If you don’t want to buy all the individual pieces for your own ram pump like we did, you can buy an already assembled pump on Amazon with the link below www.amazon.com/shop/hometownacres
When I built my first ram pump (about 20 years ago) I used a small pressurized pump tank with a bladder. It made the pump cycle about three times faster and thus pumped more water.
Show a diagram or working model please sir. What I'd really like to know though is can you turn your existing well into an electric free well thus becoming energy independent
I was thinking that I would have run more pipe or a larger pipe through the trench before it was covered up also. That way more pumps could be used to get more water into the pond.
I clicked on this randomly because I'd never heard of a ram pump. Thank you for the video. I cant say how much of your content I'll watch, but if its this interesting it will be a lot! I've liked and subscribed.
Hi Adam, great video. I have a smaller ram pump, 1/2”, I use to irrigate my garden with. I fill a 55 gallon drum that then overflows back to the stream. I use a battery powered automatic ball valve to supply my drip irrigation. Unfortunately my little creek won’t support a larger pump, but it still works. I initially I built a 1” drive/1/2” out pump that works in the spring, but I don’t have enough water flow in the summer to run it. You were correct about the air in your driveline when you started. Also no discharge back pressure will effect it. You can throttle closed on the discharge valve until the line is filled. Then open up the discharge valve. Mine is all plastic accept for the swing check. Also I have my check valves swapped from your positions. I didn’t have to modify the spring check valve to make it work. After four summers, I’ve just have to replace the swing check valve every year. I’ve never checked my flow, but it’s a pencil stream. My issue is that I’m only lifting the water about 10’. So for it to work properly, I have to keep the discharge valve throttled. In my driveline, I put a bucket as a silt trap in addition to the intake screen. I put the water in bucket about 2/3rds of up the side of the bucket. Then tapped off the side of the bucket at the top to feed the pump. If we get heavy rain it usually stops the pump. I just dump the bucket over to empty it. Then just let it refill the bucket, reprime/restart the pump, and it’s off and running. After the initial investment, mine has been pretty cheap to keep going. I just pull it and and pipe for the winter. I drain it and hang it on the shed wall. Also to fasten it in the creek, I drove a tee post in the ground. I then bought large hose clamps and fasted the pump to the tee post. Great video and explanations. I’m glad this works for you. Have a good day!
I was about to mention the same thing. Or just extent the hose so that it lays flat on the ground instead of pouring out and falling. I’ve seen this exact scenario with an overflow pipe causing a pond dam to wash out losing all the water. Then costing thousands of dollars to repair. No his isn’t going to effect the dam, but it can still cut a deep hole and channel that could get below the clay layer or hit fractured rock resulting in a leaking pond.
That's cool these things have been around for a long time. My parents bought a farm in so. indiana in the 60's it had a big spring and the neighbor used those pumps to pump up to his house uphill all the way about 300 feet. He called them ramjets and had about 5 or 6 of them they were made of cast iron and had a check valve made of brass. I wish I had one of those old ones just for memories.
Nice video. Setting it up so that the outflow pipe is continuous from the pump to the pond should work fine and increase the flow a bit. I don't think that you will get a siphon condition anyway because the flow isn't enough to fill the outflow pipe. My Dad first encountered a hydraulic ram pump in 1929 when he was a kid at Boy Scout camp. He was fascinated by it so then he researched about them. He taught me about them in the 1950s and then I learned again in the 1970s from Mother Earth News Magazine. Adding a little more weight to the overflow check valve should increase the flow. Good Luck, Rick
These old school science really are needed, and water is such a powerful resource, it can really be incredibly useful, imagine you have a stronger flow of water (maybe use damming), you can make yourself a hydro electric plant, I’ve seen small designs generate 1Kw power 24/7 and it’s free and environmentally friendly.
We drained our pond in July. It's been quite the journey. We've got like 5 springs running into it, so that even during a drought-like season, our problem was the muck. We syphoned then pumped for weeks as we also cleaned out lily pads, lilies, and tons of mud. We finally got it fixed up enough for us and it's been filling about three weeks. I've been following your journey. Thanks so much for sharing.
It's a lot of work, but cleaning out a pond like that is so rewarding. Ours would halfway disappear behind cattails and murk. after cleaning it all out and letting it fill again I had to keep reminding myself that we had not made it any bigger, we had just become so used to seeing less of it!
I'm thinking your outlet pipe to the pond could easily handle double it's current flow, maybe a little more. Put 2 or 3 more ram pumps feeding the IBC tote, an overflow pipe that returns water to the creek (basically just dump it out a few feet away), and with the head pressure from the IBC tote, you'd easily be more than doubling your flow, and only for the cost of 2 or 3 more ram pump assemblies. The siphon idea a couple people have mentioned is also intriguing, and pretty easy to test without disassembling much of the current set up at the IBC tote.
An inexpensive option and certainly worth a look at adding more pumps. As for the siphoning effect, worth a test but my guess is that it would be detrimental to the operation of the ram pump as it would fight the incoming nonreturn valve.
you require one feed line for every pump, the longer the better, for the hydraulic ram to appen in a controlled way. Also if you add more pumps you require more water, but the stream was already near capacity
I’ve also been fascinated by the ram pump and how it works. I think I first read about it in “Mother Earth News” over 40 years ago! Very nice video Adam. - Dick
Over time the ram pump can cause cracks in your connections due to the harsh stop/start of the ram. We found that swapping to a bunyip pump (made in Australia) that the water flow was a lot more progressive, and less harsh on the pipe and connectors.
@@frosthoe sure, you could do this. But then it's starting to over complicate a pump that by design is simple. This is the pump that I am referring to. It actually catches the fall before bottoming out, so you don't get that hammer: ua-cam.com/users/shortsCLXalUmRikg?feature=share
I must say that your ram pump probably pumps more water than any ram pump that I have ever seen. 1 gallon in 45 seconds is pretty amazing. Great job. 👍🏅👏👏👏
Adam… that’ll work! These pumps always fascinate me… it’s almost like discovering a perpetual motion machine… all of the energy is, gathered, channeled, and converted in that self contained air bubble!!! Nicely done bud.
This is a perpetual motion machine that runs on over unity created by the water hammer effect. But since over unity is impossible as scientists claim, it must be the water pumping gods that are really pumping the water.
Cool, yes great service in the smaller local suppliers, great job too, and you could use the output in that tank to run a small water wheel to generate power too!
I have looked into doing this and would really like to see a breakdown of the parts and the actual build. You are by far, very detailed with your videos, and I am sure many viewers would appreciate it. Great video as always. Thank you.
You might be able to improve performance by building a tiny weir at the intake for the rampump to ensure good water availablity. Additionally, as others have said, you can add additional ram pumps to increase flow to the tote.
I played around with ram pumps also. In my experience you will get more pressure if you use the flap valve for the waste and the spring check valve on the route to the pressure tank. So swapping the two valves. (with the spring mounted) I got 20m of lift with 1 m of drop in the feedline. Also using metal pipe for the last few meters in your feeding pipe will make a big difference. About the siphon, if you put your tank which is now on the highest point, about 5 m lower (this will create a 0.5 bar underpressure), you will have less counterpressure and therefore more flow. It might collapse your pipe though as you create a vacuum in the pipe, also the pipe should end under water in your buffer tank to avoid breaking the vacuum. With all these possible problems maybe not worth the trouble.
