I dropped in a hand pump on top of my electric pump down to 187'. Electric pump at about 220'. Been there for 10 years and nice to have here in the desert.
do you keep the hand pump primed & use it ocassionally (1x/day?), or do you feel that the risks of keeping that much water 'static' (stagnant?) outweigh the benefit of quick/easy access?
re It's always primed and I do check it/ flush about once a week or two. Never lost it's prime in the 10 years it's been there.
What type of hand pump is it? I want to put one on our well as we lose power at least 4 times a year and while (so far that is) it is not for long periods of time, it is a pain in the butt. I have seen brand new "old looking" deep well pumps and one that is a new stainless steel pump and well the newer looking one is about 1/2 the price of the old fashioned looking one but the older looking one is just so in keeping with our 100+year old house. So now I have been asking everyone. Some folks thought that I was :nuts: to even think about it bu then the recent power outages in just the windy weather had them telling me that it might be a good thing to have a hand well pump in the neighborhood! I thought about telling them to "go buy one themselves!" But, I was nice instead.. ETA:by the way the well is only 116feet down so it is not too deep but deep enuf for the little cheaper pumps not to work.
Hand pump Hand Water Pumps - Baker Manufacturing Company Had to dig in the archives to find this...I'm using the 12HD force pump which will put water into the second story of the house if needed. The cylinder head is a brass 2" which will pass by the pitless adapter of the electric pump on the way down. That is the biggest I could get down there inside a 6" well casing. This head produces .16 gallons of water per 7.5" stoke. I installed this pump myself with a homemade steel pipe derrick assembled over the well head. The drop pipe is 1-1/4" galvanized steel. Pretty heavy once you get most of 200' screwed together and lowered into the well which requires a heavy duty hand pump head to suspend the whole deal.
