Small water pump
- Thread starter LarryC
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Bird
Rest in Peace
Yep, Hillbilly, I'm not familiar with all their pumps, but I've used (and even rebuilt) Shurflos in RVs and for spraying insecticides. They make some pretty good pumps for those uses.
fishman
Veteran Member
In the interest of furthering our collective knowledge I've been doing some testing on the Homelite pump Bird mentioned. I have a small seasonal pond on my property and decided to see what the pump was capable of. The test also raised some questions that maybe others could answer.
With 260 ft of garden hose, and about 15' of vertical lift, the pump put out about the same volume and pressure as the spigot (side-by-side comparison). It powered a sprinkler just fine. However, add 110 ft of garden hose and another 8' of lift, and the flow was reduced pretty much to a trickle, perhaps appropriate to watering a tree or some single plant, but not a sprinkler.
Downside to the pump was the noise /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Sounded like a weedeater stuck on high . . . well I guess that pretty much is what it is.
So, I did some looking and found a 4-stroke alternative to the small pump, namely the Honda WX10 <A target="_blank" HREF=http://southwestfastener.com/productsAllWaterpumps.htm>http://southwestfastener.com/productsAllWaterpumps.htm</A> This pump is also set up to use garden hoses, and is rated for a bit higher output than the Homelite.
Now, I've used much larger pumps, and they put out a lot of water. Many come with a throttle that allows you to pump a little water or a lot. So I thought, why not put a reducer on a 2" outlet pump so that a garden hose could be used, and then adjust the throttle to put out just enough water for whatever task was at hand? I posed this question to Northern Tool:
<font color=orange>Can a gasoline water pump with a 2" discharge opening be fitted with a reducer, allowing me to use 1" diameter garden hose? I need to pump water approximately 350', and the little 2-cycle pump I have doesn't provide enough pressure. I appreciate your help.</font color=orange>
I got this reply:
<font color=blue>
Thank you for your email. we do not recommend reducing the output of any pump, as the back pressure would damage the internal parts. Thank you.
Tonia Brown
Northern Tool & Equipment Co.
E-Commerce
</font color=blue>
So it sounds like my idea won't work. And maybe the bigger pump wouldn't put out any more volume/pressure than the smaller pump when reduced to garden hose diameter.
If anybody could shed some more light on this subject, I would certainly appreciate it.
With 260 ft of garden hose, and about 15' of vertical lift, the pump put out about the same volume and pressure as the spigot (side-by-side comparison). It powered a sprinkler just fine. However, add 110 ft of garden hose and another 8' of lift, and the flow was reduced pretty much to a trickle, perhaps appropriate to watering a tree or some single plant, but not a sprinkler.
Downside to the pump was the noise /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Sounded like a weedeater stuck on high . . . well I guess that pretty much is what it is.
So, I did some looking and found a 4-stroke alternative to the small pump, namely the Honda WX10 <A target="_blank" HREF=http://southwestfastener.com/productsAllWaterpumps.htm>http://southwestfastener.com/productsAllWaterpumps.htm</A> This pump is also set up to use garden hoses, and is rated for a bit higher output than the Homelite.
Now, I've used much larger pumps, and they put out a lot of water. Many come with a throttle that allows you to pump a little water or a lot. So I thought, why not put a reducer on a 2" outlet pump so that a garden hose could be used, and then adjust the throttle to put out just enough water for whatever task was at hand? I posed this question to Northern Tool:
<font color=orange>Can a gasoline water pump with a 2" discharge opening be fitted with a reducer, allowing me to use 1" diameter garden hose? I need to pump water approximately 350', and the little 2-cycle pump I have doesn't provide enough pressure. I appreciate your help.</font color=orange>
I got this reply:
<font color=blue>
Thank you for your email. we do not recommend reducing the output of any pump, as the back pressure would damage the internal parts. Thank you.
Tonia Brown
Northern Tool & Equipment Co.
E-Commerce
</font color=blue>
So it sounds like my idea won't work. And maybe the bigger pump wouldn't put out any more volume/pressure than the smaller pump when reduced to garden hose diameter.
If anybody could shed some more light on this subject, I would certainly appreciate it.
Anonymous Poster
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2005
- Messages
- 29,678
The best and simplest explanation of why it isn't a good idea to restrict the output of a centrifical pump is that doing so will overwork the impeller and cause a tremendous amount of heat buildup in the pump body that will eat the seal prematurely.
Most pumps in current production use plastic impellers, and are engineered to perform a pretty specific function. I own and use enough pumps to know they are purpose specific, and not intrechangable.
The small (weedeater calss) pumps are handy, and light. They are designed to be just that, and I'm glad they exist. They are built to lift a certain distance (head) and deliver a fantastic amount of water at that lift, considering what they are. One big thing to consider when buying one of these pumps is the availability of replacement parts, the impellers wear out much faster than the rest of the machine, so you better be able to get a replacement, or you will be throwing out a perfectly good engine.
If you must operate a large pump with a restricted outlet, you will need to install a releif on the discharge, and run that water back to the pond, or whereever you are sucking from.
Garden hoses are relatively small in actual cross sectional area, and are also very inefficient in terms of friction. If you were to equip a weed eater type pump with a sump pump discharge hose, it would fill a tank of 500 gallons capacity in 1/4th the time it would take the same pump to fill the tank with a garden hose of the same diameter.
If you want high pressure, use a piston type pump. Piston pumps acheive pressure by restricting output.
Most pumps in current production use plastic impellers, and are engineered to perform a pretty specific function. I own and use enough pumps to know they are purpose specific, and not intrechangable.
The small (weedeater calss) pumps are handy, and light. They are designed to be just that, and I'm glad they exist. They are built to lift a certain distance (head) and deliver a fantastic amount of water at that lift, considering what they are. One big thing to consider when buying one of these pumps is the availability of replacement parts, the impellers wear out much faster than the rest of the machine, so you better be able to get a replacement, or you will be throwing out a perfectly good engine.
If you must operate a large pump with a restricted outlet, you will need to install a releif on the discharge, and run that water back to the pond, or whereever you are sucking from.
Garden hoses are relatively small in actual cross sectional area, and are also very inefficient in terms of friction. If you were to equip a weed eater type pump with a sump pump discharge hose, it would fill a tank of 500 gallons capacity in 1/4th the time it would take the same pump to fill the tank with a garden hose of the same diameter.
If you want high pressure, use a piston type pump. Piston pumps acheive pressure by restricting output.
Anonymous Poster
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2005
- Messages
- 29,678
There is only one and that is Kubota. The local fire staion has 2 of these 4 cycle petrol units and they are great little machines. Don't know if they are available in the USA of course.
