Forum

by **nietzsche** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:51 pm

Anyone??

by **BigBallinStalin** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:53 pm

For the price of typing advice on an internet form, I'll provide you a service of comparable quality.

by **Dukasaur** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:58 pm

E. Howard Hunt is dead, but I hear G. Gordon Liddy is still alive.

by **Army of GOD** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:59 pm

delete system 32

by **natty dread** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:37 pm

my father was a plumber

by **Lootifer** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:43 pm

im a chemical engineer, kinda like a degree in plumbing?

by **Army of GOD** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:54 pm

Lootifer wrote:im a chemical engineer, kinda like a degree in plumbing?

in that they both are related to shit

by **Lootifer** on Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:55 pm

ZING!

by **KoolBak** on Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:17 am

30 years experience of fixing normal problems, but I aint no $100 / hour buttcrack ;o) Whats your issue?

by **nietzsche** on Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:54 am

Ok here it goes.

I live in a small town where water pressure is not so high, so I have a cistern where the water arrives, and from there a centrifugal pump moves it to the water tank on the roof. Now I've had problems with the pump forever, basically you gotta prime it very often and lately they just die every 6 months. Also I have a pressure problem, and every time I'm in a hotel I realise how great it's to have a lot of pressure for the shower.

So I went into a pumps store and they recommended a submersible pump between the cistern and the water tank and a pressure pump after the water tank. They said a pressure pump for two outlets its ok, since I really only care for pressure in the shower, and there are only 2.

So they arrive tomorrow to the store and I'm picking them up, but, I have on idea of how to install the submersible pump and worse, I have a feeling that it would stop working soon enough and replacing it every year will be a pain in the ass. The cistern is a very old cistern, made of concrete, and the access that was once perhaps 80cmx80cm has been reduced to maybe 50cmx50cm and with the floater and all, I don't think I can fit in to install the pump! So it would be a pain in the ass to install and I want to be sure it's my right solution. So any comments on this?

And on the pressure pump, do I need a tank? Or can I just turn it off (it has two switchs, one on the pump and a remote one) when I'm not taking a shower and everything is ok? Does any of you have one and turn it on and off? Are they noisy? Do I need a bigger one ?

8-[

by **TA1LGUNN3R** on Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:41 am

The submersible pump should be pretty easy to install, if you can get in the cistern of course. It should just be a matter of affixing it somehow. Other than getting it in there, I don't foresee any problems with it. It all depends on how good it is, I suppose.

I'm not sure about the pressure pump. I would assume you need the tank on the roof. I would hazard a guess that newer ones would be fairly automatic, and start up whenever you turn the water on. I'm not too sure, though. The (hillbilly) setup we had when I was a kid was a centrifugal pump bringing water from the creek, up in elevation about 200-250 feet into a 5000 gallon tank, which was about 50 feet above our house. We didn't need a pressure pump because the tank was so much farther up a hill. I don't know if that's viable for you, though.

-TG

by **KoolBak** on Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:41 am

Yeah, wow dude,,,,,NO idea

Have you tried to find forums on these particular issues???

by **Dukasaur** on Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:53 am

Sounds like your first issue is to fix the cistern. You have to be able to get in and out of there. And furthermore, if you've been killing pumps every six months there's a good chance of detritus at the bottom (which I would suspect anyway if accumulated scale has made the entrance shrink.)

I think your first priority is to empty the cistern, clean it out and scrape off the scale. If you can get by without running water for a few days I would even dry it out and paint it with a modern sealer. (You might have saved the life of your last few pumps if you had done this sooner.)

Once you're in the tank, installing a submersible pump is a piece of cake. It really is easy. But without good access it will become a horror movie.

If you have a tank on the roof, I'm surprised you need a secondary pump. The potential energy from the elevated position should be enough. If it isn't, you might consider raising it a little higher; that might be enough, but an even better step might be to increase the diameter of the pipe leading into the house. Too-narrow pipes are the number one reason for water pressure complaints. If neither raising the tank nor improving the pipe are options, then you'll have to go with the pressure pump, but it seems really costly relative to the first two options.