You mentioned the bottom of the creek is 30' below the bank, and it appears the pond is more than 30' below the bank, and you mentioned you were worried about the pond pipe creating a siphon if you connected it directly to the the discharge pipe. The light should have come on in your head at that moment. If the elevation of the pond is lower than the creek bed, simply create a small weir in the creek and siphon the water over the bank. no ram pump needed, and you will increase the flow :)
There is a limit to how high you can lift water with a siphon which is around 30 feet at sea level and it's reduced a little in higher elevations. If his estimate is right then he would probably have a hard time unless he moved is intake pipe a ways upstream. That being said, I think his flow would only be improved connecting the pipes directly and deleting the plastic tank.
Even if the siphon didn't work the tank further down the hill would lower the pumps head and increase the flow. I'm sure the siphon would work without the pump the inlet a bit up stream to keep the max lift to below 9.8m.
I was thinking the same thing. Get rid of the ram pump altogether and connect the two pipes together, and add a valve at the pond end. Use one of those inexpensive power tool battery powered pumps at the pond to prime it, then once the pipe is full stop tbe pump and close the valve. Remove the pump, open the valve, and let gravity do the rest.
Because you can only lift (pull) water 30 feet with a siphon, and that is "theoretical lift", actual lift is probably lower, but it couldn't hurt to try.
Fantastic ingenuity Adam! I appreciate all the thought you put into making your home more self sufficient, and I didn't even know something like this was an option. One of the channels I subscribe to is Life Uncontained and I can't help but think they could be well served (no pun intended) with something like this for their water storage needs in TX. 1.3GPH for 10,000 gallons of storage could be gamechanging. Thanks for all you do and show us, and Godspeed. Ira
A simple tee fitting at the top of the hill would negate the need for the tote, as it would break the siphon. Also, try reinstalling the spring in the check valve now that the air is out of the line.
Using a larger pump on the discharge side would help deliver more water..Smaller pump cause friction which requires more pressure to get the same volume. Using a larger pump lowers the required pressure, and help it deliver more with less work..
That was cool to see. I have heard of a ram pump before but never knew what one was. The video makes all that hard ditch work look easy but that was a LOT of shovel work. One good thing is you know what you did now. If you see you would like to double your output, you could always run a second pump into your IBC. I assume the single line out to the pond would handle twice the volume coming from your IBC.
Super cool system you came up with Adam....never heard of one like that, but definitely going to look into doing the exact same thing on my property. FYI you should be able to get replacement valve components for your IBC tote from the hardware store and that will allow you to avoid another hole in the tank.....just run the line from the bottom valve out to your pond!
nice work Adam, not sure if you have a need or if your creek runs fast enough but I saw a great video from Marty T channel in new Zealand, he converted a washing machine into a generator to power his house. Looking forward to seeing more on your house build, and the differences in construction methods you guys use up there compared to us.
Seems like a good way to harvest a little water without negatively impacting the creek. A solar run low flow pump emptying into the IBC tote might also be worth considering. I reckon a couple of years to fill the pond, couple more for fine clay sediment to seal it up, so 5-10 years and you'll have a pond/dam that will be enjoyed for decades or more.
Re. your comment about the need for a tank at the top of the high ground, rather than a continuous run of pipe; from what I've read about other people's installations, it's essential that the ram has back pressure to work against on the delivery side. This is so vital that one man found his ram was reluctant to get going until he poured a few gallons of water down the delivery pipe from his header tank - once he did that, the ram took off, cycling a treat. There's a company in England that's been making hydraulic rams for nearly 150 years, and some of the first ones they made are still in place, and *still* working to this day! Also, it strikes me that when you get a spell of rainy weather, and the flow rate in the creek increases, that will also increase the output from your ram. Depending on how much rain you get where you live (in this part of England, we get around 4 -5 feet a year!), you may end up getting close to the nominal 700,000 gallons per year which you calculated from the flow rate you're getting now. Nice work, mate!
Interesting ram pump application. It was a good description of the way they work and will certainly be helpful to many. Having said that, I can’t understand why you are not using the siphon effect of the pond being below your creek. The ram pump could prime it and you could connect the two lines at the tank after you have good flow… you wouldn’t hurt the ram pump but the more superior siphon effect would make it unneeded until the next time you need to prime the lines.
Remove the ibc and run the pipe all the way, that will reduce your effective head and the ram will pump faster. More water. If it siphons and stops the pump then put a valve on the hammer check valve,so once running you can syphon all the way.
Ram pumps work fine, but slowly, and there are a few fine points to using them. One is the vent check can have a line running off to the side to keep a puddle out of your work area, but don't run it up hill because it will stop the flow. The filter sock you make is find for a few minutes, but you probably need one about five feet long. The other very helpful info is you should start with a 4" inlet, for the first 10 feet under the creek flow, the first five feet can be drilled and a sock put over the inlet all the way up over all of the holes, this can be held on with a band clamp. Before the 4" pipe elbows up add a 4x3 reducer, run a few feet of 3" then use a 45° elbow not a 90°, because each 90will have a 15% loss of flow. Reduce from the 3 to your supply line fitting and this contraption will give you a stronger flow. Where a lot of rise is needed, the trick is to build a series of thousand gallon ponds or tanks, run out of that into a second ramp pump, etc., until you get to the top. As long as the inlets don't clog or freeze, they will flow flow 24/7 and have little maintenance.
big RAM pump move lot water and fast, i used 200 gallon barrel to ram pump reserve and 4inch tube has fast move water big grown field one day has full water. about 10 agre size
Nicely done Adam. The accumulator will get water-logged with time (air disappears by disolving in the water) . To prevent this , fit a 'snifter' valve. It introduces a small amount of air per cycle to keep the accumulator fully charged. Cheers.
In theory if you manage to make a perfect syphon on the pipe going to the lake, whitout bubbles, it will reduce the head pressure required for the pump and increase flow. You can tune your valve frequency by adding weights to it using a junction nut
using a second pressure vessel after the apex with a height taller than the apex is what would be needed to maintain the syphon from the ram pump. The ram pump becomes the priming method for the siphon as you know, the second pressure vessel is really an anti air gap vessel. You'll need to put a valve to allow air to escape for priming and then close the valve once the second vessel is full. Probably a good place for a simple air bleed valve so you don't have to maintain manually bleeding it.
I'm pretty sure running the ram pump directly into a syphon would work perfectly. In effect you'd then have a self priming syphon - and your flow would be much better (once the air was purged all the way down to the pond). If you don't think it would work... test it. It would take half an hour to temporarily bypass the storage tank to confirm whether it would work as a syphon. All this is assuming the pond is lower than the water source.
Just make sure to put a check valve in line to prevent a broken hose down at the ram pump on the pond side causing a reverse siphon where your whole pond gets emptied into the creek. Or as has been suggested just put a tee in at the highest point with a short length of vertical open ended pipe to break the siphon and use a second or third pump to increase the water flow if needed. A reverse siphon event would be very bad and may not be noticed until the pond was emptied or at least emptied down to the level of the submerged pipe.
@@jaseastroboy9240 I'm pretty sure a ram pump is based on a check valve - so an additional one should not be needed. And breaking the syphon is exactly the opposite of what I'm suggesting - as, once the ram pump has primed the syphon, it would be better/quicker than the ram pump. But I'm not a smart man.
