10Deep Well Hand Pump Installation

Earlier this year I installed a deep well hand pump in the well I have at my homestead

It's kind of an interesting process, so I just wanted to show you what that installation was all about

This hand pump is something of a dream come true for me. Thirty years ago I tried to install a traditional deep well hand pump

but I couldn't because there was an existing electric pump in the well

and of course I wanted to retain that. The traditional pump was too big to fit

This is the pumping cylinder. It actually goes down deep into the well below the water level

because if you're dealing with pumping water from a depth of greater than 22 feet or so

you need to push the water up. You can't suck water up that high, that vertical distance

This is made by Bison. They make a great pump. I'm very impressed with how it all works

I'm taking off the well cover here, and you can see the wires coming out

These feed the submersible pump that's down in the bottom now. This is the actual pump handle assembly that sits on top of the well

and it's the thing that you work back and forth. Here I am pulling out the rod from the pumping cylinder using this rod extraction tool

The pumping cylinder is operated by the rod that goes up to the pumping handle

and works that cylinder back and forth. So I now need to connect the first length of pipe with its rod onto that pumping cylinder

The pipes that are used here are a food grade plastic type pipe

and each of them comes with a rod already installed in it

The rods are connected, and then the plastic pipe is threaded in by hand

So here we start the process of lowering the pumping cylinder and the first length of pipe

There's a rope attached to that pumping cylinder, so if something ever goes wrong with the pump or the cylinder

and it falls off the pipe, then we haven't lost it. This tool you see here grips the flared top end of the pipe

so that it stays put while we're working on it. Here I am using the rod extraction tool again to pull up the rod that's now connected to the pumping cylinder

I'm putting some vice grips on here just to lock it so that I can make that all-important connection

So what you don't see above here is that there's a length of pipe that's being held up with the rod in it

The rod is free to move, but they do come together from the factory

and so I'm just doing up the jam nuts now to make sure those rods don't come loose later on

when the pump is actually being used. So removing the vice grips, and now lowering the second length of pipe onto the first

This is a threaded connection. There's no solvents involved, and there's no need to use a wrench here either, as I discovered

Hand tight is fine. There's lots of threads there, and the threads come with Teflon tape already wrapped on them so that they hold water very well

So now it's time to lift up on the pipe. We now have one in the well and the pumping cylinder down below

and now I'm lowering the assembly so that we can put that holding paddle on again

so that it's ready for the next step, which is just a repeat

Same sort of process. Retrieving the connecting rod, pulling it up, locking it in place with the vice grips

and then threading on another rod with the pipe up above it

Now in my case, because the static water level is about 55 or 60 feet below the surface

I will eventually be putting on nine lengths of pipe, and at this stage, that's kind of what we've done

So all those lengths of pipe are now in the well, and it's time to install the pump mechanism, the thing that sits on top

So in order to make that easier, part of the process involves removing the bolt

that connects the handle to the top of the rod. There's a bronze bushing here because that's something that's going to get a lot of wear

It's a replaceable bushing. I'm just putting the bolt back here now so that I don't lose it

The idea here is to allow the handle to flop down so it's not sticking out

and interfering with the connection that we make with the rod. So there's nine lengths of pipe and rod in the well now

I'm just doing up the last jam nut on here on the rod that's in the pumping handle itself

So now it's time to thread the pump assembly into the topmost length of pipe

It's the same sort of threads that have connected all the other pipes, and once again, no wrench is needed

It's just a matter of tightening it up hand tight. The threads have a fair amount of friction to them

so they're not going to loosen on their own in any way

Now the job at hand is to tie the safety ropes to a lug

that's provided underneath the pump assembly. Now when I say ropes, there are two of them

This yellow one actually supports the submersible electric pump that's in the well

the one that supplies our house normally, and this blue and white rope is supporting the pumping cylinder of the hand pump

So the idea is just to provide an additional layer of safety

If something goes wrong, you don't want it to fall down into the bottom of your well

So now we're just stuffing the ropes into the well casing and then lowering the pump so that it sits on top of that metal casing

Here I'm putting in the locking bolts. It's a kind of an Allen head style set screw

that anchors the outside of the pump body to the outside of the case

And we'll tighten these up with tools here just to make sure it's all nice and steady

because this is the thing that supports the actual pumping action. Now I'm tightening up nuts that expand an internal rubber seal

Tightening these nuts causes the seal to expand and it seals around the inside face of the well casing

This helps to seal out rainwater and bugs and other things from getting in

and also provides a whole lot more support, physical support for the pump

So now I'm reactivating the handle, connecting that top bolt that I removed earlier back into position

so that the handle is connected to the pumping rod that goes down into the bottom of the well

and connects to that pumping cylinder that pushes the water up. Here in this final step, I'm just snugging up those locking bolts

in order to secure everything and get ready to do the pumping for the first time

So here I am putting on some rubber bumpers just to protect people

so that they don't get injured if they happen to brush up against these lock screws

And now the first pumping. I should have mentioned before that I drilled a 1 1⁄8 inch diameter hole

about 6 or 7 feet down from the top of the topmost pipe

and that's to allow water to drain back in wintertime so that the pump won't freeze up

So it takes a few pumps to get that water up above that tiny drain hole and get it flowing

And that's what you see here. Fresh, clean, hand-pumped water. Completely independent of the need for electricity or a functional electric pump

It just gives me a lot of security to know that I always have access to fresh water

and it is just plain fun too to pump your own water and to drink it the completely natural way