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Letter Re: Experience with a Shallow Well Hand Pump

Mr. Rawles,
I consider myself adequately prepared for whatever events that may happen in regards to a break down of society. I live out in the country and have never been one to rely on local government or social infrastructure for immediate needs. I've had too many occasions where I have had to fend for myself because of a tornado, snowstorm, flood or other event that causes disruption in services. I have a good supply of storage food from canning, dehydrating and past hunting seasons to last for a while. I've got all the hand tools necessary to keep going if it comes to that. Also have ordered from Vic at Safecastle, got some stuff from Ready Made Resources and Lehman's along with Sportsman's Guide, Cheaper Than Dirt and a bunch of other places. These are items that I may need when the SHTF. Overall, I consider myself and my family mostly self-sufficient until I consider the magnitude of life without electric power for an undetermined period of time. My biggest concern is potable water.

I have three ponds on my property, two small ones and one that is fairly large. We have a well for water and a septic for a sewer system. We have a Berkey filter system that I have used in the past when power has been out for an extended period of time to purify pond water. The way we do it is, scoop the water out of a pond in 5 gallon buckets, filter it through some T-shirts into a pot, boil the water then pour into the Berkey and after it is filtered, drop in some bleach and we have good clean drinking water. A lot of work for drinking water but an absolute necessity when faced with a prolonged period of power loss. I got to thinking a while back that there must be a better way to get drinking water than from my ponds when I have a perfectly good well.

I did some research on hand pumps for a water well and saw that it is possible to incorporate a hand pump along with my electric pump. I already have a well bucket that I got from Ready Made Resources and it works great but I felt that a hand pump would be even better. I work private security and as you can imagine business has been booming lately so I don't have much free time. I called a local water well driller and they quoted me $2,500 to install a hand pump to my well. Way too much for my taste. Another place quoted me $1,250 minimum. Still beyond my budget. I decided it was up to me to get it done.

After a ton of research, I decided to pop the cap off my well to find out the static water level in my well. It was a huge effort to get the cap off because it hadn't been off for many years. After a bunch of WD-40 I was able to get the bolts loose. Once the cap was off I sunk a rope into the well and found gratefully that the water level was only 9 feet below the well pipe (We have a high water table as you can imagine with three ponds on my property). Research showed me that a shallow well pump would pump water from a depth of 20 feet. A quick search showed that shallow pumps were within my price range. I ended up ordering a Heller-Aller Pitcher Pump from Lehman's for about $250. The pump is plumbed for a 1-1/4” drop pipe. I got the PVC drop pipe, brass couplings, foot valve and male fittings from Lowe's for about $60. The PVC pipe came in 10' sections and I got 3 pieces. I struggled putting 2 of the pieces together with couplers with help from a block of pine wood and a sledge for a total of 20' of pipe. Thinking ahead, I added a large turnbuckle with a big eyelet about 2' down the top of the pipe attached with two U-bolts that I attached a hooked tow rope to use to tie off onto a fixed object so if the pipe got away from me it wouldn't fall into the black hole of the well where I couldn't retrieve it. I'll save the extra 10' section to add when the water drops below a point my 20' section doesn't pull the water up.

With the drop pipe finished, I focused on mounting the hand pump to my well pipe. I had two sections of pressure treated 2x4 cut to 2' lengths that I bolted to the base of the pump with 5/16”x2-½ stainless bolts to stabilize the pump on my 6” well pipe. With the wood base attached to the pump I was ready.

Putting the 20' section of drop pipe down the 6” well pipe was not as bad as you may think, it only weighed about 15 pounds. I had the rope attached to the turnbuckle so I wasn't worried about dropping it. When I got the pipe into place my wife held the pump with wood base about 2 feet over the pipe so I could screw the drop pipe brass male fitting to the pump. (A note to consider – When the pump was manufactured, they sprayed the red paint onto the threads that the drop pipe screws into. If you don't remove this paint before installing – you'll never get it connected.) Once we finally got it connected, I had to prime the pump from the top while we pumped it to get the water flowing. Once the water started flowing I realized that $500 (as opposed to $1,200+) I had just spent was probably the best money I ever spent as far as my survival preparations went. The pump spout even has a notch built in to hang a bucket. What a wonderful thing.

I'm praying for your family due to your recent loss of your wife. A good friend of mine is music director at our church and his favorite song is – When We All Get to Heaven What a Day of Rejoicing It Will Be! Keep that in mind, my friend. - Jim W. in Indiana

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