@@dav1dsm1th I think i just did a bad job of describing it. The check valve suggestion was for the pipe going from the top of the weir down to the pond. It isn't necessary for the operation of the setup, it is just a safety mechanism. If for example the hose from the output of the ram pump was a continuous line up over the weir and down to the pond then if the hose became detached at the output of the ram pump. By storm damage, sun damage, vandalism etc. Then depending on the relative heights you may get a siphon effect from the pond to the creek. The opposite of what is wanted and potentially able to empty the pond into the creek. A check valve could be added to prevent the reversal of the water flow, it would do nothing normally and would only close if the water flow reversed.If the pond is lower than the creek then this would not be an issue. If the creek is higher than the pond then a siphon would work better, especially if the pipe was cut into the weir a bit so that the "hump" that the water had to get over was less. I think somebody already mentioned that the excavator could probably cut a trench 10 feet deep from one side of the weir to the other, drop in the hose and then fill the trench back in. Basically the pipe would run through the weir 10 feet below the top of the weir. This should improve the siphon effect and the water flow rate. My suggestion of the vertical pipe at the top of the weir was to break the siphon as a way to ensure there was no chance of a reverse siphon effect. Not to improve the flow rate.
I spent 8 years as an irrigation technician, you might want to re dig up where you crossed the driveway put in 3" pvc then put your 1" line through the pvc, the pvc will be a sleeve and help from crushing/poking holes in your poly line
Dude, at least by the video appearance, your pond is way lower than your creekbed. Assuming the creekbank is not more than 30 feet above the creek bottom, a simple siphon should give you 10 times more volume. But, this is still very cool.
This is exactly how water utilities supply water. Potable water is pumped into elevated tanks, then gravity will distribute the water thru out the system.
It depends on if the height gain is more than 10 m, if it is, a siphon can't work because you can only suck up water 10 m (in perfect conditions) so the limit is likely to be less. You could try from the where the water is being taken from, but you still need to find a way to prime the siphon.
The ram pump could still be used to start and restart the siphon, if the siphon works at all. Just as a side note, there is a process that uses something similar to desalinate water and make it drinkable. When a siphon is higher than 33 feet, a vacuum forms at the top, but it not really a vacuum, it is low pressure water vapor. What condenses on the other side of said vacuum is pure distilled water. It's an almost energy free way of getting drinking water from the dirtiest of sources. P.S. Other than sheer stupidity by politicians, there is almost no reason this technique isn't used by most cities. The technology isn't that complicated, and there doesn't even need to be any moving parts.
I worked in a small hardware shop and it was like that all the time, customer asked and we sorted it out with them. Very satisfying work and it resulted in lots of returning customers.
The only calculation I haven't heard you make is what is the rate of evaporation on the open surface of the pond. I'm guessing it's a lot less than 1.33 gallons per minute generally. On extremely hot sunny windy days I'd love to know the worst amount that does occur. Thank you very much for going to all the trouble and videography of sharing this with all of us!
These pumps have been out for almost 100 years. We used in Alaska for our 3 cabins. I filled 50 gal water tanks with filters. So we could drink the water also. As long as you keep your water flowing your water won't freeze either. I ran overflows on the tanks and I used them for years.
Looks like you might have the solution there for your ponds water needs, but, as others have said, IF the elevation of the creek is high enough, there is no reason you couldn't or shouldn't just run a pipe directly from the creek. We don't know the elevational differences between the two. Ok, if you have a 30' wall between the two, you still might well get it done with a siphon, if you were able to upstream even a little. Keep it below 30' (10 meters at sea level) and you should be fine. I've dealt with water for many years too. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people try to run a line between two systems and try to keep it "level so that there won't be air blockage. There is NO need to do that. Better for long distance running of water to NOT be "level". Run it DOWN from the source, and UP to the reservoir! then there will be little chance of a air barrier. Also you can put a valve at the bottom to drain the sediment if need be. The Ram pump is good, and a good solution if there is not much water. Another solution that many folks don't know about is the "high lifter" water pump. Again, no fuel, no electricity, almost no moving parts. It also uses the water pressure (gravity) to pump. With one of those you trade elevation for some use of water. you can pump using the head you have. If you have 10 foot of head, then you can pump 1/4 of that and (lose the rest into your creek) and you get 40' of head. Or, if you have to go higher, you can pump 1/9 and get 90 feet of head, (9 times the original head) There are advantages to each. There is less wear and tear on the system, and no "ram!" of the water, thus no "noise" (The rams do make a bit of noise that may or not bother you) The high lifters have a very good reputation, but I don't think you can easily build one yourself. Still they cost way less than a well, and they have a very long lifespan. IF you have a lot of water, (say 4 to10 times more than you need someplace) and you have head, then you can get pump water a very long distance with these. I've seen one that pumped the water over 1000 feet and an elevation from the pump of 200 feet. They had a creek with an elevational drop of 40' from where they drew the water to where they pumped it. I think they put the pump in 20 years or more ago and it is still pumping fine.... I don't have as much water, so I pipe to a holding tank and use a solar pump, (Lorentz) to pump mine up about 180 feet of head. But there are Chinese pumps that cost about 1/5th or less, and sound pretty good too.
You can eliminate the vertical check valve by putting another vertical tank like you have Downstream of your swing check valve you could just simply copy that in place of the first vertical check valve that you call the spring check valve you can eliminate that and just put in another bottle on top of it
Of course this will cost $$, but you can hire a backhoe or rent one and add a couple more ponds below outlet pipe, and connect them together with a shallow ditch. When one overflows, it goes into the next one downhill. The ditch will allow the water table to regenerate and benefit all the permaculture downhill. I would not run plastic pipe from the outlet, but cut in a 4 foot wide ditch down to the next pond. Great vid out now called water wizard of Oregon. Dan tipping will take you on a tour of his pond set up. He is good at explaining what a number of ponds can mean for your land and believe me it is all good news for you amigo.
What is the elevation difference between the creek and the pond? If the pond is lower, you may be able to create a syphon. This would eliminate the need for a pump. Great video and knowledge shared ✌🏽
Actually - the SYPHON effect - will increase the flow of water - such that the pond can still be well above the creek, just as long as there can be NO air entry between the pump (near the creek) and the pond outlet. The reason is totally simple. A syphon works by having a completely filled (with water in your case) pipeline between the inlet & outlet. NOTE: You will still need a way to fill that syphon pipe that's above either the inlet or the outlet. Simply tossing a pipe over a hill - with a new pipe full of air - syphons nothing if the pipe isn't filled with water before you attempt to syphone anything (you need it filled with water or any air in that pipe will be removing any syphon- effect) No pump means the outlet MUST be below the inlet. And some means has to be added to allow you to fully fill the outlet (downhill) pipe, as well as most if not all of the inlet pipe Adding any pump that (as we can see) can pump anywhere up to a 30 ft head - means that the outlet of the syphon pipe (at the pond) can easily be close to that 30ft = ABOVE the pump itself. You can only determine how close, by ensuring all the air is removed from both the inlet & outlet pipes, before testing the tolerances of that system. As soon as the pump pipe is connected to a syphon pipe (one running down the hill) any water throughput will increase
Total static head is the difference in elevation between the ram and the creek intake. It's what creates the velocity in the pipe that drives the ram. A siphon doesn't affect the total static head. More important is the diameter of the feed pipe which contributes to friction losses and robs the ram of its energy which it gets from the static head differential.
Good Job man. Hopefully rain and snow can help. Curious with your design, could you make it bigger? Bigger, pvc, wider hose? Time is always a factor. Non the less, awesome work! Liked and subscribed
Unless I am mistaken, I think he said the creek is lower than his pond, that's why he has to pump water uphill to the tote then from tote he can siphon water to the pond since pond is lower than the tote but not lower than the creek...that's my understanding, please correct me if I am wrong because I am learning. Thank you.
