rbodell

  My well is going to be deep and the weight would come to about 60 pounds.   I drilled a couple of 1/4 inch holes just above the secod check valve and installed a tubeless tire valve in the pump handle.   Air trapped in the sucker rod will float the pvc sucker rod and force the water into the outer pipe. When the handle has too much foatation, let a little air out to eqalize it.   This pump works off of a pumpjack that pumps the water into a 55 gallon drum. Inside the drum is the sucker rod version to pump it uphill to the water tank that feeds the house. The second pump runs on the same pumpjack.   We tried it out at 135 feet and a six year old could pump it by hand.

I am in the process of building on a piece of property and I decided to have a similar pump, not because I wanted a manual pump, but because with a manual pump you can EASILY power it with ANY KIND OF POWER, manual or alternative energy from propane to crude oil to waste oil, electric, lawn mower engine etc.   My alternative was a 12 volt $1000+ (+pipe) pump I don't even see a choice here. $150 against $1500 I can replace the entire pump in 30 minutes without any tools every year if I have to..   One thing I learned about living on a boat, is not to depend on anything electrical. yes I will have DC electric, backed up by a lawn mower engine, backed up by manual, backed up by the grid.

I have a similar pump. Without the plug in the push rod, air trapped in the pushrod keeps waater out and eventually the pushrod floats. I put a small hole in the handle under my thumb so I couls let trapped air out and reduce the tenndency to ploat allowing the pump to work at deeper depths. I plan to put one on a 150 foot well