Pumping Water After the Grid Goes Down

"Just like a ...OMG!...shaker pump!"

Ah...you noticed that, did you? but less to fail. I would have the traditional crank assembly, myself....with modifications to allow for other types of force, such as wind or animal to raise it.
And cable strong enough to lift your truck, is easily available (in spools up to 1000' standard) instead of rope, that would fail much sooner.
Agreed on no need to turn over. A plunger type release valve would empty it in to a trough every time it was sat on it's bottom end, without any hoses, or external fitting to get hung up. Trough can feed your hose, if needed.

 

this is interesting ...
Im not realy sure if anyone here actualy is 100% sure on what they are talking about cause they have actually done or are just shooting off the hip do to some google knowledge and youtube videos...
I can get this computer thing tell me anything i want it too...
If you think it will work go outside and show me water ... then sell well pumps with no power and you will be a gazilionair ...

 

@KAS , we are talking about how to get water from a well if there is no power. Personally, I would use wind first, but the OP want to rule that out, so we go to muscle power, in one form or another. (Man or animal).
You can gear it up, counter balance, oscillate, or whirlygig, but it still takes the same amount of force to raise a gallon of water to the surface.
If given the choice, (and electric was not possible) I would prefer to set up something that would harness force that is not mine, (animal or wind). A stream could be used to pump, but that means you have surface water to start with, so why bother with the well?

 

GREAT comment!

Let's look at the power.

A typical AA alkaline battery can nominally deliver 1.5 V with a capacity of 2 to 3 Amp-hrs. So let’s call it 3 Amp – hrs.

Amps x Volts = Watts so the battery will deliver 4.5 Watt-hrs or 16.2 KJ.

How much energy or work is that? In English units its 11,948 ft-lb.

That's enough energy to lift 112.717 lbs a distance of 106 ft.

A gallon of water weighs 8.345404 lbs.

So the power from one AA battery could lift 13.506 gallons of water 106 feet.

In terms of horsepower--how fast the water got lifted, well, 1HP = 550 ft-lbs/sec.

So if you flash-drained that battery (Impossible, but this is just math.) in one second flat,
you'd get 11,948 ft-lb/sec, which is a very respectable 21.723 HP--for exactly one second.

Drain it over one minute, and it would be operating at 0.362 HP.

Drain it over one hour, and it would be operating at 0.006 HP.

Notice that lifting 13,506 gals per hour with one AA battery means you could lift 27.012 gals per hour with two AA batteries, which would be running at a total of 0.012 HP.

12/1000ths of a HP.

That's pretty close to the 26.277 gallons per hour I calculated for 0.012 HP.

Close enough for gorilla-toes, anyway.

But all that's at a presumed 100% efficiency. 90% is not an unusual efficiency when pumping water, so lets call it 24.31 gallons per hour, real-world.

That's good enough for me.

 

Kell .. what is OP {sorry }

morgan do u have any experience with pumps???

 

OP= original poster (thread starter)

 

ok got it .. so we are reinventing the whell here ...
Wind is to easy ....

 

Yes. Though it has been used for hundreds of years, apparently it no longer works. So we are making machines that require us to work harder, for less output.

 

got it i was getting frusterated hre for a minute///

 

It seems Obama sold all of our wind to the Chinese while we were not looking. He had heard of "Winds of Change", so he was sure they belonged to him.

 

I only see one problem with the video Kellory posted. He puts his hands on the PVC tube and that will contaminate the well with bacteria. Yes it would work and get water up but to handle the tube you should use sterile gloves or empty it in a different way. Also you should never have a well open like that as things will find their way into the well contaminating it. This is also a very shallow well at 10 feet . Mine is 90 feet . What I would like to add here is a second well smaller in diameter with a small 12 volt solar powered low volume pump on it.

 

Good point on the bacteria, but I did offer an alternative version, with a plunger type valve, to make tipping it over unnecessary.

 

When I started this thread I really didn't expect it to attract so much attention or generate so many interesting replies.

My original concern was that the day the grid goes down, no one who is not already all prepped up will be able to get much done in the way of prepping. It won't even be safe to go to the grocery store then.

So that would be a little late for buying a generator, laying in a battery bank, or building & raising a windmill. Or even building a 2-stage oscillator. But doing a shaker pump might be practical if the materials were already on hand.

And that could be the difference for many people between able to hunker down or having to hit the road with the rest of the dispossessed.

Likewise, at BOLs where the water is too deep for a vacuum pump, a shaker pump with a 2-stage oscillator could mean unlimited water for both personal use and irrigation.

The main thing is just to have idea on hand when it's needed.

If I had a spare well I'd build a shaker pump and oscillator and maybe make a video.

Buy I don't. So this will all be theoretical until someone has the inclination or the absolute need to build one.

Hopefully, the Net will still be up then.

 

@UM, I could build a much better built version of this, with what I have on hand right now.

I would make it there stage, not two, and horizontal, not vertical. With a cable spool winder that would release at full top and freefall back down before starting up again. Geared properly, it would raise bucket after bucket, tip, pour, and drop as long as there is wind. Without the need of human assistance, from any depth down to the limit of my cable (@1000'). As long as the well were large enough for the bucket. Hardest part would be balancing the weight of the bucket: VS: the drag on the take up reel. Mechanical leverage would release and reset the takeup reel to the drive plate, triggered by limit dogs on the cable. (That could actually be a fun build) I can see this quite clearly in my head, even now.

Edit: I just don't have a well.

 

Naw, I'd use a steel shaft, with greased pillow bearings for pivots.(just like the set I have on my pig roaster) it would spin if you breathed on it too hard....

 

Has OP thought about if his "" will get frozen in the winter?Unsure where you are but it is something to consider.

This hand water pump has-
100% Freeze Proof! A 1/16 in. hole about 1 ft below frost line in the drop pipe of any pump system.lets the water drain out. Unlike pitcher pumps, no need to raise handle.
Deep Well Hand Water Pumps @  Survival Unlimited .com

 

I feel like I killed this thread but I need to clarify or expand on my comment. @UncleMorgan started this talking about a pump with a swinging pendulum and PVC. All math aside because I don't do math well, I want to know if this idea is only good in fair weathered areas? Example: Buffalo NY got 8 feet of snow this winter. My thoughts are snow will hamper the swinging unless you keep it shoveled out. Then the PVC. I know with irrigation systems you have to shut off the water and blow out the system because you run the risk of freezing and cracking. I know the PVC that would be used for this would be thicker then irrigation PVC but is cracking in cold temps still a threat? Also- I linked a metal pump because if it freezes you can heat and thaw with I am unsure if you can heat thicker PVC without compromising it.

 

Fear not, Motomom34, for the thread was not dead, but only sleeping.
(It always sleeps like that!)

The math is really unimportant. If a person wants to build a two-stage mechanical oscillator, the recipe is on the web.
Refer back to the South African video posted by azrancher on Page 1 for a good idea of the size and operation.

The oscillator was to do the hard work more easily, and could be hooked up to almost any mechanical well.

The shaker pump part was to get the water to the surface without spending a lot of time and money building a complicated water pump.

The shaking could be done by hand if an oscillator wasn't convenient to build.

As far a winter goes, any water pump that isn't heated may freeze up, even if only at the top.

But a shaker pump will not freeze up if you drain the water from the upper part of the shaker tube and cover the well.

Water below the frost line doesn't freeze.

The next morning, just pump as usual, and then re-drain the shaker tube again at the end of the day.

It's a small price to pay to keep the pump ready to use.