Great observation! I often tell children that they instinctively use Calculus... Of course, they deny this, until I have them throw a ball at a target... Then show them that our brains do their own form of Calculus whenever we "calculate" - or judge - how high to throw the ball, "understanding" how the ball will arc from gravity's influence... Same thing.., just different!
Watched your install on Stoney ridge farm. You have one key part of a ram pump system that’s needed with all ram pump systems. Your water storage. But you need a overflow. I grew up on a farm that was started in the 1700s. All our water came from a spring. The water was pushed up to the top of the tallest hill by a single 1” output ram pump that was brand new in 1870. At the top of the hill was a cistern that was 5x5’ about 10’ deep. And we constantly had a overflow when it was full. The pump needs no pressure on the output to run correctly and constantly. Yes we did have to replace the football inside the balloon shaped cast iron pressure tank once in 1997. The balloon shaped tank was to build pressure. Both check valves where ball type. No flap or spring. But it is still working today on the corner of stone chapel and Avondale road in Westminster Maryland. The waste actually is pumped out the top of the tank it sits in. And people used to fill milk jugs of that spring water for there own drinking water. It works better in the water. And will not freeze or stop if in the water in the winter. Might want to give it a try. The guys that installed them and made them 200 years ago can’t be to wrong.
I just “discovered” your channel this week so I have a lot of catching up to do. As a time frame reference, my Dad would be 107 now, were he still with us, and I remember him telling me about something called a ram pump that his father had built when my Dad was just a boy, down in Choctaw county Alabama. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of pumping water uphill with no power supply other than the water itself. Now, with your help I am finally figuring out how to build my own. Thank you so much. Really enjoying and learning from your videos. Keep ‘em coming.
Nice start up video. May be a video in the fall/early winter to do the ram pump shutdown for hard freeze. See what parts need to be cleared and disconnect etc.
I first saw one in a Mother Earth book about 60 years ago I had asked and asked about them every one thought i was nuts and never heard of sutch a thing. I was living in the carolinas at that time. Were you would think people would know about them. The old timers were a lot smarter then people thought. They are about the coolest way ever was to move water up hill and for long long distances. Basically free. NO POWER needed.. nice
A question for you. First, cool setup love that it is powerless and just works. You have the whole supply tube and screens at the top in that make shift "puddle" which feeds into the bucket. But the bucket is right beside that sluice way, which in other videos has running water in it. Why the feed pipe instead of just filling the bucket from the sluice?
@@danielwake7621 The sluice wasn't put there as an overflow for the bucket, look at it. it start Way up the river. It looks as if the sluice was there before the bucket and pump, and he has conveniently used it as the overflow because why not. So again, my question stands... why go through all the effort of laying the pipe and things, when the sluice would seem to be the better option. Would love to hear from him on why that choice was made... Does the pipe make a difference to the amount of water? was the sluice entrance no close enough to the stream? Is it more effort to clean out than the screens? I am just curious.
@@LandtoHouse I will sent the idea with the drawings as soon as possible with all calculations, and we are waiting for you to build the idea with thanks
Thanks for another good instructional video. Please install a 30 psi gauge in the top of the accumulator so your viewers can watch the pressure wave increase and decrease.
I have seen you do this"First pump of the year" video a few times. Not sure why I watch it every year, but I'm glad you take the time to do it. Keep up the good work.
For the filter bucket, if you take the overflow 90, turn it downward and extend it to the bottom of the bucket. Then when it overflows it will suck up the sediment off the bottom and take it out into the flume. You could also try turning your supply line inlet slightly to make a whirlpool effect in the bucket. This should increase the sediment separation in the filter bucket.
