automatic pressure pump ?

[catfordbags]

i'm building my system and got two ibc's full of water ready and waiting to get pumped to the washing machine and two toilets.......

i now need to buy a pump and i am getting bogged down by choice.

I want a direct system which automatically maintains pressure in the pipes and not one using a header tank.

A couple of rainwater harvesting sites offer specialist pumps for about £250...

then there is a water butt pump called forta duo for a bit less...

then there are 'booster pumps' but i'm not sure if these fit the bill...

then I was wondering if you can buy a separate cheaper pump and a pressure switch...?


Any help would be appreciated...

[guydewdney]

look at caravan pumps - they do exactly that.

[wrigpm]

What is wrong with a domestic circulator, one way valve and one of these:-


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stainless-Steel-adjustable-pressure-switch-2-10bar_W0QQitemZ150401240138QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item23049ccc4a#ht_500wt_1182

!!!!!

[Iain]

Hi
I purchased most of my pumps and float switches from machine mart. My pumps were half price, I bought the "returned ones". I think you can ask for them, if they don't have any in the shop and have them in the depot they will send them on the next delivery. They do booster pumps and I think they do the automatic pressure switches separately.
Iain

[breezy]

I have one of those pressure booster sets with the stainless steel pump and pressure vessel from Machine Mart. It's fine for what it is, and for what it cost, but I'd have doubts about it's longterm reliabilty in a permanent setup. For the £200 or so that it cost, I think you'd struggle to make one up from components for less cost, but you might make one that was more appropriate to your needs.

[billi]

I as well can recommend one with an inbuilt pressure vessel , cause some pumps have problems to fill the toilet

I have one of these (ALKO  HWF 1400 INOX )   http://www.louistools.de/catalog/index.php?cPath=96_563_127&sort=3a&page=2  supplying all our water (from a pond through a filter) to our house since 2 years with no problem

(sorry its a German website )

Billi

[odbob]

I have a stainless steel pump and vessel from Machine Mart, installed some 6 years ago on my rain water system, for the most part, it has been reliable, however I do have to carry out minor maintenance every so often, the main problems are:-
Water accumulates in the stainless steel vessel, this has to be bed out, maybe every two years
Pressure loss in the air side of the vessel, I fitted a Wilco 12 volt car tyre pump permanently to the vessel (very easy) and this gives me a permanent pressure read out and allows me to increase pressure at the flick of a switch.
I also fitted a timer device to ensure that the pump does not continue to run past 5 minutes in the event of failure of water supply
I also fitted  a water level switch to stop the unit in the event of low water
Trust this is of some help

[chester]

Odbob

How did you set up the five minute limiter on the pump, this is something I'm after doing

Thanks

Mark

[odbob]

Mark, I had to break the switch wire between the pressure switch on the unit and the pump, the 'live' side and 'switch' side were then connected to a normally closed contact of an 8 pin relay plugged into the top of an 8 pin 'plug in delay on' timer, the switch side also connected to the timer trigger circuit.
When the pressure switch calls for the pump to start, a feed is also connected to the trigger circuit of the 'delay on' timer, 5 minutes later if the pump hasn't stopped then the delay period ends and the relay energises causing the pump to loose it's feed. It remains in this state until I disconnect and reconnect at the supply.
I must learn how to upload drawings, it would be much easier

[pontiff]

Hi,
Like the timer idea, where did you source the relay,timer etc? Drawings/pics would be great if poss! 

Cheers.

[odbob]

Hi as I said, I must try to learn how to upload drawing etc, this would be far simpler, however, the answers to some of your questions :-
R.S components used to supply all my electrical parts including these items, but it was some 7 years ago when I last placed orders (retired) but to describe :-
the base is a standard 8 pin relay base, into which :-
the timer, an 8 pin plug in timer with delay on mode, into which :-
the relay, an 8 pin plug in relay with two change over contacts, standard equipment

To keep the description simple I omitted to say that I also connected a warning indicator to this for my convenience and that most of my control circuitry is of 12 D.C for both safety reasons (swimming pool area) and to match my battery/solar set and so type numbers would not necessarily match your requirements
You can see the pressure set that I am referring to on my web site shown below, go to 'saving it' and then to 'rain water'

[Justme]

What happens when you want / need water for longer than 5 mins at a time?

[Contadino]

As per normal, I'm not sure I understand the question correctly.  However, I'd mention that without the EV, the flow from the majority of pumps is variable, which may well cause problems with a washing machine.  I have the mechanical type pressure switch, and my plumber keeps recommending the electronic type as being a more constant flow.

[Justme]

Sorry, The question was to odbob about his 5 min cut off timer.

[odbob]

Justme, you can buy timers for any duration, seconds up to hours, I simply chose a timer with a range of 1 to 60 minutes, and set it to 5 minutes to reflect my pressure pump expected duty time plus 100%, the odd occasion, when I clean the car for instance, the timer can trip out, but this is no hardship and at least it checks that the timer is working OK