Garden watering solution

looksee

I need to get water to various parts of my garden, but mostly to a point at the top of the site. I have a well at the top of the site but I don't want to interfere with that as it is the house system. There is a disused but easily accessible well further down the site which is not potable as it is technically too close to the treatment system dispersal beds, it would be fine for using on the garden though (I could get it tested just to be sure, but I guess it would be ok).

I don't know the first thing about pumps but it seems to me that I could occasionally pump water to fill containers at the top of the site. Its possibly 40 meters from that well to the top of the site, rising around 1 to 2m, + maybe another 20 across the top (level or slightly downhill) and the water is 7m down the 6" well pipe. All the distance to where I want to be is along hedgerows so a pipe could be just put on the surface I think. I could get occasional electric power to that point.

Does this mean I have to lift the water about 8m? Does the length of the pipe matter? Could it be done with a manual pump? Do I have to seal the top of the pipe - it is flush with the concrete surround? What kind of a pump would do it? Would a simple bilge pump work? Any advice or suggestions gratefully received! Thank you.

The Continental Op

If you want manual a bilge pump would work as would this https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZKORN-Pressure-Leather-Relaxed-Increase/dp/B08HN2T78Q/ which is quite cute and looks like it will work with cheap kitchen waste pipe as the delivery pipe.

With the need for lifting the water 7m or more you are best with a submersible pump. How wide is the well? I can probably lend you a cheap Lidl submersible pump if you want to try one out, but it needs a traditional wide well not just a narrow pipe.

Edit> Cancel the bilge pump idea unless you can find any better figures but the manual ones I can find that actually state a max head or lift are limited to 6m.

looksee

Thank you, I have just looked up the Lidl submersible pump and it doesn't look as though it would go into a 6" pipe, but thanks for the offer. I have looked at other submersibles and they all seem to be the same, too big for a well pipe. Obviously there are pumps that go down those pipes but I think they would be much more sophisticated than I need (i.e. want to pay for!).

That pump you linked to seems to suggest it will lift to 10m, but I don't think it would then pump water through a hose.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VEATON-Portable-Self-Priming-Irrigation-Sprinkling/dp/B09Q66NMLV/ref%3Dsr_1_17?keywords=water+pump&qid=1684528571&sr=8-17

I wonder would this work? It seems to lift water to 8m from a well through a hose and it is self-priming. It says the lift distance is 8 m but also says 44m, hard to know what the 44m refers to, it sounds unlikely...

I am beginning to get an idea of what is needed, though I don't understand the 'bar' figures, and what does 3200 L/H mean, litres per hour?

The Continental Op

Basically with a surface mounted pump the nearer you can get it to the surface of the water the more efficient it will be.

The 44m head will be with the pump at water level so after sucking up from 7m it will have a much less ability to pump upwards so probably only about 10m head.

I also doubt it will be self priming from 7m, its easy to prime and saves waiting what can be an age for a pump working near its maximum suction to prime. The text indicates that one isn't truly self priming.

Again if you want to try it I have something similar.

3200 l/h means in one hour under ideal conditions (no suction no head) it will pump 3200 litres per hour. You won't get that unless you are using the full size of pipe recommended (one inch which you must use on the suction side). If you are going down to 1/2 on the deliver side then divide the output by a factor of 4.

This is an optimistic diagram of output which are all figures from a flooded head ie no suction with the pump at the same level as the water. The 8 m max would probably reduce the actual useable lift to less than 10m at a very low output 500l/h or less???

looksee

Thanks for that, I am beginning to get an idea of what is involved! I will PM you.

Lu Tze

Just to note that the water level in the well will drop as your pumping, which may cause issues for some pumps if it's already 7m down. There are narrow submersible pumps (3") to fit down wells, even smaller sampling pumps run off a car battery, but aren't designed for sustained pumping over long durations. They go a few metres below the water level, so that with the drawdown when pumping they don't end up running dry