pump and circumstance

[david thorpe]

I've 2 large fuel tanks holding 1500 litres each in a house I've just bought. Pic at

They're not joined so I'll need to transer from the right hand one to the left hand one when it gets low.

Does anyone know what kind of pump and setup I'd need for this? The tansk are about 2 mteres tall. If poosible I'd like to pump water up from my well at about 2 metres depth as well.

Could one pump do both of these things? I'm getting a lot of conflicting advice from vendors at the moment and I don't want to spend moe than I have to. Electricity is available nearby.

[Grunff]

That seems like a long way round - why not join the two outlets?

If you really need to pump, then one of these is what you need:

No!

Really?? Someone said you could use the same pump for fuel and drinking water?

We use one of these with our well:

and it's very effective.

[BigWallop]

It would be easy to join both tanks together with a couple of tank connectors and short piece of 22 mm copper pipe. One at the top and one at the bottom would allow the tanks to fill and empty together without having to manually swap the outlet pipes around.

?ts=58966&id=17810There are submersible lifter pumps on at reasonable prices. Might be a good place to start.

[nthng2snet]

This is a genuine suggestion and exuse me for being daft but can u not just drill low down into each drum and connect a suitable sized pipe linking the both s they are on the same level ? I think this would effectively make the two drums behave like one large drum. If this is wrong just ignore me.

[nthng2snet]

This is a genuine suggestion and exuse me for being daft but can u not just drill low down into each drum and connect a suitable sized pipe linking the both s they are on the same level ? I think this would effectively make the two drums behave like one large drum. If this is wrong just ignore me.

[Grunff]

Yes, you could join them up, but my point is that they will each have an outlet anyway, so all you need to do is join the outlets together in a T.

[nthng2snet]

Does each drum have an outlet low enough to join them effectively or are they just drum like containers?

[nthng2snet]

Does each drum have an outlet low enough to join them effectively or are they just drum like containers?

[Mike]

As these are fuel tanks I'm not sure it's legal. As farms have lots of fuel tanks around we get all sorts of stuff on this through the letterbox and I seem to recall one saying that existing installations can remain for now but if you are changing or modifying it, it must be brought up to the appropriate current legislation - which often means bunding.

But as a minimum, I'd use a proper tank connector with integral tap at each end just in case anything does ever leak.

[timfy]

The first nomination for "subject line of the year award" goes to......

[Cicero]

============== As these tanks are about 5' high X 1'6" diameter with an narrow neck (6" approx) it might not be possible to fit conventional tank connectors close to the bottom of the tanks. It might be easier to fit a pickup pipe to each tank joined at the top by a T-piece - possibly with a tap to each so that fuel can be drawn from one tank at a time.

Cic.

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

Good idea batman!

[Brian Sharrock]

"david thorpe" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

After looking at the URL cited; I 'see' two adjacent lerge plastic containers - rather than an installation. Assuming that you don't want to empty both containers - to fit tank-connectors to each- btw; how do you extract fuel from either container? To transfer a liquid from a full container to an empty container one can just utilise the power of a syphon. A tube pushed to near the the bottom of the full container will have the atmoshere above the surface push the liquid through the tube into the empty container - at least until the levels are matched. Syphons _do_ have to 'be started', one can suck but that's likely to earn a mouthful of fuel; but one can purchase 'jiggle -pumps' from Yacht Chandlers which are a plastic concertina plastic 'thingy' - all the ones I've encountered have green plastic - with a number of flaps-valves in them. They're usually sold with a long pipe (about 18 inchs) and a short pipe (about 3 inches) [Yachtsfolk use the jiggle pumps for 'odd' fluid collection ). In operation one end is submerged - the concertina 'thingy' is squeezed repeatedly until it fills with the liquid then once fluid is observed to be flowing one waits while the atmosphere pushes the higher fluid to the lower. They work very well with extended tubing pushed onto the supplied fittings - remember it's the difference in head that's doing the work -all you're providing is the initial priming of the circuit-path. Jiggle pumps and narrow bore plastic piping are 'pocket money' prices, they're in the 'while we're here lets buy another jiggle pump' category.

I'm assuming this is a question unconnected to the fuel one?

[Pete C]

Hi,

- Is a slow transfer OK?

- Suitable small hose between the two tanks to form a siphon

- Fit a tap in the middle to control flow

- Short 'cap' of larger dia hose/tube at each end to maintain siphon when tank empties: | | | | || | | || | | | | ------

cheers, Pete.

[david thorpe]

No, they have no low outlets and are simply drum like containers. There are two metal pipes that enter the left hand tank through the furthest from the door screw top which carry the oil to the boiler - don't ask me how!

The problem with joining them low down is, first I'd worry about leaks and second that since all my hot water and heating comes from the fuel, I'd have to run them right down to empty and then wait for a delivery after I'd joined them.

I'd prefer not to do this if I can avoid it.

David

[david thorpe]

That's a correct assumption

David

[david thorpe]

No, the well's not for drinking water.

[Harry Bloomfield]

david thorpe presented the following explanation :

A cheap sump pump would cope with the water, but there is a limit to how deep they would be able to pump out to.

For the fuel, assuming you just want to do this once, you might consider one of those cheap pumps which fit into an electric drill chuck.

[MatSav]

You'll need a water extraction licence. Contact your regional Environment Agency office.

[Grunff]

Erm, first I've heard of it! And I don't think any of our neighbours with wells will have heard of it either.