Lake Water Pump

[tcroz]

Looking for a system to pump some lake water(we have no outside spickets)at the cabin. Do not need anything fancy just something to wash the boat clean up after cleaning fish etc... Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Gas or electric is the big choice I would guess!

Please share what you have or use.

Thanks for the input.

[delcecchi]

The folks around vermilion seem to use shallow well electric pumps with the inlet being a length of black polyethylene pipe with a foot valve on the end. The pump is in a small enclosure with a place to plug it in and has a pressure tank and whatever plumbing you want for the output. Wire the end of the poly pipe to a concrete block and put in lake (block holds it up off bottom).

Nice and quiet, pumps well.

[Gadgetman]

I'm using a "sprinkler" pump. no pressure tank needed, but you do need to have the water comning out of the hose whenever you have the pump on or it will burn the pump out. I mostly us mine for watering my yard and garden so that is fine with me. I do have a cage type thing on the end of the hose and then a mesh net over that to keep floating dump out of the intake pipe. I hang my intake off my dock. I am able to run three sprinklers with plenty of pressure with just a 1/2 horse motor. I also had my pump converted to 220 volt so it runs less expensively

[Tom7227]

Could you put a check valve in the inlet hose and not have to worry about the pump losing prime when it was turned off? Only issue I can foresee with that would be the need to make sure everything was completely drained when you put it away for the winter.

[delcecchi]

You put a check valve, in this case normally called a "foot valve" on the end of the pipe that goes into the lake. That holds the prime.

Winterizing is another subject.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The folks around vermilion seem to use shallow well electric pumps with the inlet being a length of black polyethylene pipe with a foot valve on the end. The pump is in a small enclosure with a place to plug it in and has a pressure tank and whatever plumbing you want for the output. Wire the end of the poly pipe to a concrete block and put in lake (block holds it up off bottom).

Nice and quiet, pumps well.

Works great! Be sure to add a foot valve and a sand point on the inlet end!

The sand point acts like a filter and keeps dirt and other crud out of your pump. Get the plastic sand point. It will last for years.

Cliff

[LightningBG]

depending on the amount of head required for the job, wouldn't a submersible utility pump be an easy option?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

That pump should work fine and is a much cheaper option!

Cliff

[delcecchi]

Should work but I don't know how it likes running when you turn the flow off. You can buy a shallow well pump for 100 dollars. I think it depends if you want a setup where you turn the faucet on and off or if you just want to pump some water.

[Surface Tension]

The folks around vermilion seem to use shallow well electric pumps with the inlet being a length of black polyethylene pipe with a foot valve on the end. The pump is in a small enclosure with a place to plug it in and has a pressure tank and whatever plumbing you want for the output. Wire the end of the poly pipe to a concrete block and put in lake (block holds it up off bottom).

Nice and quiet, pumps well.

I agree this is the way to go, shallow well pump, pressure switch, expansion tank, and foot valve on end of of line in the lake. This is no different the a shallow well for a home and the pressure switch will turn the pump on when needed. Yes the foot valve will need to be off the lake bottom with screen around the foot valve to keep it from sucking up rocks and sand. Make a doghouse to house the pump and put a spicket on it. With this setup you'll have enough water pressure to wash the boat or run a spinkler.

A submersible Utility pump won't have much pressure but it does have the volume if you use the 1 1/4 line. You'll also have to turn it on and off.

To winterize shut the power off to the pump and remove the drain plug on the bottom of the pump.

To drain the intake line to the pump you can remove it from the pump and pull it from the water and drain it. Or put a T on the end of the of the pickup line. One side will have to foot valve and the other end a ball valve. To drain the line you would remove it from the water but instead of disconnecting from the pump you'd open the ball valve.

[dukhntr]

I use a 1/2 hp pump and pressure tank from Harbor Freight. It is currently on sale for under $100.00. Connect an inlet hose to the pump, (Northern Tool) and run the hose along the side of the dock. At the end of the inlet hose is the foot valve, and a strainer. To keep the assembly out of the muck, I took a 5 gallon buck and drilled 3/4" holes around the bucket and 1 larger hole for the inlet hose. I then added 2 or 3 Lbs. of rock in the bottom to hold the assembly down. Been working great this way for the last 8 years.

Hope this helps.

[dukhntr]

Edit... To winterize, I disconnect and drain the hose, and store it outside. For the pump, I drain it and store it in the basement at home.

Hope this helps.