Several comments mentioned that the pond “looks” lower than the stream bed, so it could all be done by siphoning. However, if the pond is not lower, a partial siphon effect could still help if the reserve tank is eliminated. If the pipe stays continuous, it will have the effect of seeming to reduce the height that the pump needs to push the water. Once the water reaches the high point, where he put the open tank, it creates an air break. Instead, if the pipe continues unbroken downhill, than every foot that it drops will pull the water at least part way. If it only drops 10 feet, it will reduce the work the pump needs to push the water as though it was pumping 10 feet less to the high point. It will still need to pump to the full height, until the pipe is full, and the water starts to flow down the other side. However, if the downhill pipe doesn’t create a solid column of water, it will allow air to flow back up (from the pond side) and stop the siphon “assist” effect. It might help to use a smaller diameter pipe on the downhill leg to the pond. Depending on the amount of water flowing down, the water needs to block off air returning back up to the high point. Possibly a check valve at the pond end will stop air from going up the pipe, stopping the siphon effect. The reason a true siphon works is that the water on the downside weighs more than the water on the up side. The lower the outlet, the more difference in weight there is. But if air enters from the outlet, it will stop the siphon. If the down doesn’t weigh more than the up, it won’t siphon on its own, but will effectively reduce the pressure the pump needs to create, as though it was only pumping to the height difference to the pond. If it pumps 25’ up, then flows back down 15’, the pump only needs to lift 10’ (after initially filling the 25’ up)
my friend, it's a strange but actual fact that siphoning only works up to a specific pressure. I can't say what that pressure is or if that pressure would apply here. but I suggested this to the hydrology PhD that was installing my well and he says that the negative pressure will pull oxygen out of the water and generate an air pocket which will necessarily negate siphoning effect. I've been pumping water and building off grid water systems for over 30 years and my experience is you are correct, up to around 20-30 lbs negative pressure. good luck 👍
The problem is the ram pump itself need the pressure from the delivery pipe to work. If you siphon the water out (even partially) it will stop working.
@@sestun I disagree, if the ram has to push 30 ft up and siphon effect going down to the pond has a 15 ft drop down, the down pull of the 15 ft on the pond side would zero out 15 ft of the ram side having to be pushed up, leaving the pressure needed to the ram would have reduced load on the output side makingvit work to push the water only as high as the lowest point of the siphon outlet end or a head pressure equal to having it lift water only 15 ft rather than 30. For this to work,, the outlet side of pipe would need to be bled of all air, sealed, and it would have no need for an outlet check valve so long as the end stays submerged in the pond8s needed, so long as the end stays submerged in the pond no air could backtrack into the system causing a continuous reduced load so long as the pond outlet isn't lower than the creek bed it should actually work, and reduce the load needed to push the water the 30 ft elevation.
@@WeChallenge @WeChallenge I think you imagine that ram pump works like an electric or gas pump. The less load on it the better. But the ram pump needs the back pressure from the outlet pipe or it will stop working. @landtohouse actually has a recent install, when they wanted to lift the water only to a certain height, but then they had to move it much higher or the pump stopped working.
My state requires a permit to remove ANY water from a "surface water" source like a stream. Without a permit, the DNR would hand the landowner a citation which could be at least as much as a pump, and they might require you to remove the whole setup to boot, especially if you were reducing stream flow by 500,000 gallon per year. Maybe that is not an issue in the state where this video was produced. However, the host should have at least addressed the topic of getting a permit.
In Idaho, they don't even issue permits. One must have a legally recognized water right to the water source to use it. The water right will also indicate the acre-feet that can be drawn per day.
Adam, you have access to a creek, you should look into installing a turbine to produce electricity, just need to have a meter drop off to run the turbine and generator. Free electricity would be nice. The RAM pump is very nice, good job!
If you don’t want to buy all the individual pieces for your own ram pump like we did, you can buy an already assembled pump on Amazon with the link below
www.amazon.com/shop/hometownacres
@@sam-and-angela Thanks for the shoutout!
@@LandtoHouse i watch both channels and as soon as I saw this video post I thought of your channel and was glad to see your stuff as the amazon link.
@@phreak480 Thank you for watching both channels!
👍✝️✌️😁
2 weeks later
is it full?
Thanks for mentioning us! We are very happy that your pump is working and were more than happy to help you.
As he said. Your local plumbing supplier is better than. Home depot. 50 people standing around and nobody will help you if they did know anything.
one of the best video explaing the experience of buiding ram pump. Well done!!
Is the ram pump works?
@winter plumbing good job.👍 keep up the good work ❤
I never new that pump existed. Pretty amazing. Great solution for extra water to the pond.
When I built my first ram pump (about 20 years ago) I used a small pressurized pump tank with a bladder. It made the pump cycle about three times faster and thus pumped more water.
Show a diagram or working model please sir. What I'd really like to know though is can you turn your existing well into an electric free well thus becoming energy independent
@@freedomnmetal I second that, love to see a diagram
@@freedomnmetalyou do that with a wind mill set up over the well
I though bladders on ram pumps only smoothes out the pressure surges? Using the air in the bladder as a damper....
Great solution Adam, well done!
Nice work Adam. To get more water you may want to consider a second ram pump feeding the IBC tote.
I was thinking another 4 or 5 pumps.
My thought too.
Same here.Why not add more pumps?
I was thinking that I would have run more pipe or a larger pipe through the trench before it was covered up also. That way more pumps could be used to get more water into the pond.
@@mrcutter98 the siphon on that pipe will handle an isain flow rate its going far enough down hill he doesn't need a bigger discharge pipe
I clicked on this randomly because I'd never heard of a ram pump. Thank you for the video. I cant say how much of your content I'll watch, but if its this interesting it will be a lot! I've liked and subscribed.
Hi Adam, great video. I have a smaller ram pump, 1/2”, I use to irrigate my garden with. I fill a 55 gallon drum that then overflows back to the stream. I use a battery powered automatic ball valve to supply my drip irrigation. Unfortunately my little creek won’t support a larger pump, but it still works. I initially I built a 1” drive/1/2” out pump that works in the spring, but I don’t have enough water flow in the summer to run it. You were correct about the air in your driveline when you started. Also no discharge back pressure will effect it. You can throttle closed on the discharge valve until the line is filled. Then open up the discharge valve. Mine is all plastic accept for the swing check. Also I have my check valves swapped from your positions. I didn’t have to modify the spring check valve to make it work. After four summers, I’ve just have to replace the swing check valve every year. I’ve never checked my flow, but it’s a pencil stream. My issue is that I’m only lifting the water about 10’. So for it to work properly, I have to keep the discharge valve throttled. In my driveline, I put a bucket as a silt trap in addition to the intake screen. I put the water in bucket about 2/3rds of up the side of the bucket. Then tapped off the side of the bucket at the top to feed the pump. If we get heavy rain it usually stops the pump. I just dump the bucket over to empty it. Then just let it refill the bucket, reprime/restart the pump, and it’s off and running. After the initial investment, mine has been pretty cheap to keep going. I just pull it and and pipe for the winter. I drain it and hang it on the shed wall. Also to fasten it in the creek, I drove a tee post in the ground. I then bought large hose clamps and fasted the pump to the tee post. Great video and explanations. I’m glad this works for you. Have a good day!
Great deal , I’m glad you found a solution
It’s worth a shot to try! With evaporation and soil percolating it’s going to be interesting. Give us monthly updates!
Great to hear the customer service story
You may want to consider a splash rock in the pond, so the constant drip of water doesn’t erode the sidewall.
Really good point.
If the pipe extended into the water, and elevated above a splash block or rip-rap bed… erosion could be nearly eliminated.