Maybe digging a hole around your inlet PVC and pouring a couple buckets of pea gravel around it and covering it completely up with pea gravel would keep the silt out of it and actually add to the filtering ability
Brilliant, and a very educative explaination. Nevertheless, I think that there ist no fixed 1-to-7-ration. There is a maximum pump height for a certain head height (defined by the maximum pressure you can reach), but below this maximum pump height you can pump to any height. The flow rate will just increase for decreasing pump height, and will go to zero for the maximum pump height. ... Probably stuff for more ram pump testing videos, which I would be looking forward to.
I really enjoy the videos. Have you ever considered raising the bucket more on a level with the drive pool? I don't know if you want or need more head. In the eastern piedmont of N.C. it is hard to get much head. I usually run the fill pipe from a pond to a barrel, raising the barrel to the level of the water source so that it doesn't run over. This way you could avoid having to connect the bucket to the flume for the overfow. How much more head can you get for your ram if you raised the bucket? This may be the same as having a tower on the drive pipe, except you would not have to connect to the flume for over flow from the bucket. Thanks for the experiments with the rams. Very informative.
Excellent information. Thank you. Question: I have an 3 inch diameter overflow pipe coming onto my land from a neighbor's water supply. Can I use this as a drive pipe and reduce it down to 1" at the ram pump? Or must drive pipe be 1" diameter all the way from the source? Thanks again for the great content!
Hey Seth, I have watched Josh & your pumps working. My situation is I have 2 ponds & need to pump water up hill from both ponds to water livestock & gardens. One pond is approximately 20 feet drop & the other is approximately 8-10 ft drop. Can I use 2 pumps to accommodate this. The lower pond is roughly 800feet down from area to be watered. Second pond is roughly 5-600 ft down.
"Let's scoop the sediment outta here".... As he proceedes to just shovel it directly back into the creek upstream from the intake 😂... Probably works for the city; gotta keep yourself in work I suppose. Lol. All joking aside, this is some amazing engineering And craftsmanship. Can't wait to implement this at my place
Thank you for doing your 2021 ram pump startup video. It should stop snowing soon in Colorado and I hope to startup my ram pumps at the beginning of June. I think you said you have two 3 inch filter pipes feeding one 1 inch supply pipe. Interesting I have one 3 inch - 2 foot long filter PVC pipes with screens patterned after yours on each 2 inch supply pipe leading to stand pipes and down to two 1 1/4 inch Land To House ram pumps with 30 inches of total fall. I have wondered if I might be starving the ram pump for water and plan to test the water to the supply pipes without the filters. Also for operation, I plan to convert to acrylic screen sprayed with silicone that is sewn on like a sock to try to minimize algae accumulation on the filters. I have a third Land To House ram pump in my office and intend to install it this summer. Because I'm using small nozzle mini-wobbler sprinklers, I have to do some filtering of the supply water - a small piece pine needle piece will clog the nozzle and has done twice. One of the tests that I plan on doing is adding a 2nd waste water check valve to one pump and see if this influences the volume of water output. My expectation is that it won't help with our low 30 inch head, but we'll see. I didn't think the stand pipe that you and others suggested would help either, but much to my surprise, in my situation, it increased the water volume output by 70 percent. Here is a link to pictures and discussion of my installation -- my plan is to double the number of ram pumps used for irrigation and try out a water wheel pump: facebook.com/groups/240458583255303/permalink/663829874251503/
One inch PVC check valves typically have a metal spring crack open pressure of 2.5 lbs. I have seen one from Midline on Amazon with a .5 lb. crack open pressure. Would the weaker spring work better because it stays open longer? Or would it fail because it opens too soon?
Cool Video, & What is That little Flaherty Valve Called & How Long Does The Pressure Stand Pipe Need To Be & How Big Around Does it Need To Be Thank You 👍
Please add links to supplies needed for full built .. mostly of the connectors with both poly pipe and pvc options and all sizes.. this would be sooo helpful!! I’m having a hell of a time finding right fittings from male threaded to pump to poly pipe barbed .. thanks keep being awesome
Nice video as long as you have some source of water you can move it anywhere. now lets set up some kind of water purifier for drinking off of one tank. maybe sand, charcoal and stone.
