Temporary electricity supply.

[Colin Bignell]

Imperial of course, and we used real money in those days too, not this decimal stuff.

[Colin Bignell]

Not the minimum cost approach her children seem to favour though.

[Colin Bignell]

The insurers are paying for the plumbers.

[Colin Bignell]

AIUI, the water companies in soft water areas add an inhibitor.

[Paul]

The pump is one thing.

But decent hose is the other. I was kinda shocked at how nice the rental hose was. For a decent hose, you could pay 7x for the hose needed (150 feet), compared to the cost of the cheesy pump.

When I got the rental pump and hose, the hose was suction compatible (won't collapse under suction). And that hose design allows the pump to run at closer to its rating.

The one thing I didn't get with the pump, was any extra fittings. To pump water out of a yard, I needed a 90 degree angle fitting, with (some sort of) standard fitting on the end. I went to the Pump House (commercial) and they gave me one for free (as they had a stock of junk). With the ninety degree, that prevented the hose from getting kinked. If pumping a basement, with a hose that rigid, a 90 degree fitting might still be needed.

For home usage, I have inadequate hose ("lay flat" non-suction hose), which requires extra pumping time. Turning a two hour job into a day long job.

Pumps with impellers, have to sit closer to what you want to pump. Partially submersed (or for a good pump, totally submersed and by a significant number of feet). For $500, you can get a cast iron pump, just toss it into the water and ignore it, it's that robust. But many other home pumps, you need to be more careful with them, to not ruin them on the first go.

Suction pumps with a piston, if I bought and paid for one of those, I'd be careful about what kind of water I'd feed it, to protect the piston. A piston pump could sit at grade, and a suction line run down into the water.

Pumps have a max inlet operating temp, and a pH range, but this isn't usually an issue for a basement thing. The little pumps rely on the flow of water around the pump jacket for cooling. If the pump burns 500W, and the motor is decently efficient, there's still a good amount of waste heat. Pumping cool water is what it wants to do.

The motor on some pumps are oil cooled. Oil held in the motor winding area, acts as a thermal bridge to the internal jacket, so the passing water can carry away the heat. The very first pump I bought, the pump had been stored on its side in the hardware store, and all the oil had run out. (This risks destroying the motor on your very first usage, as the motor will overheat without the internal oil fill.) The Pump House had a bottle of oil suited for the job, and I refilled the pump jacket before usage. If the cardboard box a pump comes in, is soaked in oil, you've got a problem.

For home hoses, you clean them after using them, so they won't stink on storage. One of the reasons I don't use the

2" line very often, is the cleaning and rolling procedure is a back-breaker. If you had an assistant, it would be not nearly as bad.

There are *many* advantages to renting :-) For a once in a lifetime burst pipe, you don't need to own the stuff. What *owning* the items does for you, is in times of overland flooding, you might have something you can use, when the rental is "all out".

Paul

[John Walliker]

Submersible pumps are so cheap that it could just be thrown away when the job is done. Something like this should be enough and would cost less to buy than the rental of anything.

are lots of cheap alternatives, some of which have higher power. However, speed doesn't really matter if it can be left running all day. John

[lacksey]

But they all die if left running with no more water to pump.

[RJH]

Eh? The ones I've had have a float that cuts the motor out when the water level drops below a certain level.

[John Walliker]

Yes, the one I linked to has a float switch and a thermal cutout. Almost all of them do. It will also cope with solids up to 30mm diameter.

John

[RJH]

FWIW, I had a similar pump (tried 2, actually) to deal with washing machine waste. Both failed after a few months, seemingly damaged by whatever washing powder etc. does.

Replaced them with a Grundfos (rated to deal with a boil wash - the only one I could find that would) which is an absolute brute. It empties the machine in a few seconds. Got stuck once a few years back but a boot fixed it, and been running fine for about 10 years at a wash a week, pumped from a cellar. Cost about £200 mind.

[Paul]

I suppose it depends on the situation.

Normally, in a flooding situation, most of the parties want "action right now". And that's the benefit of rental. And the rental stuff I got, was better than anything I would ever own myself.

It's because I could start pumping almost immediately, that I avoided a big mess. Some floor finish lifted in the basement, from water ingress, but it wasn't enough water for any fancy "recovery" process. (This was water in the back yard, threatening to run into the basement via basement window sill.)

The thing about pumping out a basement, is once the water level drops, things will start to stink, and you immediately have to start transporting materials out of the basement to some other area. If the walls are finished, the cladding has to come off, or... whatever.

The pumping bit, is just a small part of the adventure. It's the easy part.

Paul

[John Walliker]

True enough, but at least this is clean water (or it was when it entered the cellar).

John

[Dave Plowman (News]

Oddly, was chatting to another old neighbour who lives across the road and wanted chapter and verse on what was going on. She is in her eighties too

- and taking the sun outdoors in the front garden. Got her electric story

- about how they had had three earth rods fitted. Amazing what some old ladies are interested in.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Not sure, but think they're only going to pay to have it pumped out, not repaired.

Given the time they've taken it will likely have dried out all on it's own. If the original very rough concrete floor. Mine used to let water in via the coal hole - but it soon dried up.

[Andrew]

No problem with electric cutting out, because there isn't any, it's been disconnected :-)

[ARW]

:-)

I was 6 months old on Decimal Day.

I also bought Bill Wright a 1st edition copy of Aerial Handbook by G.A.Briggs that was published in 1964 - just in case he needed any help.

[Andrew]

In my 2nd edition there is a slip of paper from Rank Wharfedale showing their book prices.

Aerial Handbook (semi-stiff) 75p (95p post paid) Ditto (cloth bound) £1.13 (£1.43 post paid).

So you splashed out :-)

[Animal]

I just found a gardening book that cost 1/6, 7.5p in modern money.

[John J]

This story has rumbled on and on. Surely it would have been simple to beg, borrow, hire or even buy a cheap submersible pump and a roll of layflat or better hose from ebay and simply pump the cellar out already using an extension lead from next door? Once empty the remaining problems could be addressed in a timely and sensible manner. We are supposed to be a d-i-y group after all.

[Colin Bignell]

I have an HMSO 1943 publication on Britain's air defences that cost half that. I also remember petrol at 2/6d a gallon, about 2.75p/litre.