@@sassafrasvalley1939 I thought about the idea of just extending the hose into the water but figured he’d want to monitor the flow
@@1amaker good point… perhaps he could put a clear section of hose just above flood stage?
I was about to mention the same thing. Or just extent the hose so that it lays flat on the ground instead of pouring out and falling. I’ve seen this exact scenario with an overflow pipe causing a pond dam to wash out losing all the water. Then costing thousands of dollars to repair. No his isn’t going to effect the dam, but it can still cut a deep hole and channel that could get below the clay layer or hit fractured rock resulting in a leaking pond.
This is so cool , it’s the first time I hear of such a pump. We can use this back home in the Caribbean.
That's cool these things have been around for a long time. My parents bought a farm in so. indiana in the 60's it had a big spring and the neighbor used those pumps to pump up to his house uphill all the way about 300 feet. He called them ramjets and had about 5 or 6 of them they were made of cast iron and had a check valve made of brass. I wish I had one of those old ones just for memories.
Thank you for this well explained video of ram pump. Priceless. With no out of pocket ongoing expense. Thank you.
Great video Adam. Good old American edgenuity! A metal screen cover on the tote will keep leaves and debris out.
You are awesome at instructionals, Thanks
Hi Adam! Great project! Ram pumps are amazing and you’ve got me think of an application for one. Thanks for sharing!
And you are capturing water that would otherwise be lost down stream. Bravo! I like it. Thanks.
Nice video. Setting it up so that the outflow pipe is continuous from the pump to the pond should work fine and increase the flow a bit. I don't think that you will get a siphon condition anyway because the flow isn't enough to fill the outflow pipe. My Dad first encountered a hydraulic ram pump in 1929 when he was a kid at Boy Scout camp. He was fascinated by it so then he researched about them. He taught me about them in the 1950s and then I learned again in the 1970s from Mother Earth News Magazine. Adding a little more weight to the overflow check valve should increase the flow. Good Luck, Rick
Can't wait to see your update. Thanks for sharing about your project. We're learning a lot from your experience, as we're about to dig our own.
These old school science really are needed, and water is such a powerful resource, it can really be incredibly useful, imagine you have a stronger flow of water (maybe use damming), you can make yourself a hydro electric plant, I’ve seen small designs generate 1Kw power 24/7 and it’s free and environmentally friendly.
Evening I'm watching your videos ram pump it can pull water from 400m in the dam
We drained our pond in July. It's been quite the journey. We've got like 5 springs running into it, so that even during a drought-like season, our problem was the muck. We syphoned then pumped for weeks as we also cleaned out lily pads, lilies, and tons of mud. We finally got it fixed up enough for us and it's been filling about three weeks. I've been following your journey. Thanks so much for sharing.
It's a lot of work, but cleaning out a pond like that is so rewarding. Ours would halfway disappear behind cattails and murk. after cleaning it all out and letting it fill again I had to keep reminding myself that we had not made it any bigger, we had just become so used to seeing less of it!
I'm thinking your outlet pipe to the pond could easily handle double it's current flow, maybe a little more. Put 2 or 3 more ram pumps feeding the IBC tote, an overflow pipe that returns water to the creek (basically just dump it out a few feet away), and with the head pressure from the IBC tote, you'd easily be more than doubling your flow, and only for the cost of 2 or 3 more ram pump assemblies. The siphon idea a couple people have mentioned is also intriguing, and pretty easy to test without disassembling much of the current set up at the IBC tote.
An inexpensive option and certainly worth a look at adding more pumps. As for the siphoning effect, worth a test but my guess is that it would be detrimental to the operation of the ram pump as it would fight the incoming nonreturn valve.
you require one feed line for every pump, the longer the better, for the hydraulic ram to appen in a controlled way. Also if you add more pumps you require more water, but the stream was already near capacity
large ram pump ua-cam.com/video/1olasv8bpbE/v-deo.html
Good morning I'm really appreciate what you have done to help in such a simple ram pump
Very cool, wish I had a creek to use this....
My pond is land locked and only fed by mother nature....
Thanks for sharing....
Pete from Canada 🇨🇦
I’ve also been fascinated by the ram pump and how it works. I think I first read about it in “Mother Earth News” over 40 years ago! Very nice video Adam. - Dick
Very nice video, we love to see the increasing awareness of ram pumps!
I love those Ram pumps. Amazing ingenuity. Great job, Adam.
Thank you for your time and information it will come in very handy in the future
Over time the ram pump can cause cracks in your connections due to the harsh stop/start of the ram. We found that swapping to a bunyip pump (made in Australia) that the water flow was a lot more progressive, and less harsh on the pipe and connectors.
Quiet too. I've been fascinated with this type of technology for years. Thanks for the info.
Just add an anti hammer /air trap near the end and beginning of the output line. No more pinging.
@@frosthoe sure, you could do this. But then it's starting to over complicate a pump that by design is simple. This is the pump that I am referring to. It actually catches the fall before bottoming out, so you don't get that hammer: ua-cam.com/users/shortsCLXalUmRikg?feature=share
Nice work. Thanks for including some of that troubleshooting.
Great video Adam! This ram pump technology is absolutely amazing. I learned something new today. Thanks and keep up the great videos.
Is the ram pump works? My land are 50meter higher then the water source.
I must say that your ram pump probably pumps more water than any ram pump that I have ever seen. 1 gallon in 45 seconds is pretty amazing. Great job. 👍🏅👏👏👏
Pretty awesome, good you figured this out, hope it lasts long! Never heard of something like this before!
Your ingenuity is absolutely amazing. I think it's pretty cool too.
Adam… that’ll work! These pumps always fascinate me… it’s almost like discovering a perpetual motion machine… all of the energy is, gathered, channeled, and converted in that self contained air bubble!!!
Nicely done bud.
This is a perpetual motion machine that runs on over unity created by the water hammer effect. But since over unity is impossible as scientists claim, it must be the water pumping gods that are really pumping the water.
@@Geekster896 LOL… would that be one of Poseidon’s offsprings??
@@sassafrasvalley1939 lmao 🤣 it might just be.
Cool, yes great service in the smaller local suppliers, great job too, and you could use the output in that tank to run a small water wheel to generate power too!
I have looked into doing this and would really like to see a breakdown of the parts and the actual build. You are by far, very detailed with your videos, and I am sure many viewers would appreciate it. Great video as always. Thank you.
HI THERE been playing and making them for around 30 years , there are a few ways to help increase your flow , cutover all you did a real good job john
You might be able to improve performance by building a tiny weir at the intake for the rampump to ensure good water availablity. Additionally, as others have said, you can add additional ram pumps to increase flow to the tote.
This is the knowledge and wisdom that makes the technology worth it.
I played around with ram pumps also. In my experience you will get more pressure if you use the flap valve for the waste and the spring check valve on the route to the pressure tank. So swapping the two valves. (with the spring mounted) I got 20m of lift with 1 m of drop in the feedline. Also using metal pipe for the last few meters in your feeding pipe will make a big difference.
About the siphon, if you put your tank which is now on the highest point, about 5 m lower (this will create a 0.5 bar underpressure), you will have less counterpressure and therefore more flow. It might collapse your pipe though as you create a vacuum in the pipe, also the pipe should end under water in your buffer tank to avoid breaking the vacuum. With all these possible problems maybe not worth the trouble.
RAM pump can move water ower 100 meter high.
A very entertaining film and learning experience...thank you.
Love projects like this. And local shops are almost always best, even if prices are higher the level of service is worth the price.
