Mike Stavrou, Mullumbimby
If you wish you had a submersible water pump, but don’t, like I did yesterday, you can make one with a garden hose. As we all know too well, water follows gravity.
Take a normal garden hose and fill it with water by removing any gun or nozzle and connector at its output, holding it high, and turning the tap on for 20 seconds.
Watch it flow and when no more air bubbles expel you’re good to turn off the tap and quickly press your thumb over the opening of the hose to prevent any air entering or water escaping. Now, with your thumb firmly sealing the end of the hose, wander over to the tap and flick the other end of the hose off the tap. Immediately lift both ends of the hose to stay level with each other to keep all the water still in the hose. (Best to remove its connector to plug this end too.) Now comes the fun part. A friend can make this easier, but the idea now is to travel to the location of the flooded area, under the house or garage etc, and have your friend hold one end of the hose near the pool that needs draining. You now run down hill to find any place outside that is lower than the bottom of the pool of water that needs to be eliminated. On the count of three – shout 1, 2, 3, – you both dump your end of the hose. Your friend jams it into the water while you simultaneously drop it to the ground. The weight of the water in the hose will create a powerful suction drawing the unwanted pool into the hose and, because there is no air in the hose, will continue sucking the water from the pool until the water level drops exposing the hose to air. That is why it’s important to now move the submerged end of the hose to the deepest part of the pool so that it drains completely. Good luck!
PS Oh, I almost forgot; Two parallel hoses will drain twice as much water in half the time! And you thought this rain sucked. The longer the hose – the greater the suction. When you place your finger lightly over the inlet of the sucking hose you’ll feel a vacuum stronger than a vacuum cleaner to assure you it’s working.
Great idea. I’ve had a half inch black poly pipe.( garden hose size) Bought the pipe and the black plastic fittings at rural buyers. Heaps cheaper than general garden fittings and a better seal. Had this in a small dam that I gravity fed to the house for showers and washing , garden etc. You could drink it but we didn’t need to Coz had a rainwater tank. A little muddy , not much. Actually it was 3/4 inch black poly. Less chance of kinking. 1/2 inch works tho. Heaps of pressure. Dam was about 3 storeys higher than the house . 30 to 40 ft drop. A filter is the best. Can buy a plastic cage type. If it touches bottom tho it’ll clog up with the mud. I put a double layer of stockings over that to catch the little stuff. Could just make a cricket ball size cage out of a coat hanger or tie wire and cover that with stocking material. Nylons. I tied a 4 foot stick on the hose near the filter at the dam end and an empty 2 litre milk bottle attached near the filter. Measure the bottle rope so end of pipe sits under water about a foot to 18 ” . 300 to 450 mls. Also a rock about 2 cricket balls in weight tied . So end of pipe filter , rock and stick are all tied together in the same spot. Bottle keeps it a foot from the top under water . Rock weights it down . And when water level gets low Stick stops pipe end filter from sitting in the mud. I had stick set at 2 foot off the bottom , 600 ml. Adjust the heights by shortening or lengthening the rope. I always like things on auto. Saves time. I should’ve had a little black poly in line tap at the house end but didn’t have one on the day so I used a 10 c coin , perfect size for 3/4 , 19 ml pipe . For a half inch , 12 to 13 ml pipe a 5 c coin is perfect. Block off house end , go up to dam , pull that end out of the water , fill with a 2 litre bottle. Would take about 5 bottles of water . Heaps of air lock air would bubble out the high dam end . Once pipe ( hose) was full I’d put the high end in the dam, yeah you need to keep your thumb over it till its under water. Then walk down to the house and take out the 10 c piece. Till all air bubbles were out. Once it was flowing solid water I’d reconnect it to the shower. There was so much pressure that I thought , I could use this. So I bought another 50 m roll of 3/4 black poly put that on the tin roof of the house ( corragated steel) , and kinda splayed it out like a deck of cards . Heaps of rounds tied down and weighted down with rocks or bricks and spread out over the whole sunny side of the roof.. Gate valves X 2 and metal shower rose in between at rural buyers ; ( shame it’s not still there ) . With this you’d have a hot shower from about 9 am in the morning till about 2 hrs after dark. I didn’t do it but I always wanted to add an old hot water tank to the system but didn’t do it. Also you can throw 1/2 an ice cream container ( 2 litre) of dolomite. Gotta be dolomite and the white creamy one from Qld , Mullum co op has it . Is the best. Not the tan one from Mudgy. In a small pool under a house Etc , throw in the dolomite them stir it up with a big stick. Stir it up while your throwing it in. Even a whole 2 litre containers worth. Wait a day or two , then all the mud settles on the bottom and the water is reasonably clear. Works fantastic for a dam. I’d wait till it was raining Coz that stirred it up. Or the next day once it stopped. .. Bring back rural buyers , there’s a biz waiting to earn heaps of money. They had 10 to 12 different grades of black poly pipe , from soft and bendy to rock hard town pressure . Bunnings has 2. Same with the fittings and sprinklers , sprayers , drippers , Bunnings has 2 or 3 .grades. Rural buyers had 30 , 40 grades . So much selection I was in heaven at the lolly shop. And the old guys there took the time to help you find the right bit. Even mitre 10 had more selection. Don’t know about now tho.
This isn’t a pump but a “syphon”.
There is no need to simultaneously throw the ends in the water. Simply hold the intake under and release the ends together. Or if there is very little height and distance from the surface of the water to the highest point in the syphon and plenty of fall below, just fill the pipe, put the top end in the water then open it at the bottom. The suction created by the fall will draw through any small amount of air remaining on the intake side of the rise.
The water is pushed into the pipe by air pressure so there is a limit to the maximum height it can rise over. Simplistic theory would suggest about nine metres which is equivalent the air pressure but much, much less in reality for several reasons. The hose would collapse with the suction, any air in the water would bubble out, expand enormously and break the syphon action.
The longer the hose the more friction and slower the flow. What counts is the difference in height between the water level and the outlet. The greater the height difference and the shorter the pipe, the faster the flow. The flow increases exponentially with the diameter of the pipe.