785 square inches.

3.14/0.785 = 4, meaning you would need four 1/2 inch holes to match the area of the 2 inch inlet.

Because of complicated fluid dynamics (tubulent flow etc.), I would use more than four 1/2 inch holes. We're talking about gallons per minute here (GPM), so the more holes the merrier.

It looks like hendersond has plenty of holes here.

Nice lake, by the way.
​

 

[hendersond]

Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered an adapter on Ebay went fron 2"NPT male to 2.5" male NH on the outlet side. That way I can hook up a 2.5 female fire hose or use a reducer to go to 1.5" fire hose. less friction loss with the bigger hose. Hose couplers will face the correct direction. I will keep the coupler for the suction side as is for now. I'll eventually make a dry hydrant in the creek.

 

[hendersond]

I went with 3 rows of holes on the top side so I would not suck muck off the bottom. I will probably attatch a tether ball or empty jug to the end of the strainer to keep it off the bottom.

 

[3dAngus]

The suction hose definitely need be non-collapsible. I had a flex hose which was loaded with stainless spring in the inside to keep it from collapsing. PVC would be premo, but that is usually for a fixed pump, non-removeable. I use mine to pump water out of the lake for yard irrigation and use pvc on the inlet and outlet side. Fire hose would be fine for outlet side. Nice pump. 100 gal. per minute is a lot of water. Should water the entire yard, front and back, provided the lift is not to excessive. If on a dock, the lift is only about four feet, which is great. You would probably get 20 feet of lift with that one, once primed, but outlet pressure would drop and so would the 100 gal. per minute rating.

 

[hendersond]

This is one of my things on my to do list. I'll use 45 elboys to flow better.

 

[muddog]

My dad attach his suction hose to his dock so it was mounted to something solid and he had no vibration and was about a foot above the bottom of the lake.
Harold.

 

[Nonotagain]

Too bad you aren't closer, as I have 5 or 6 sections of suction hose with the same disconnects. I also have a new roll of lay flat discharge hose.

I gave my pump away as mine ran on 3 phase electric instead of gasoline.

 

[hendersond]

I have to come up with something better for priming. Have to fill the pump and suction hose to get it to pump water. It would be great with the supply tank above the pump like on a tank truck.

 

[BadMastard]

Hey Henderson,

If your hose just has a couple of kinks that suction close, I've used hose clamps at those points to keep the hose circular. Not a permanent fix, but might get you by for a bit.

You got me on the priming. Maybe a one way valve so when you shut down the pump, it won't drain back?

 

[emmado22]

Why the need for the one way valve? It's self priming!

 

[hendersond]

You are right, I'm using the wrong terminology. It is self priming. I should have been talking about drafting (drawing water up with a vacuum to the pump) pump does not produce enough vacuum to lift the water that high without water in the pump and suction hose.

 

[John S-B]

What kind of pump is used in that pump? (diaphram, vane, etc.) It may not be designed to pump unfiltered water, or water at all. I'd do some research on it. You may find that you will have to clean the pump out after every use. I'd double check on you intended use before permanent damage is done. Some of those self priming pumps have very fine tolerances, and can be damaged by debris and fine particles.

 

[pwrwagonfire]

On our department (and many others around here) when we draft, we ALWAYS put the strainer into a pail. The strainer prevents rocks and fish from getting sucked in, and the pail tied on the end prevents the muck from the bottom....and we draft outta some nasty places!


I'd recommend doing this as well next time

 

[emmado22]

Hendo, the real question is what is the height from the top of the water to the pump for the place that your installing it?

For a VERY OVERSIMPLIFIED discription, the pump doesnt actually suck water all the way from the strainer. It only "sucks" water from the water line that is in the pipe (same water line as the surface of the pond). Find out what the feet of head that the pump is rated at, and go from there. The closer you can get the pump to the water line, the better, and the more GPM you can get out of the pump.