The good news: The ram pump is installed and hooked up to lots of pipe.
The bad news: The pump is running- pumping like a heartbeat, but so far it is not pumping the water up to the tank.
Some details:
Gallons per minute of spring flow: currently about 4
Vertical drop from spring to pump: about 18-20 feet
Size pipe from spring to pump: 1 1/2 inch
Vertical rise from pump to tank: about 130 feet (over a distance of 700 feet)
Size pipe from pump to tank: 3/4 inch
Tank size: 600 gallons
Vertical fall from tank to house: about 80 feet
The pump should pump water up to 10 times higher than the fall from the source to the pump. My system falls within that range, but the pump has been running for 2 days straight with no water reaching the tank up on the ridge. My neighbor and friend, James Wilsom, came over this evening and maybe, just maybe figured out why. The pump has a standard pressure tank attached to it. The tank comes preset at 40 psi, but can be adjusted. For the pump to maximize its pumping capacity, the pressure tank should be set at slightly under the psi of the water between the tank on the ridge and the pump. Basically that is the pressure put back on the pump caused by the gravity of the water in the buried pipes. This number can be reached by taking the vertical rise from the pump to the tank and multiplying it times .43. 130 x .43 equals something around 56. So the pressure in the pressure tank should be adjusted (by adding air) to 56. I think it is currently set at 10 psi because we read the instructions wrong. Hopefully with this adjustment, the pump can get the water all the way up to the 600 gallon tank on the ridge. I will keep you posted. Go James, go. Thanks for the think "tank."
The pump is bolted to this stool:
This is a small tank at the spring that is piped down the hill to the ram pump:
This is the ram pump with the pressure tank on top:
4 comments:
okay, all that shit was confusing, especially the stool bolted to it all? sounds like you've got it all straight though. I hope the pressure adjustment does the trick (god bless your genius neighbor), I would have been absolutely zero help to the situation. Holler at you today...I want you to know how fun it is thinking of you driving around with that special twizzler on your dash.
Wow, applied math! Who'da thunk it would be so possible?
Best luck with your water works!
Dear Dana Dee, it's so nice to see your face again....
oh by the way...it's Miss S :)
Post a Comment