I wish I could hire you to fix my water ram pump I have in Costa Rica. I paid so much money to have it done and it is keeps breaking down or stops working and now the actual pump has broken at Steel’s because I think there’s too much pressure and I had it resealed rewelded, and few days later they broke again seems like no one knows what they’re doing and I’m paying out so much money to get it fixed with no real results. Any advice or suggestions?
If a person uses a bigger PVC pipe for the pressure tank would there be a higher lift, verses 7to 1. I think I have 35' head pressure so that should get me up to 245 ft in elevation, right?
Why the heck don't you drain your system in the winter? Cute little cottage industry you got there. What you keep explaining about filling the tanks is true, but incomplete. What people need to know is that the pressure from the ram pump is always greater than the pressure pushing back down from the filled tanks.
You can just pick a higher spot in the creek and have the water come down in a pipe by gravity, it is much simpler and you get more water. The ram pump concept is very inefficient, There are better ways out there such as a water pump propelled by a water wheel from the same water or the downhill pipe from an elevated than the tanks point as I mentioned.
Could you make the force from the water hammer more effective by adding another one-way valve on the drive pipe side of the swing valve? That way the force generated when the swing valve closes will mostly be directed towards the pressure tank and the delivery pipe.
Just out of curiosity... fancy having a ram pump this size? ruclips.net/video/UIW93Up87kM/видео.html Admittedly you don't get to see the setup or how they are catching the water..
I wonder if there's a way to run this system thru winter, if you had a deep enough river nearby that doesn't completely freeze during winter and keeps the system under pressure so it can't freeze maybe?. It's such a versatile system that can run and do so many things with some minor adaptations.
So, you are using water pressure to move water from a creek to an area uphill from the source? The advantage of this system is that it doesn't use electricity or fuel of any kind, just gravity and a clever usage/position of one way valves.
I'm a little curious why all that effort only for 3 little barrels and just to water garden and stock etc.. love the insight tho. Love learning new things. 👌
I would think water will not freeze as long as it is running. Just like I drip my faucets when it gets to cold. I guess, if it was to malfunction, then yes it will freeze and bust.
Wait the pressite build up in the thick pipe becomes enough to pump water up 7 x higher than where it came from am i correct your explanation was a bit light some of us hsve not heard ogf a rampump or know how it works hence we looking at your videos so we would appteciate a explanation for rocket scientists please
Great explanation of filling a tank from the bottom. Higher input pipe is higher head pressure then filling from the bottom unless it’s full. Most tanks fill this way in industry
What about powering 2 pumps but 1 from a stream and the second from a tote higher up the hill. Lets say the first pump get the water 3/4 the way up the hill, empties into a tote, the water from the tote is piped to a pump halfway back down the hill which pumps it to the top of the hill into a tote. to keep from wasting water at the top of the hill the tote has an overflow pipe that drains back to the lower tote. can this actually be done?
Hey Seth, reinstalling the pump I got from you last year for my garden and it is popping twice and then waiting maybe 10 seconds to pop twice again. Any ideas? Last year it worked like a charm but I didn’t need it much as it was the second wettest year on record. Thanks
Hello, and thanks for the excellent content! If I place a ram pump in a spring which tends to dry up at times, does the ram pump need to be primed once the spring starts flowing again, as in, will it self-start or does it need to be primed manually first of all to get it to pump again? Thanks in advance :)
i know its a waste of time but i really want to pan some of that sediment to see what comes out. lol just out of curiosity. everytime i see a river i get the compulsion to pan the river mud.
would adding a schrader valve to the top of your air chamber be an easier maintenance point to add air with bike pump if air chamber becomes water logged?
When priming a gravity feed pipe. You can also stick your thumb over the end. As the pressure builds, you can uncover the end and let the pressure and flow rate grow till re-establishing full flow. Not useful with ice cold water, nor pipes larger than a hand.
