River water up 120 ft-Options ?

[bcarwell]

I'm trying to get river water up about 120 feet vertical up a 45 degree bank thru 2 inch pvc to a 2500 gallon tank for some cattle water and irrigation. I'll probably use up a tankful a week. What are my most cost effective options in terms of electrical pump and what would the specs look like ? Hopefully 120 VAC. I was thinking:

1) filter in river and submerged horizontal well pump. The river is only about 3 feet deep) and a little muddy after rains. Hopefully 120 VAC pump would handle the head ? Don't need alot of flow. Even if bearings would wear out sooner could you use a cheaper vertical well pump on its side ?

2) some sort of electrical pump on the river bank that could handle the head and maybe accept "semi" trash (e.g. water that's a little bit muddy at times), maybe with a filter on the river bank if necessary ?

Sure would appreciate suggestions and a source for such pumps.

Bob

 

[groundcover]

Pump, Deep Well, 2 Wire, 20GPM, 1HP, 230V - Submersible Well Pumps - Well Pumps - 1LZT4 : Grainger Industrial Supply

Wayne 4in. Submersible Deep Well Pump — 1/2 HP, 1 1/4in., Model# T51S10-4 | Deep Well Pumps | Northern Tool + Equipment

Should work fine. If you could dig a "sump" on the edge of the water and set a few concrete rings surrounded with some crushed rock it might help keep some debris out of the pump. I have put a couple in a lake and put the pump in a piece of PVC pipe. Cover the end with screen and drill a bunch of 1/4" holes in it. If the water is deep enough you can put legs on the PVC kind of like a saw horse. Wouldn't hurt to put the power wires in a piece of poly pipe to protect them either. Good luck .

 

[bcarwell]

Many thanks Groundcover. Do you have any opinion or guess as to how bad it is on such a well pump to be in a horizontal position ?
And I'm not quite sure what your sump and concrete rings/crushed rock look like. Is it like a vertical sewer pipe the height of the pump and a foot or two in diameter filled with crushed rock and with the pump vertically in the center ?
If so I guess I could do that. But does such a pump have to be completely immersed for cooling or is it okay if the top 1/3 or 1/2 is sticking out of the water as long as it never runs dry ?

Bob

 

[BeezFun]

Have you thought about using a windmill to solve part of the problem? They excel for really low flow, constant use applications like this. Normally it would be right next to your tank going down into the aquifer, in this case that's not possible. But if you put the windmill casing into a sump in the creek, and the windmill were say 30' high, it would be easy to stage water into a tank that's partway up the hillside. Then you could run the pump on a tank of relatively clean water that had settled out.

I used a gasoline powered trash pump in a creek to run a sprinkling system in a small tree farm, vertical lift was only about 50' though. It was a real pain because the creek would rise dramatically when it rained, it was filled with silt and debris, the debris would damage the piping and I had to wade in there and fix it. The suction side of pump had to be really long to keep pump high enough to avoid flooding, pumps don't like long suction lines. It worked but required a lot of care and feeding.

 

[tractchores]

I used a pool pump in a similar application to fill a pond from a brook, though it was 240v. They make them in quite a few sizes and usually are rated with ft of head so you can get one that will work.

 

[rsewill]

A pump used in a septic lift system into a water tank located not far above the flood line, then an appropriate pump to move the water the rest of the way. All controlled by a switch on a float at the very top. That lower water tank can be tall and thin with the pump located high and with a big drain at the bottom for clean out.

 

[JeffInCO]

As some have said, choose your pump based on the requirements you gave: about 1/4 gallons per minute @ more than 120 feet of head. Also consider suction distance (how far from the surface of the water to the pump). Add a bit of margin to be safe.

Jeff

 

[cub]

hi, did you investigate a PTO pump and run off tractor ????

 

[hank193]

That a fair amount of height and angle. About all I could suggest would be a check valve might help .Check around and see if theres a pipefitter or plumber's school nearby and talk to some of the instructors. You might get lucky and get it designed and built for a class project. You'd be out the materials and maybe a case of cold beverages and some burgers.....never hurts to ask!

 

[bcarwell]

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Preliminary indications are that the head may not be as bad as I thought- maybe 90 feet in which case I might get away with a 120 VAC deep well pump.
Yes I did consider a windmill and in fact have one I'm refurbishing. But I'm intending to get fiberglass sucker rods down the bank and run an old windmill well pump, but that's later. And I don't believe a tractor pto pump up at the top will provide the head and don't know how you'd prime it. I may look at a sump pump to fill a smaller vertical tank by the bank as one of you suggested and hang a well pump in it.
I continue to solicit suggestions- like how to make a lakewater homemade filter between the intake and the pump, but am hopeful that at least for the pump a 1/2 hp 55 psi deep well pump might do the trick.

Bob