DIY Pumps

Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank Brian White (gaiatechnician) for contributing this story, which originally appeared in "Brian's sustainable devellopment group".

My first thought about pumping occurred while I did temporary work at the Agricultural Institute in Carlow, Ireland in 1983. I was distilling hexane for GLC analysis in the Pesticides Department. Watching air bubbles being transported round the glassware and tubes in the cooling water made me realise that air could be used to transfer energy.

My First Pump

The picture shows my device for producing suction.

Single-Stage and Multi-Stage Vacuum Pumps

To produce more suction in one stage, I also constructed larger versions with 3-in. diameter pipes that were 6 or 8 ft. high. My technical abilities were not great, however, and I found that my device leaked a little air at the joints. This pump had a good initial run, but was not a great success.

By using a second part, I was able use suction to bring water in a series of stages into a barrel to water my garden. It looked something like the picture below, but with 7 stages to pump water up to 6-feet high. I never constructed large versions of this stage, however, because it needs containers made from strong materials.

Pulser Pumps

In the process of constructing one of these larger devices, I discovered the pulser effect. My first working pulser-pump was made in late 1986, I think. I broke my ankle at work and had to stay home for a couple of months. One of my brothers helped me dig a little deep spot in the stream for the pipe. This pump brought water down a 3-inch diameter pipe to a chamber where the air separated out. It went just 2-ft. deep, but pumped faster that the complicated vacuum pump with 7 pumping chambers and 14 or 15 jars.

It was tough hopping around on crutches doing the experimenting!

My next project was a 6-ft. deep pulser pump with 4-in. pipes. I buried two 50-gallon plastic barrels (one on top of each other) to make a 2.5-ft. wide pipe down into the ground beside the river. I diverted some of the stream through pipes to this, and let the outflow return to the stream.

To see what was best for pumping, I could drop different pipes and pipe joiners, and cut up bottom separation container combinations down to near the bottom. This was also useful because I could accurately measure the real flow of the stream into large containers, and thus measure the exact flow of water when I did experiments.

My device pumped water to cattle, about 15-ft. vertically higher up than the stream. At that time, I was doing a product development course, and Dr. Norman Mcmillan of Carlow Regional Technical College impressed on me that I must have accurate results to prove anything.

People came to a measuring station on my Da's land to measure water flow in the Slaney River every couple of weeks. They found the pump interesting, and gave me details in a booklet about how to construct 90-degree v. notches to measure the flow in streams with real accuracy. This I did!

Another Pump

I also discovered that it's the deeper the better with the results, so I built another pump. That's the young me at the bottom, climbing the ladder and carrying up dirt.

That's also one of the stupidest things I have ever done - that deep, narrow hole could easily have killed me. But I then installed the pipes and that pump has lasted for 18 years!

Then I installed the pipes and that pump has lasted for 18 years!

This really surprised me! For 18 years, that 5-gallon plastic can has survived while buried way down there!

Airlift Pumps and Tromps

Later, I heard about airlift pumps and tromps, and I researched some information about them. My pump is a combination airlift-pump and tromps. Airlift pumps are used widely. Tromps are not used anymore. At one time, they were used to ventilate mines and operate pneumatic machinery for digging tunnels, and to pump air for blast furnaces. But then hydroelectricity killed them off. The old tromps were huge! Nobody seems to have used little tromps like the ones I made.

My device pumps water about 4-m high for cattle, and 5 to 6 meters high for sheep in different sheds. It works as long as water flows in the stream. Occasionally, the aboveground pipes have frozen in really cold weather. It has no moving parts and is independent of the power supply - which can be important.

Click here to see the Pump working in 2007!

I have tried to get mainstream science interested in my pump since the year 2000. I think it can greatly help anybody who is poor and lives by a river or stream. My experiments were conducted in a little stream with 200 to 500 liters per minute of flow, and a half-meter head for powering the thing. It is probable that it would be much better (and more efficient) on larger stream with larger head, but I don't know if anyone has ever tried it.

Editor's Note: Do you have a DIY story to share with CR4? If so, please message Moose or frankd20. We'd like to hear from you!