Great job! pretty good explained how this dynamic water column "swing" pump works" Thank you , I enjoyed 🙂
You mentioned the bottom of the creek is 30' below the bank, and it appears the pond is more than 30' below the bank, and you mentioned you were worried about the pond pipe creating a siphon if you connected it directly to the the discharge pipe. The light should have come on in your head at that moment.
If the elevation of the pond is lower than the creek bed, simply create a small weir in the creek and siphon the water over the bank. no ram pump needed, and you will increase the flow :)
There is a limit to how high you can lift water with a siphon which is around 30 feet at sea level and it's reduced a little in higher elevations. If his estimate is right then he would probably have a hard time unless he moved is intake pipe a ways upstream. That being said, I think his flow would only be improved connecting the pipes directly and deleting the plastic tank.
Even if the siphon didn't work the tank further down the hill would lower the pumps head and increase the flow. I'm sure the siphon would work without the pump the inlet a bit up stream to keep the max lift to below 9.8m.
I was thinking the same thing. Get rid of the ram pump altogether and connect the two pipes together, and add a valve at the pond end. Use one of those inexpensive power tool battery powered pumps at the pond to prime it, then once the pipe is full stop tbe pump and close the valve. Remove the pump, open the valve, and let gravity do the rest.
Because you can only lift (pull) water 30 feet with a siphon, and that is "theoretical lift", actual lift is probably lower, but it couldn't hurt to try.
@@bradysjoblom It's mor like 25 ft.
Nice work Adam. Ram pumps are popular among bush people. You can always add a well if it comes down to it. Well worth seeing what this ram does.
Fantastic ingenuity Adam! I appreciate all the thought you put into making your home more self sufficient, and I didn't even know something like this was an option.
One of the channels I subscribe to is Life Uncontained and I can't help but think they could be well served (no pun intended) with something like this for their water storage needs in TX.
1.3GPH for 10,000 gallons of storage could be gamechanging.
Thanks for all you do and show us, and Godspeed.
Ira
Not sure if they have a creek with enough flowing water?
Excellent. Great information. Thank you for doing the "heavy lifting".
A simple tee fitting at the top of the hill would negate the need for the tote, as it would break the siphon. Also, try reinstalling the spring in the check valve now that the air is out of the line.
I agree and the siphon will help the pump..
Using a larger pump on the discharge side would help deliver more water..Smaller pump cause friction which requires more pressure to get the same volume. Using a larger pump lowers the required pressure, and help it deliver more with less work..
Wrangler star has the best videos for this type of stuff
That was cool to see. I have heard of a ram pump before but never knew what one was. The video makes all that hard ditch work look easy but that was a LOT of shovel work. One good thing is you know what you did now. If you see you would like to double your output, you could always run a second pump into your IBC. I assume the single line out to the pond would handle twice the volume coming from your IBC.
Fascinating system. I had no idea something like that existed. AND the service at your local plumbing shop is why the little guys are the best!
Super cool system you came up with Adam....never heard of one like that, but definitely going to look into doing the exact same thing on my property. FYI you should be able to get replacement valve components for your IBC tote from the hardware store and that will allow you to avoid another hole in the tank.....just run the line from the bottom valve out to your pond!
Great job Adam. Impressive system. Simple and it works. Always best to keep it simple.
nice work Adam, not sure if you have a need or if your creek runs fast enough but I saw a great video from Marty T channel in new Zealand, he converted a washing machine into a generator to power his house. Looking forward to seeing more on your house build, and the differences in construction methods you guys use up there compared to us.
Marty is a top bloke love his videos
So it seems the pump must be lower than the supply source. Love this. I can’t do this because my creek is the lowest point. Great video
Seems like a good way to harvest a little water without negatively impacting the creek. A solar run low flow pump emptying into the IBC tote might also be worth considering. I reckon a couple of years to fill the pond, couple more for fine clay sediment to seal it up, so 5-10 years and you'll have a pond/dam that will be enjoyed for decades or more.
Hubby
@@rd19371 ? No.
Re. your comment about the need for a tank at the top of the high ground, rather than a continuous run of pipe; from what I've read about other people's installations, it's essential that the ram has back pressure to work against on the delivery side. This is so vital that one man found his ram was reluctant to get going until he poured a few gallons of water down the delivery pipe from his header tank - once he did that, the ram took off, cycling a treat.
There's a company in England that's been making hydraulic rams for nearly 150 years, and some of the first ones they made are still in place, and *still* working to this day!
Also, it strikes me that when you get a spell of rainy weather, and the flow rate in the creek increases, that will also increase the output from your ram. Depending on how much rain you get where you live (in this part of England, we get around 4 -5 feet a year!), you may end up getting close to the nominal 700,000 gallons per year which you calculated from the flow rate you're getting now.
Nice work, mate!
Interesting ram pump application. It was a good description of the way they work and will certainly be helpful to many. Having said that, I can’t understand why you are not using the siphon effect of the pond being below your creek. The ram pump could prime it and you could connect the two lines at the tank after you have good flow… you wouldn’t hurt the ram pump but the more superior siphon effect would make it unneeded until the next time you need to prime the lines.
Good idea. I would add a bypass around the ram pump so that you could use it to prime the line then bypass it after the water is flowing.
This got to be the coolest thing I've ever seen. Wow
Remove the ibc and run the pipe all the way, that will reduce your effective head and the ram will pump faster. More water.
If it siphons and stops the pump then put a valve on the hammer check valve,so once running you can syphon all the way.
You are really blessed to have a running stream!
Great job Adam! Those ram pumps are so cool. Take care!
God bless you forsuch a wonderful idea. Your ideas will bless many communities Paupa new Guinea
Ram pumps work fine, but slowly, and there are a few fine points to using them. One is the vent check can have a line running off to the side to keep a puddle out of your work area, but don't run it up hill because it will stop the flow. The filter sock you make is find for a few minutes, but you probably need one about five feet long. The other very helpful info is you should start with a 4" inlet, for the first 10 feet under the creek flow, the first five feet can be drilled and a sock put over the inlet all the way up over all of the holes, this can be held on with a band clamp. Before the 4" pipe elbows up add a 4x3 reducer, run a few feet of 3" then use a 45° elbow not a 90°, because each 90will have a 15% loss of flow. Reduce from the 3 to your supply line fitting and this contraption will give you a stronger flow. Where a lot of rise is needed, the trick is to build a series of thousand gallon ponds or tanks, run out of that into a second ramp pump, etc., until you get to the top. As long as the inlets don't clog or freeze, they will flow flow 24/7 and have little maintenance.
big RAM pump move lot water and fast, i used 200 gallon barrel to ram pump reserve and 4inch tube has fast move water big grown field one day has full water. about 10 agre size
Nicely done Adam. The accumulator will get water-logged with time (air disappears by disolving in the water) . To prevent this , fit a 'snifter' valve. It introduces a small amount of air per cycle to keep the accumulator fully charged. Cheers.
In theory if you manage to make a perfect syphon on the pipe going to the lake, whitout bubbles, it will reduce the head pressure required for the pump and increase flow.
You can tune your valve frequency by adding weights to it using a junction nut
using a second pressure vessel after the apex with a height taller than the apex is what would be needed to maintain the syphon from the ram pump. The ram pump becomes the priming method for the siphon as you know, the second pressure vessel is really an anti air gap vessel. You'll need to put a valve to allow air to escape for priming and then close the valve once the second vessel is full. Probably a good place for a simple air bleed valve so you don't have to maintain manually bleeding it.
