I live in Northern Michigan and have 5 cows on a small property I own. I have electricity on the property but no running water nor do I have a heated building. Twice a month during the winter, I would like to pump water from a shallow driven well point to fill a 500 gallon cow water trough. The water table is about 12' deep and I would plan to drive down a 2" well point in sandy soil. My objective would be to hook up a portable high pressure Honda gas engine centrifugal pump to the shallow well (like shown in the pic), prime the pump, and fill a 500 gallon water trough. When filled, I would remove the pump from the well point and drain the pump. Since I wouldn't have a check valve on the well point, the water would drop in the pipe back down below the freezing zone and not freeze in the well pipe. My question is: Could I use one of these portable Honda gas engine pumps to draw water from a 2" shallow well point or would I need a different kind of pump? I know it sounds like a lot of work, but doing something like this sounds much more attractive than my current method of pumping water from a frozen pond that's about 150' away from the cow water trough. Any idea's or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Using Portable Honda Centrifugal Pump on 2" Driven Shallow Well Point for Temporary Water for Livestock
- Thread starter Landrand
- Start date
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My experience is a 2" trash pump wants to pump a lot or water at a very low pressure. A well point wants to supply very little water, but can be at whatever pressure you desire. I think you would get more water and have an easier time priming to use a 1/2HP jet pump with a foot valve, and use a generator to run it.
That's what I was thinking. Thanks for your input Valveman! My Honda Gas engine pump can fill a 300 gal tank in a couple of minutes using a pond as a water source. The Honda pump is easy to prime and drain afterward as it has plastic screw plugs; hence the reason I thought it might be handy for my situation using a shallow well point.
I do have electricity on-site, just don't have a heated building. Here in Northern Michigan (UP), our winters are severe
and it does sometimes stay below zero for a week or two at a time. My objective is to visit the site every two weeks, hook up the pump, fill the tanks, and then disconnect/drain the pump when done. That's what I do now using a frozen pond as the water source. The issue with using the pond is I have to keep the snow clear to the pond, auger a hole through the ice, unroll 100+ feet of firehose, etc. The whole process takes about an hour to fill the tanks. Trying to make watering my cows more efficient.
I'll plan on using a 1/2 HP Electric pump and perhaps I can rig it up so it's easier to prime and then drain afterward. Not sure what a foot valve is so I need to research that item.
FishScreener
Well-Known Member
Do you need water for the cows if the snow is mixing with their feed? Call your County Extension and ask.
If you use a submersible pump with the check valve removed, it will all drain back and not freeze when you shut off the pump. You wouldn't even need to remove the pump from the water.
How would I use a submersible pump in this application? Wouldn't I need a drilled well for the submersible pump? Putting a submersible pump in the pond would require a pipe coming out of the ice. The water would freeze in the pipe where it enters the water. I don't own the land where the pond is at so I couldn't trench the pipe underground. The pond is on my neighbors property right at the property line.
You would need to come out of the pond underground, below the frost level. So, back to a jet pump or maybe your trash pump drawing from a sand point, then you don't have to cut a hole in the ice. I would give the trash pump a try since you already have that. If the sand point can make enough flow to keep a trash pump from losing prime it will work.
