Advice/Information about a portable pump to transfer water/irrigate from rain tanks

[DuaeGuttae]

We live in a somewhat arid part of Texas with a community well. Most often our water use is restricted, and watering a garden from the well would be price prohibitive for use with the tiered rates. We’ve been adding rain tanks to our property over the years, and we now have five large tanks in addition to the two homemade rain barrels we brought a rainier climate when we moved. We can store about 3,000 gallons of water, most of it near our house. We use hoses to siphon from place to place as needed, most often moving water from the largest tanks in the front of the house to the 500 gallon tank located nearest to the garden.

As our garden has increased in size and we’re back in drought conditions, we’ve been thinking of buying a pump to help out with water transfer and irrigation when necessary. We don’t want something submersible inside our tanks because we want to move it from place to place as suits our needs. We’ve been looking at plug-in transfer pumps, but we are no experts on what specs would be best, and I thought that you folks on this forum would be able to help us out with our thinking.

I’m happy to answer any questions about distances and elevation change and the like if that helps. My current thoughts are that I want a basic but reliable pump that can handle moving 500 gallons of water at a time. I’d be happy for it to have a way to shut off if the water level runs dry, and also a way for me to use a basic hose end sprayer that I can turn on and off at my garden without needing to unplug or turn off the pump each time since the pump will be a walk away. I would also like it to be reasonably quiet.

I’m not even sure that I’m explaining well, but I figured I’d get started by asking for help. I’d be grateful for any advice. Even just giving me terminology for things I should look for or should avoid would be helpful. Assume not even a rudimentary understanding of pumps.

Thanks.

 

[peakbagger]

How do you plan to power it? 500GPM is potentially a large load.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Oh, let me clarify. I think I wasn’t clear, probably because I’m such a newbie at all this pump terminology. I did not at all mean moving 500 gallons per minute or even per hour. Basically I was meaning a pump that could run continuously until it had moved 500 gallons even if that took several hours. I’ve seen pumps designed for RVs that say things like 5 minute run, 10 minute cool off. I don’t want something like that if I’m trying to refill my garden rain tank.

We were thinking of using normal household outlet power. The tanks that collect the most water are in the front of and back of our house, and we’d like to be able to move that water to the garden rain tank more quickly since that one gets drawn down the fastest. We currently can move water from the front of the house to the garden, but it is very slow and can’t move beyond a certain point because the tanks equalize.

I’d also like to be able to shower my garden with a hose on occasion. Currently I fill watering cans and sprinkle with one while another is filling. When my garden tank is down to less than 200 gallons or so, it’s very time consuming to fill multiple cans.

 

[festerw]

You just need a transfer pump. Something like this, they aren't made to run 24/7 but will run an hour or so just fine. Not recommending this one just the first one that came up.

1/8 HP Non-Submersible Super Mini Transfer Pump, 450 GPH

Amazing deals on this 1/8Hp Multi-Use Utility Pump 450 Gph at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

You'd have to add something like a flow or tank level switch to have it shut off automatically but plugged into a timer would get the job done too as they typically aren't damaged if they run dry in the short term

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Thanks so much for the replies. I appreciate the help on this because I am out of my league.

Would a pump like that tolerate intermittent type use in the sense of my using a garden hose with a shower head on it? If I release the spray handle and have water building up in the hose, would that be a problem for the pump? (I’m so bad at asking these questions, I don’t even know the terminology to use. ) I had been looking at that kind of small transfer pump but then started to get confused about whether I needed something that responded to demand like in an RV where the water is turned on and off for times when I’m not transferring from tank to tank but am filling small water reservoirs in my garden or sprinkling seeds or transplants or the like.

 

[Montanalocal]

This Milwaukee battery power pump is rated at 480 gal per hr. It is part of the 18 V. Milwaukee lithium ion battery tool series.


You could carry it any where on your property and connect it with quick connects you could build into your system.

(broken link removed)

 

[festerw]

Thanks so much for the replies. I appreciate the help on this because I am out of my league.

Would a pump like that tolerate intermittent type use in the sense of my using a garden hose with a shower head on it? If I release the spray handle and have water building up in the hose, would that be a problem for the pump? (I’m so bad at asking these questions, I don’t even know the terminology to use. ) I had been looking at that kind of small transfer pump but then started to get confused about whether I needed something that responded to demand like in an RV where the water is turned on and off for times when I’m not transferring from tank to tank but am filling small water reservoirs in my garden or sprinkling seeds or transplants or the like.,

Good question. Long term it would probably shorten the pump life but how long is just a guess. They're typically not rated for pressure so it may not work very well with a sprayer.

You could definitely use something like this but then you'd need a 12v power supply which isn't difficult just more stuff.

(broken link removed)

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Thanks, @Montanalocal and @festerw. I was talking with my husband yesterday about whether a battery operated pump would be necessary, and he prefers a plug-in because, though we want it to be portable, we just need to use it either in front of or behind our house or closer to the garden, all places where we have electric current.