Great video Brother, very informative and straight to the point, thanks for sharing 👍🇮🇪
I'm pretty sure running the ram pump directly into a syphon would work perfectly. In effect you'd then have a self priming syphon - and your flow would be much better (once the air was purged all the way down to the pond). If you don't think it would work... test it. It would take half an hour to temporarily bypass the storage tank to confirm whether it would work as a syphon. All this is assuming the pond is lower than the water source.
Agree. And put the output pipe under the water at the pond, then it wont pull air back in the pipe.
Just make sure to put a check valve in line to prevent a broken hose down at the ram pump on the pond side causing a reverse siphon where your whole pond gets emptied into the creek. Or as has been suggested just put a tee in at the highest point with a short length of vertical open ended pipe to break the siphon and use a second or third pump to increase the water flow if needed. A reverse siphon event would be very bad and may not be noticed until the pond was emptied or at least emptied down to the level of the submerged pipe.
@@jaseastroboy9240 I'm pretty sure a ram pump is based on a check valve - so an additional one should not be needed. And breaking the syphon is exactly the opposite of what I'm suggesting - as, once the ram pump has primed the syphon, it would be better/quicker than the ram pump. But I'm not a smart man.
@@dav1dsm1th I think i just did a bad job of describing it.
The check valve suggestion was for the pipe going from the top of the weir down to the pond. It isn't necessary for the operation of the setup, it is just a safety mechanism. If for example the hose from the output of the ram pump was a continuous line up over the weir and down to the pond then if the hose became detached at the output of the ram pump. By storm damage, sun damage, vandalism etc. Then depending on the relative heights you may get a siphon effect from the pond to the creek. The opposite of what is wanted and potentially able to empty the pond into the creek. A check valve could be added to prevent the reversal of the water flow, it would do nothing normally and would only close if the water flow reversed.If the pond is lower than the creek then this would not be an issue.
If the creek is higher than the pond then a siphon would work better, especially if the pipe was cut into the weir a bit so that the "hump" that the water had to get over was less. I think somebody already mentioned that the excavator could probably cut a trench 10 feet deep from one side of the weir to the other, drop in the hose and then fill the trench back in. Basically the pipe would run through the weir 10 feet below the top of the weir. This should improve the siphon effect and the water flow rate.
My suggestion of the vertical pipe at the top of the weir was to break the siphon as a way to ensure there was no chance of a reverse siphon effect. Not to improve the flow rate.
@@jaseastroboy9240 TL/DR. Have a great day.
I spent 8 years as an irrigation technician, you might want to re dig up where you crossed the driveway put in 3" pvc then put your 1" line through the pvc, the pvc will be a sleeve and help from crushing/poking holes in your poly line
That thought had crossed my mind
Dude, at least by the video appearance, your pond is way lower than your creekbed. Assuming the creekbank is not more than 30 feet above the creek bottom, a simple siphon should give you 10 times more volume. But, this is still very cool.
That's true Adam, try it out, you can make water go uphill throw siphoning.
Right. Seems like taking water from current screened intake location to the pond is worth trying if it is higher up.
This is exactly how water utilities supply water. Potable water is pumped into elevated tanks, then gravity will distribute the water thru out the system.
It depends on if the height gain is more than 10 m, if it is, a siphon can't work because you can only suck up water 10 m (in perfect conditions) so the limit is likely to be less.
You could try from the where the water is being taken from, but you still need to find a way to prime the siphon.
The ram pump could still be used to start and restart the siphon, if the siphon works at all.
Just as a side note, there is a process that uses something similar to desalinate water and make it drinkable. When a siphon is higher than 33 feet, a vacuum forms at the top, but it not really a vacuum, it is low pressure water vapor. What condenses on the other side of said vacuum is pure distilled water. It's an almost energy free way of getting drinking water from the dirtiest of sources.
P.S. Other than sheer stupidity by politicians, there is almost no reason this technique isn't used by most cities. The technology isn't that complicated, and there doesn't even need to be any moving parts.
I worked in a small hardware shop and it was like that all the time, customer asked and we sorted it out with them. Very satisfying work and it resulted in lots of returning customers.
The only calculation I haven't heard you make is what is the rate of evaporation on the open surface of the pond. I'm guessing it's a lot less than 1.33 gallons per minute generally. On extremely hot sunny windy days I'd love to know the worst amount that does occur. Thank you very much for going to all the trouble and videography of sharing this with all of us!
These pumps have been out for almost 100 years. We used in Alaska for our 3 cabins. I filled 50 gal water tanks with filters. So we could drink the water also. As long as you keep your water flowing your water won't freeze either. I ran overflows on the tanks and I used them for years.
Looks like you might have the solution there for your ponds water needs, but, as others have said, IF the elevation of the creek is high enough, there is no reason you couldn't or shouldn't just run a pipe directly from the creek. We don't know the elevational differences between the two. Ok, if you have a 30' wall between the two, you still might well get it done with a siphon, if you were able to upstream even a little. Keep it below 30' (10 meters at sea level) and you should be fine. I've dealt with water for many years too. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people try to run a line between two systems and try to keep it "level so that there won't be air blockage. There is NO need to do that. Better for long distance running of water to NOT be "level". Run it DOWN from the source, and UP to the reservoir! then there will be little chance of a air barrier. Also you can put a valve at the bottom to drain the sediment if need be.
The Ram pump is good, and a good solution if there is not much water. Another solution that many folks don't know about is the "high lifter" water pump. Again, no fuel, no electricity, almost no moving parts. It also uses the water pressure (gravity) to pump. With one of those you trade elevation for some use of water. you can pump using the head you have. If you have 10 foot of head, then you can pump 1/4 of that and (lose the rest into your creek) and you get 40' of head. Or, if you have to go higher, you can pump 1/9 and get 90 feet of head, (9 times the original head) There are advantages to each. There is less wear and tear on the system, and no "ram!" of the water, thus no "noise" (The rams do make a bit of noise that may or not bother you) The high lifters have a very good reputation, but I don't think you can easily build one yourself. Still they cost way less than a well, and they have a very long lifespan. IF you have a lot of water, (say 4 to10 times more than you need someplace) and you have head, then you can get pump water a very long distance with these. I've seen one that pumped the water over 1000 feet and an elevation from the pump of 200 feet. They had a creek with an elevational drop of 40' from where they drew the water to where they pumped it. I think they put the pump in 20 years or more ago and it is still pumping fine....
I don't have as much water, so I pipe to a holding tank and use a solar pump, (Lorentz) to pump mine up about 180 feet of head. But there are Chinese pumps that cost about 1/5th or less, and sound pretty good too.
Totally awesome my main man! Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea 💡 😀 😊 ❤️
You can eliminate the vertical check valve by putting another vertical tank like you have Downstream of your swing check valve you could just simply copy that in place of the first vertical check valve that you call the spring check valve you can eliminate that and just put in another bottle on top of it
The pressure building inside that first tube will disrupt the neutral pressure neede for the initial water inrush to the system
Of course this will cost $$, but you can hire a backhoe or rent one and add a couple more ponds below outlet pipe, and connect them together with a shallow ditch. When one overflows, it goes into the next one downhill. The ditch will allow the water table to regenerate and benefit all the permaculture downhill. I would not run plastic pipe from the outlet, but cut in a 4 foot wide ditch down to the next pond. Great vid out now called water wizard of Oregon. Dan tipping will take you on a tour of his pond set up. He is good at explaining what a number of ponds can mean for your land and believe me it is all good news for you amigo.
What is the elevation difference between the creek and the pond?
If the pond is lower, you may be able to create a syphon. This would eliminate the need for a pump.
Great video and knowledge shared ✌🏽
I would like to know the difference also.
