I Have an ELECTRIC Water pump for my home well. In Case of a POWER OUTAGE what is the best backup??????

A bucket, and about 210 ft of rope..:0)

A Diesel or Petrol generator , it will also keep the fridge going and give you lights .

[link to www.barking_wolf.com]

Have no idea how that happened. Trying to post a link to Lehman's.

[link to www.barking_wolf.com]

a generator will be purchased at some point, but was thinking about some type of manual pump to gain access to the water in the well. Would be a god-send in a complete power outage....

Sigh. Google Lehmans. Once there, type deep well into the search bar.

dead link???

The right answer.

Forget hand-pumping water up from a 200+ foot well by hand on a daily basis. That's a heavy water column.

no worries,,,got it

The only hand pump that will lift water from that far down is the old cast iron type you see in western movies . They still make them , a lot have been installed in 3rd world countries . You would need to make a pad for it to mount on . I would use 1 1/4" Poly pipe for the suction and put a filtered foot valve on the bottom . That way , the suction pipe will always stay full and water will be only a couple of pumps away .

An old lady that knows how to suck real well!



Sorry, trying to keep it light.

Solar panels.

plumb in an old fashion hand pump

I had the same question and went with a portable gas generator. Considered installing a standby diesel generator, partly for cool factor, but that's a lot more hassle and money.

Good hand pump will be $500 plus installation, as I recall.

I just bought a 6500 Watt portable gasoline generator on sale from costco.com for $700. You still have to wire it into your house somehow, but it seems no more expensive, and a lot more convenient. Instead of just water, you'll have power for your refrigerator, furnace / boiler, clothes washer, etc.

And be careful, to use the hand pump, you'll need a wide enough well pipe. That's because the hand pump will contain another pipe, which must fit inside the existing pipe. Furthermore, that would somewhat constrict the flow for the electric pump, as that inner pipe area is taken from the area available for electric pumping. I wonder if that would put more load on the electric pump, somewhat shortening its life.

buckets and rainwater

The portable gas/diesel generator is obviously the more convienant option if a power outage is short term. Two options if the power outage is more long term,,,pump lots of stored water while the generator has fuel, and then, a hand pump if finding fuel becomes an issue.

I believe our well has a pretty good sized pipe,,,6" if I remember correctly. I moved into my fiancee's house, so I'm not familiar yet with everything. We also own a nearby bar that has a stream that runs right past, so the availability of water is not really an issue.

And batteries.

We are having a hand pump installed directly to the pressure tank. Plumber suggested it so I hope it works! It will be protected from the elements and theives and we won't have to leave the house to haul jugs up hill!

One solar panel,a deep cell battery,and an inverter capable of powering your pump(check how many watts it is and double it).

It would provide all the water you need for around $200.00

I'm in a similar situation, looked at the hand pumps around online and at your depth, it doesn't seem practical. I don't have a well, it's a large concrete tank so technically I could use one, but some are ridiculously overpriced. I guess I'll just siphon into a gerry can in a trolley and wheel it into the house.

Have heard of battery powered pumps (not solar), but the solar option probably looks best to me.

...only trouble with solar is if we're talking certain doom, there may not be a lot of sun around.

what about the old timey hand pumps with long handle and a spout and modern pvc lines.

Most well pumps are 240V with up to 10A. The exact amps depends upon a number of things, including well depth. You need a large array of panels, probably in the neighborhood of 400-600watts, several deep cycle batteries, and a 240v Inverter. You are looking at a hell of a lot more than $200, probably in the range of $1000+. I know this because I been researching, testing, and planning this problem myself for a while.

To answer the OP's question, the cheapest and easiest backup is to make a well torpedo (or three of them for backup). All you need is a piece of galvanized pipe with a cap on one end, and eye hook, a flapper valve, and a mile of rope. Lower this bad boy into a well by hand, and pull up water. I get roughly 2 gallons per pull on mine, but I made mine bigger than most (all those years of lifting weights had to be good for something right?) Also, you migtht consider making a setup with a pulley about the well with this, makes lifting a snap.


Anyway, here are some plans
[link to www.survivalblog.com]

And a store bought one:
[link to non-electric.barking_wolf.com]

Other options
- Solar jack solar powered pump that fills a holding tank
- Hand pumps as others have suggested
- Rain water cistern, then a good filter or distilling setup
- Atmosheric generators (think dehumidifier or AC unit using a peltier thermocouple)

hand pump mounted
no electricity required

my grandmother had one
at her house when I was
growing up.

100 yrs ago, this is how
most people got their water.

op youi are going to have to do homework on this one,water ,how much ,how to heat it ,how you store ,how to get it,well 200 plus deep forget the hand pump,it doesnt work that deep,water to drink is one thing ,water also will help you keep your sanity,to bath,wash your cloth,op you have to prepare ,dont wait too long,this summer you can become what you want ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,do itnow and you will still worry but your be better for it that,,,remember its the small things take the time now,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[link to www.survivalunlimited.com]

[link to www.bisonpumps.com]

I've never heard of doing this.

Are you just pumping water out that's already in the pressure tank? That is possible but it won't last very long, and anyway the pressure tank is what is creating your water pressure at the tank. You may be able to empty a bit more water out of the tank but that's all.

For it to work well it would have to create low pressure all the way to the bottom of the well, sufficient to suck the water all the way up.

And by the way, once it starts creating low pressure, it will suck air back in thru your taps. Your pump will be running in the basement, you'll hear air being sucked into your water taps and maybe back down out of your toilet tanks, and nothing will be happening in the well.

I think your plumber is making a mistake.