Watering lawn from Pond - what is needed

[RobertN]

Looked at the Northern on-line. They had a 4hp 2" pump. It was the only gas powered pump with pressure specs. Well, it maxed at 38psi.

Based loosely on that example, and ignoring pipe/hose friction loss and sizing, your 50' elevation change would leave only 16psi to drive sprinklers that probably want 30+psi.

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Ahhh folks thanks to you all - this is exactly what I was hoping for. I too had thought about the WX10 Honda powered thinggy, but you are right I need to start at the end and work backwards to the pump to figure it all out. Thankfully in my situation I won't have any head loss since the lawn and pond are at the same elevation.
Larry

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Robert,
That is exactly the one I was looking at. Since I will be dealing with no elevation changes I should be able to expect what it states 9480 GPH with a max of 38 PSI. They also have another one with 14,280 GPH for $379.
Larry

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Anyone have a Rainbird Rain Gun 3000? Specs say they will cover over a 200' diameter. Not bad. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[TresCrows]

That is quiet common here. My neighbor two parcels west of me irragates from his pond. In fact he has a lawn sprinkler system and it draws from the pond. They have an electric pump made for sprinkler systems in the pond. It has a filter and a trash filter. It has been working fine for several years. His only problem and it may not be yours is that Kansaw is everything but a desert and about the end of July hios pond goes dry just like mine. His system was professionaly installed but looks like for what you want to do--a pumps, some of those impact sprinklers on the tall stands would do fine. Good luck. J

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

For those who are interested I did a little checking around with agricultural irrigation outfits in my area. If I wanted a sprinker head that would cover a 200+' diameter the price was $2500. The local place had these Simi? K1s that would do a 100'-130' diameter for $124. They require 40-50 psi and 26-60 GPM.
Larry

 

[RobertN]

I did not see pressure specs for the other pumps; I think they would be similar. Even though you do not have head pressure, you have friction loss. That, combined with the pressure required to drive a sizeable sprinkler, and you are out of luck. The ones I mentioned want to flow a lot of water, but also want higher pressure to cover distance.

Trescrows mentioned a neighbors setup with pumps made for that. You need to look that direction; Northern does not have a pump to supply flow AND psi. The example given only has 38psi absolute best case to start; that's not enough to run most sprinklers effectively. Add friction loss over 100+ feet, and you're looking at 30psi maybe...

If you look at the catalogs, the sprinklers will run at lower pressures, but they also will not cover anywhere near the same area.
I used to work with Fire engines. Most could either flow a lot of pressure at lower flows, or lower pressure with a lot of flow; E228 could flow 1450gpm out of a 2" straight bore nozzle at 80 psi. But, the flows were not there at higher psi.

The pumps at Northern might be fine pumps, but they are high-flow, low-pressure. That is the hard part. You need less flow, but more pressure.

It is all doable. People do that all the time. I just see $$$ coming in to play /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Good points Robert, if you have any suggestions on where I should look, and manufacturers / models of pumps I am all ears.
Thx,
Lar

 

[RobertN]

I don't have suggestions. But, I can ask at class this coming Tuesday; as part of a Horticulture program, I am taking classes at the local JC. Tuesday eve is the Irrigation class. So far they covered city water supplies,, but have mentioned various booster pumps. Sometimes even city supplied water is at too low a pressure to run sprinklers. I will ask the teacher for more specifics on brands/suppliers for you.