We can look at the features of those pumps, though, and see what specifications we like and try to learn more terminology. Am I correct in inferring that a “diaphragm pump” as is one that is built to turn on and off with demand? (Next I’l start asking about NPT fittings and the other stuff that was beginning to make my head spin. I tried to find a basic primer on this stuff, but either Google failed me or I failed it.)

 

[festerw]

Thanks, @Montanalocal and @festerw. I was talking with my husband yesterday about whether a battery operated pump would be necessary, and he prefers a plug-in because, though we want it to be portable, we just need to use it either in front of or behind our house or closer to the garden, all places where we have electric current.

We can look at the features of those pumps, though, and see what specifications we like and try to learn more terminology. Am I correct in inferring that a “diaphragm pump” as is one that is built to turn on and off with demand? (Next I’l start asking about NPT fittings and the other stuff that was beginning to make my head spin. I tried to find a basic primer on this stuff, but either Google failed me or I failed it.)

Diaphragm is just the style of pump, the previous one was an impeller. Either can be on demand pumps but diaphragm are usually self priming unlike impeller pumps.

NPT is just normal pipe thread to connect a garden hose you'd just need an adapter. Like this but in the correct pipe size.
(broken link removed)

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@festerw, thanks for answering my questions. It’s so helpful just to get a clear statement.

I think I’m starting to understand some things more. I’m looking for an on-demand pump because I want to be able to use a hand-watering device in my garden, but I also want a continuous duty rating because of wanting to use it to transfer up to 500 gallons of water from one tank to another.

We currently use a bunch of 3/4” garden hoses (GHT) If the pump is equipped with something like 1/2 NPT, I’ll need an adapter. I’ll have to pay attention to the male and female ends, of course, so I end up with acronyms like MHT and FHT for hose thread. Then there is FIP and MIP which I understand from searching just means female or male normal pipe thread. Is that right?

 

[festerw]

@festerw, thanks for answering my questions. It’s so helpful just to get a clear statement.

I think I’m starting to understand some things more. I’m looking for an on-demand pump because I want to be able to use a hand-watering device in my garden, but I also want a continuous duty rating because of wanting to use it to transfer up to 500 gallons of water from one tank to another.

We currently use a bunch of 3/4” garden hoses (GHT) If the pump is equipped with something like 1/2 NPT, I’ll need an adapter. I’ll have to pay attention to the male and female ends, of course, so I end up with acronyms like MHT and FHT for hose thread. Then there is FIP and MIP which I understand from searching just means female or male normal pipe thread. Is that right?

Correct. That 12v pump from TSC I posted above appears to fit the bill pretty well.

Add a power supply like this and wire the pump to it and you should be in business.
Amazon product ASIN B07D9G12GW

 

[rwhite]

If you plan to just transfer water the pumps above will work. If you plan to use the tanks like a well and be able turn water on/off without turning off the pump then you need one with a built in pressure switch. It doesn't take long to burn a pump up when water isn't flowing. Like above, I don't know anything about this pump but you will need something similar. I have a Drummond sump pump from harbor freight and it has been good for 4 years since I bought it.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Thanks for the continued information. I showed this thread to my husband tonight, and it was very helpful to get us discussing what we‘re looking for. I appreciate the help.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I just wanted to update this thread with information about how we have set up a pump system. In researching it looked like I really wanted something called a demand/delivery pump, but there wasn’t much available. I would have had to order online. They tended to be more costly, and I wasn’t sure I’d have good support if I had problems.

We ended up just choosing a small transfer pump that we got from Home Depot. It’s very small and lightweight enough for me to move easily by myself (a shallow well pump looked like a good option specification-wise, but they were too big for me). It doesn’t function on demand, so we added the feature of a remote-controlled outlet of the type that people use for Christmas lights or shop exhaust fans. This allows me to shut off the water when I need to adjust the hose to move among my fifteen raised beds, which is something like a maze. It has proved useful already.

The other day I had one free hour in the afternoon, and I was able to set up the pump by myself, and my five year old filled ollas for me and showered the garlic and onions while I handled the terra cotta lids. The rain tank was low enough that we didn’t have good flow without the pump, but it worked excellently and quickly with the pump running. We did use the remote as we moved from place to place, and we employed it for emergency use at one point when the hose got kinked going around a bed. I like being able to shut the pump off immediately without having to make my way out of the garden back to the tank to unplug it.

Overall I am delighted to have a much-improved watering system. This weekend I plan to use it to water our asparagus bed, and then our garden rain tank will be pretty low. We‘ll carry the pump to a much fuller tank at the front of our house and pump over about 400 gallons to refill. I’m really grateful for all the helpful information and suggestions you all gave me as I was figuring out how to set this up. Thank you.