Water pump question.

years ago, I had a pump that was powered by my power drill.

Wolfcraft and Draper both do pump attachments for power drills. You would probably need something a little more effective for pumping out a basement though.

Colin Bignell

On Tuesday 11 February 2014 17:57 snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in uk.d-i-y:

You used to be able to buy "drill pumps" for exactly this purpose (ad- hoc small scale pumping operations).

However, if your house was flooded, you would want something a bit bigger!

Yes. You can buy pumps that attach to a power drill - they sell them in Adli/Lidl from time to time along with right angled drill chucks.

The drill may not survive if you get it wet or run it for too long.

Anyone know any web sites that like show teach you pump hydraulics for dummies?

I suppose you could try a large auger in the drill chuck and sleeve the auger with a length of snugly fitting pipe to form an archimedes screw. Could get a bit messy, though if you don't have a speed control on the drill!

Axminster sell a very basic one - it does work but the flow rate is not spectacular! However, I needed something in a hurry, all sources of better pumps were closed or sold out or far too expensive, and it was cheap. Connected it to my Lidl SDS using a chuck, strapped the pump and the SDS to a piece of 2" by 1" and left it running for hours.

:) I wouldnt be surprised if a bog standard router bit inside pipe + output port did the job.

NT

You could use the auger to drill a suitable hole through a block of wood or plastic, rather than look for a tube that fits. Not sure how much water it would shift though.

Colin Bignell

In an emergency, why not "borrow" your central heating pump - decent flow, continuously rated, etc.

SteveW

I had drill pumps for using with my hosepipe for some years from a water butt. Only issue was that there is always a slight risk of the hose coming off and water going on the electrics. I used to clamp the drill to a chair and then it would not start moving about, and I'd always lock the trigger and switch via the socket just in case! Brian

Next time you scrap a washing machine or dishwasher, salvage the waste water pump. It will shift far more water than one of the drill-driven types. This assumes you are competent to insulate the mains connections safely for use in a wet environment, and/or have earth leakage protection. As with the "drill" pump it will probably need priming, but once pumping can be located a few feet above the water level. I suspect that a dishwasher "circulating" pump will deliver more.

For more serious work, cheap chinese petrol driven pumps are fine. For some reason, two inch bore seems to be cheaper than 1 inch. I use one of these to pump water from a spring to storage tanks for my horses. It delivers about 1500 litres of water an hour through 80 metres of 1 inch pipe.

If you need to pump water containing significant amounts of debris, look for "trash pumps" in eBay, Machine Mart or similar. My more basic one copes with the silt level in spring water.

In message , Nightjar writes

And would your power drill stand up to such a long period of continuous running?

Some wimpy DIY drills might not, but I would expect any decent industrial power drill to do so.

Colin Bignell

A Newcomen steam engine would probably do the job if you have one lying around!

You can always have a look in your local Pound shop. I spotted them in our local Pound Shop last year and 'took a punt'. They don't shift an awful lot of water considering the motive power being expended by the 'prime mover', aka electric drill.

If you have much more than about 20 or 30 gallons to shift, there's a real risk of burning out the electric drill if you forget to pace the job to save the drill.

At a pound each, they're worth having to hand for occasional use otherwise invest in a proper pump (or adapt a washing machine pump to your purpose - raid the local skip's "white goods" section if you can (I'd imagine a dishwasher pump would be even better but I haven't actually tried one).

The problem with washing machine and dishwasher pumps is they aren't self priming by design so it can be a bit fiddly to get them to pump (and you need to place the pump and its electrical connections frighteningly close to the water).

I remember repurposing a washing machine pump about quarter of a century ago to pump out the basement during a protracted season of very heavy rainfall. It turned out to be our sewer connection backing up from the common point used by the adjoining semi detached property due to the neighbour's use of disposable nappies.

I guess the joints in the almost 90 year old pipework had become a little leaky by then since I was able to rod the full length to the P trap at the bottom of our drive with no evidence of broken earthenware.

Once I'd rodded the P trap where the two pipes joined and cleared the blockage, we never suffered any more flooding in the basement (at its worst, only half an inch or so - not a major problem, just a damn, smelly, nuisance).

You can buy such a thing but they are puny. If you're stuck, you may have better one in your garden pond (fountain/waterfall) more suitable.

Pfft that's a modern one. If ever you're over here

Andy

Pfft that's only 200 years old. Ours is 300 years old, carefully restored, from one bolt!