Nine days and still no answer?
@@FreeFinca I think some ones head is getting a little big with 98,000 subscriber's.
@@MrRickoscar Or just so many questions and not enough time.
All that equipment to play on, I wouldn't be answering questions either 🤣
Actually - the SYPHON effect - will increase the flow of water - such that the pond can still be well above the creek, just as long as there can be NO air entry between the pump (near the creek) and the pond outlet.
The reason is totally simple.
A syphon works by having a completely filled (with water in your case) pipeline between the inlet & outlet.
NOTE: You will still need a way to fill that syphon pipe that's above either the inlet or the outlet.
Simply tossing a pipe over a hill - with a new pipe full of air - syphons nothing if the pipe isn't filled with water before you attempt to syphone anything
(you need it filled with water or any air in that pipe will be removing any syphon- effect)
No pump means the outlet MUST be below the inlet.
And some means has to be added to allow you to fully fill the outlet (downhill) pipe, as well as most if not all of the inlet pipe
Adding any pump that (as we can see) can pump anywhere up to a 30 ft head - means that the outlet of the syphon pipe (at the pond) can easily be close to that 30ft = ABOVE the pump itself.
You can only determine how close, by ensuring all the air is removed from both the inlet & outlet pipes, before testing the tolerances of that system.
As soon as the pump pipe is connected to a syphon pipe (one running down the hill) any water throughput will increase
Seems like a cool application of the water hammer effect!
For siphon not to happen, add a standpipe on the hill of delivery pipe, it will allow air to enter the pipe and not create siphon effect.
but you benefit from the siphon
@@motnitsua29 not in ram pump on the delivery side. It requires a pressure to operate
@@pdzh it is the total head that operates teh pump. the siphon still has head pressure.
@@motnitsua29 yes, unless it makes a siphon that pulls the pump side too much even for a moment
Total static head is the difference in elevation between the ram and the creek intake. It's what creates the velocity in the pipe that drives the ram. A siphon doesn't affect the total static head. More important is the diameter of the feed pipe which contributes to friction losses and robs the ram of its energy which it gets from the static head differential.
Thank you very much for a very useful idea and a very good presentation. Thank you.
Good Job man. Hopefully rain and snow can help. Curious with your design, could you make it bigger? Bigger, pvc, wider hose? Time is always a factor. Non the less, awesome work! Liked and subscribed
Physics - so fun! We always enjoy your high-speed walking edits. Nice project, Adam.
Adam, have you considered running a larger ram pump setup or perhaps running a second ram pump in parallel to increase output?
large ram pump ua-cam.com/video/1olasv8bpbE/v-deo.html
Thank you bro. God bless you.
Cool project! If the pond is lower than the stream, why not just direct siphon?
Unless I am mistaken, I think he said the creek is lower than his pond, that's why he has to pump water uphill to the tote then from tote he can siphon water to the pond since pond is lower than the tote but not lower than the creek...that's my understanding, please correct me if I am wrong because I am learning. Thank you.
@@mandiegarrett1706 yes, your right. The creek is lower than the pond.
*Nice Toys. Next time I want something I will show my wife this vid! LOL!! Kudos.*
Incredible! What about freezing, Adam?
I said at the end I will pull it out of the creek during the winter
Fascinating. Depending on the water demand of the pond, you could always add another one or two.
Several comments mentioned that the pond “looks” lower than the stream bed, so it could all be done by siphoning. However, if the pond is not lower, a partial siphon effect could still help if the reserve tank is eliminated. If the pipe stays continuous, it will have the effect of seeming to reduce the height that the pump needs to push the water. Once the water reaches the high point, where he put the open tank, it creates an air break. Instead, if the pipe continues unbroken downhill, than every foot that it drops will pull the water at least part way. If it only drops 10 feet, it will reduce the work the pump needs to push the water as though it was pumping 10 feet less to the high point. It will still need to pump to the full height, until the pipe is full, and the water starts to flow down the other side. However, if the downhill pipe doesn’t create a solid column of water, it will allow air to flow back up (from the pond side) and stop the siphon “assist” effect. It might help to use a smaller diameter pipe on the downhill leg to the pond. Depending on the amount of water flowing down, the water needs to block off air returning back up to the high point. Possibly a check valve at the pond end will stop air from going up the pipe, stopping the siphon effect. The reason a true siphon works is that the water on the downside weighs more than the water on the up side. The lower the outlet, the more difference in weight there is. But if air enters from the outlet, it will stop the siphon. If the down doesn’t weigh more than the up, it won’t siphon on its own, but will effectively reduce the pressure the pump needs to create, as though it was only pumping to the height difference to the pond. If it pumps 25’ up, then flows back down 15’, the pump only needs to lift 10’ (after initially filling the 25’ up)
my friend, it's a strange but actual fact that siphoning only works up to a specific pressure. I can't say what that pressure is or if that pressure would apply here. but I suggested this to the hydrology PhD that was installing my well and he says that the negative pressure will pull oxygen out of the water and generate an air pocket which will necessarily negate siphoning effect. I've been pumping water and building off grid water systems for over 30 years and my experience is you are correct, up to around 20-30 lbs negative pressure. good luck 👍
The problem is the ram pump itself need the pressure from the delivery pipe to work. If you siphon the water out (even partially) it will stop working.
@@sestun I disagree, if the ram has to push 30 ft up and siphon effect going down to the pond has a 15 ft drop down, the down pull of the 15 ft on the pond side would zero out 15 ft of the ram side having to be pushed up, leaving the pressure needed to the ram would have reduced load on the output side makingvit work to push the water only as high as the lowest point of the siphon outlet end or a head pressure equal to having it lift water only 15 ft rather than 30. For this to work,, the outlet side of pipe would need to be bled of all air, sealed, and it would have no need for an outlet check valve so long as the end stays submerged in the pond8s needed, so long as the end stays submerged in the pond no air could backtrack into the system causing a continuous reduced load so long as the pond outlet isn't lower than the creek bed it should actually work, and reduce the load needed to push the water the 30 ft elevation.
@@WeChallenge @WeChallenge I think you imagine that ram pump works like an electric or gas pump. The less load on it the better.
But the ram pump needs the back pressure from the outlet pipe or it will stop working.
@landtohouse actually has a recent install, when they wanted to lift the water only to a certain height, but then they had to move it much higher or the pump stopped working.
I still do not understand the science as to how that works but it works. Well done and as always clearly explained.
My state requires a permit to remove ANY water from a "surface water" source like a stream. Without a permit, the DNR would hand the landowner a citation which could be at least as much as a pump, and they might require you to remove the whole setup to boot, especially if you were reducing stream flow by 500,000 gallon per year. Maybe that is not an issue in the state where this video was produced. However, the host should have at least addressed the topic of getting a permit.
In Idaho, they don't even issue permits. One must have a legally recognized water right to the water source to use it. The water right will also indicate the acre-feet that can be drawn per day.
Adam, you have access to a creek, you should look into installing a turbine to produce electricity, just need to have a meter drop off to run the turbine and generator. Free electricity would be nice. The RAM pump is very nice, good job!
Thanks, that is really neat! I love it!! I can see many uses for that pump. I thought at first it would only lift 7 feet...but 30 ft !!!!!!!!!
Excellent delivery of info, Much appreciated from Lismore NSW Australia
Your pump seemed quieter than others I’ve seen. Thanks
Its a great idea now i apply it to my family farm, thank you for your very nice idea its so helpful to our farmer... Warching from philippines.. ❤🎉🎉
I would definitely try this brilliant ideas of yours. Thanks.