Can you pump water without a pressure tank

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I have been given an electric water pump. It has 2 intake holes and one output. My well has a four inch casing. The water level is somewhere around 50 ft. and the well is 250 ft. deep at least. My question: Do I have to have a pressure tank to use this pump? Can I run the two intake pipes down into the well and turn it on when I need to fill the storage tank? The water will have to travel about 200 feet from the well to the storage tank and I would like to be able to use this pump instead of a hand pump to fill the tank at least the first filling. I plan on having about a 300 gallon storage tank. Thanks for any help you can give.

-- Robin Downing (Southpawrobin1@aol.com), April 22, 2002

Answers

Sure you can pump water without a pressure tank. The size and type of pump will determine whether you will have enough lift to bring the water up from that depth and take it to your storage tank. You could probably call any place that installs pumps and tell them what kind of pump you have etc and they will be able to help you. I have a half horse pump in my well and it brings it up from about 150 feet. and my holding tank is about 250 ft away, but not uphill. Good luck!

-- Barbara Ann (think_peace51@hotmail.com), April 23, 2002.

Thanks, Barbara. Someone told me that I would have to "prime" the pump. Can someone tell me what kind of pump needs priming?

-- Robin Downing (Southpawrobin1@aol.com), April 23, 2002.

What is the pump rated for? What is the lift? What it the gallons/min rate. The 200ft from the well to the tank shouldnt be an issue for a well pump but the 250ft deep part is where the pump will matter. You have water at 50ft now, HOw far does it drop in the summer? How deep do you have to pump from? year round?

You dont need a pressure tank, A pressure tank takes out the pulsing of a water pump, provides instant on water, lets you use a little bit of water without having to start your pump. Your electric bill would be much higher if every time you wanted a glass of water or flushed the toliet you started your well pump. The pump would also wear out sooner. For a filling application it is not needed but a small one is not all that expensive.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), April 23, 2002.


For your application you do not need a pressure tank, altho it would not hurt. Many use the pressure tank as the water storage tank - you are using a large tank as a cistern, and might be gravity feeding from it?

Anyhow, you will need to pull water up from between 50 feet & 250 feet. It depends upon the recovery rate of your well. It might be difficult to pull 300 gallons out of the well in a short period of time - you will need to go pretty deep down the casing to allow the well to replace the water that you are drawing out rapidly enough.

This would be easier to explain with a couple of pictures & a chart or 2 on how fast you are drawing water out of the well, vs how quickly the water runs into the well from the water layer.

Where I live, a deep well submersible pump is much better than the priming pumps that are on top of the well. I think you can only 'suck' water less than 30 feet up. To make your pump work, it will need to fill the little pipe with water so it does a better job of pulling more water up from deep down. There is still a limit on how deep a primer pump can get water from by pulling water up. The submersible pumps that go down to the bottom (nearly) of the casing can push water much more effeicently and from much deeper.

Hum, I think my babbling here really didn't help much. Sorry.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), April 23, 2002.


This one is simple. The pump that you were given is a suction pump. It will NOT "suck" or lift water for a height of 50 feet.

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_MN@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.


I thought if it has 2 inlets it is jet pump and the jet goes down in the well and will lift water a lot farther than a suction pump. A submersable is by far the best.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), April 23, 2002.

Mel, you are right. I must of read the question too fast. I missed the part about two inlets. A jet pump should work in this situation as long as the 250 ft to the water tank is not all uphill. Use a good spring-loaded foot valve so you don't loose your prime. As long as you are only periodically filling the storage tank, a pressure tank is not necessary.

-- Cabin Fever (CAbinFEver_MN@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.

Well, you know the make and model and even serial number of the pump - it's all right there on a plate on the machine. Contact the manufacturers, and ask how to get all the information they can give you on it. Also do a search on the Web. Both. Having the books is ALWAYS a good idea, even if all you do is sell the thing.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 23, 2002.

Most deep well jet pumps require a special foot valve to work. It has a bigger pipe and a smaller one. Water goes round in a loop, picking up additional water at the footvalve as it does. My experience is it will not work unless under some pressure. I remember my dad having to add presure with a pump up tp 20 psi almost before the pump would start to pump water. If you ran the pressure below 20 it would loose prime and you had to get the tire pump. Like many things, I could just be as wrong as can be. Don

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.

I'm not as up to speed on jet pumps as I am on some other types, but this much I do know: generally speaking, a pump needs to be matched to the well, flow, lift, etc.

The jet pump needs a "jet" at the bottom of the two pipes. Typically, the pipes are one inch and one and a quarter inch. The jet normally includes a foot valve. The jet also needs to be sized to the pump.

Jet pumps generally are a lot less efficient than sub pumps, which means you'll use a lot more power to pump the same amount of water.

I go along with the idea of contacting the manufacturer. Either that, or at least talk to a knowledgeable pump dealer to give you some advice.

Good luck!

-- joj (joj@home.org), May 01, 2002.



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