RAM pump

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, alo snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com writes

No. Do you have a source of flowing water?

Yes.

Squillions of YouTube videos on how to build one. Start there...

Tim

Youtube is your friend. Many examples of a DIY RAM pump

Examples - the first link uses a palstic coke bottle

I got one working with standard plumbing bits, but it was never reliable because I didn't have enough head of water. Only about 25cm! Did multiply head by about 8 when if was working, but settings were too critical to be reliable. Can't remember the details but I got the broad details from some Dutch academic's article on the web. I suspect if you've got at least a metre or so head of water it'll work ok.

More important, do you have a decent head of water? Flowing water on its own is not sufficient.

Perhaps a starting point would be find a domestic tap that was changed becasue it produced water-hammer noises/vibration. Near me a foundry that made them

The Tan Hill pub (highest pub in England) on County Durham border, had one tap-tapping away continuously for 100 years "pumping" water 1000 ft uphill, but only about half a bucket of beck water a day got to the pub, not due to leaks but the process is ultimately not very effective.

You have to run a lot of water through the pump at fairly low pressure, limited by the size of the pump and pipes, to get only a little high pressure water out. This is due to conservation of energy.

I have, what would you like to know?

AMI. this was the article:

Thanks...

Were the parts hard to source (here in the UK) and were they expensive?

Does it work to your satisfaction ? Any pictures of your pump?

(Previous responses to the question have been great... and Google/YouTube videos interesting. Especially the ones that Google had not thrown up on my first search.

That depends on what type of pump you make. You can make them out of PVC pipe with brass check valves that you can buy off the shelf. Mine was made with galvanised pipes with secondary check valve an off-the-shelf brass one, and a waste valve I made myself from a two-inch galvanised tee.

There are many variations, all with different levels of performance. What type you need, and the size, would depend on the head of water you have and how high/far you want to pump.

I don't have any pictures of mine. A good idea of how to build basic ones from PVC can be seen on videos by someone called 'Land House Farm'. He also sells them.