Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pumping water from pond

So this is not really a pond question per say, but I need to pump some water from the pond to other parts of the property.

Does anyone know how far these submersible pumps will pump?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wayne-1-6-HP-Submersible-Utility-Pump-TSC160/100067845

I use one to drain our pool at the house, but it's only connected to about 20 feet of hose to reach the alley. I'm needing to pump it about 400 feet at the farm.

The reason I ask is that under the specs it says it's discharge flow at 0 feet is rated at 950 GPH, but at 10 feet it's down to 760 GPH... at that rate of decline, it would seem that at about 50 feet there would be no more pressure. But doesn't sound logical.

Anyone ever use one of these to pump water hundreds of feet?

Is there a reason you are not considering a trash pump? Not a flip of the switch, but sure can give you volume. How often do you need to pump the water?

That is 10 ft of head or in other words height. Horizontal distance is not as much issue. In other words it is a low pressure pump. It looses efficiency quickly at increased pressures.

Trash pump is a good idea, but yeah the volume is too great. I don't need near that much water. will be pumped every few days.

Okay thanks for the info. So just to be clear, pumping it that distance (400 ft.) shouldn't be a problem since there is no vertical flow involved?

FWIW IMO Use the biggest hose that will fit. That will help keep back pressure to a minimum.

Yes, that is correct. A centrifugal type pump creates large flow at low or no back pressure but drops off in efficiency as back pressure increases. Two things can cause back pressure. Head height (how high up the water has to be pushed = about a half psi for each foot vertical or "head") and whatever resistance to flow the hose creates via friction of the water passing through the hose. Longer hose = more friction. Smaller hose = more friction (because water for a given gpm has to travel at a higher velocity in a smaller hose)

Smaller hose = higher velocity of water travel (compared to a larger hose) = higher back pressure resistance do to friction. So as Bill D points out, a larger hose will provide less friction. But it kind of depends on how much flow you are trying to push through the hose. If a lot, then hose diameter will make quite a bit of difference. If the flow rate is pretty low to begin with then there is not a lot of friction loss to begin with. So it depends.

If you are pumping it to some place that falls off again in elevation, you can run the hose down this slope and help the pump out by creating a partial siphon. In other words let the weight of the water going down hill at the end of the run help pull the water along and aid in the pumps efficiency.

Just some ideas.

I use a 1 HP shallow well 240V pump to push water all around our place for multiple uses; car washing, lawn watering, etc. It has a 25' head above the pond and pumps water several hundred feet. It it kicks on at 40 PSI off at 60 PSI. I haven't measured the actual gallon per minute output at the farthest point but fills a 5 gallon bucket very quickly. I use 1" mainline and then regular garden hose beyond that.

Go look at the Waynepumps.com site. That 10 foot reduction in flow is the discharge head, not the length of run. Mind you Snrub is right in that a high velocity run will be lossy and can be converted to head loss values. It says it can connect to a 3/4" garden hose- if you adapt to some 1" poly line, that would be better and cheaper.

All that said, if you have elevation changes like up over the dam and other contours, you could still end up with 10' of head. That 1/6 hp isn't much oomph.

It also says it sucks down to 1/8" from the bottom surface. Be mindful of giving it a clean surface to suck off of.