Brilliant, and a very educative explaination. The only think I see different is that fixed 1-to-7-ration. There is a maximum pump height for a certain head height (defined by the maximum pressure you can reach), but below this maximum pump height you can pump to any height. The flow rate will just increase for decreasing pump height, and will go to zero for the maximum pump height. ... Probably stuff for more ram pump testing videos, which I am would be looking forward to.
You could use that as a triple purpose system. You could have it flow into a 1000 gallon water tank you can buy those huge white/clear ones from oilfield companys for like 150 a unit. they usually hold oil gear oil ect but you could clean it and use it for this purpose. have a matching outflow valve ran thru a small turbine made from a washing machine that charges up a bunch of deep cycle batteries. it could also be used as an emergency generator by storing enough water to run said diy turbine for a couple hrs. Then have it used for flowing water to your home as it's second purpose and have it water your garden or small field. Then have it run for your livestock I think it's genius. So many possibilities from one small simple pump.
I'm real curious where you're getting 1000 gallon tanks that cheap, you mind giving more details? I'd love to snag one for that price, even If I'd be scrubbing it out for a day...
you can use the pump to produce free energy forever ram pump the water up put a water mill on it to spin then hook a car alternator up to it spin free energy forever
Great video - kids and I enjoyed watching. Might be a dumb question: Could the ram pump air cylinder be used to harvest compressed air? (Thinking some kind of trompe/ram combination - compressed air harvested would be cooler and dryer and could power lots of things on a farm)
Cool man but you outting out some erroneous info. Pipe size matters because of frictional pipe losses. Also there is a difference with pressure at your tanks comparing top/bottom of tank. The velocity head & pressure heads are almost equal but the gravity head is not the same. Please review Bernoulli's equation. ΣΗ = P + ρν²/2 + ρgh (total head pressure = pressure head + velocity head + gravity head)
Very cool Seth. Just came across these videos today and loving them! In a bit of a drought here in central Texas so recently installed a small rainwater system (2 @ 50 galllon tanks) just as a start and am wondering if I could install a ram pump set up to move water back uphill for intermittent watering of gardens? Or does the set up require more continuous flow? Looking forward to future videos. Thanks for creating.
Hi! Thanks for watching! The ram pump does need continuous flow. If you use it in a limited source system you will be disappointed. It is best in a creek or river.
@@LandtoHouse I bought a creekside acre in TN to live in my ambulance conversion. With hopes to build a cabin. Been wondering how to get water up to rig. Thank you! Next Amazon purchase will be me!
You manually pushing that valve like 1000 times. Just close the delivery valve then once it's cycling itself Crack it open just a little and it'll prime itself
Yes that is a valid way as long as you can find that sweet spot. Another method is to bring the delivery down the hill and let it fill from the head pressure.
Hello, just purchased one from you off of amazon. I was not sure which size to get as our stream is pretty small, but our land will allow me to get at least 6-8 ft of drop. I am a little concerned with how the brass will hold up since we are a half mile off of the coast in Oregon. I am curious, will I have better luck with the smaller hose size since our creek is pretty small or does that not have any bearing on this? Is the drop all that matters? I'd say our creek is 5 gallons per minute in the July/August, but quickly builds up as we have rain 9 months out of the year, it increases to probably 20 gallons per minute.
Thank you for ordering a pump. 6' of water drop will lift water to 42'. In normal freshwater the brass valve typically last between 2 and 4 years. It does depend on how frequently you run the pump. With a flow rate of 5gpm you can run the 1/2" pump, 3/4" pump and sometimes the 1" pump. The 1" I typically say 6gpm is the minimum flow rate.
I have a small river approximately 210 feet from my home but it’s about 60 feet below me with this ram pump pump water up and that far and if not other modifications I could make maybe to the reservoir that would allow me to do it cost of water is pretty crazy now and I would like to pump it into a small 200 gallon reservoir and use that water for watering my grass maybe washing my car and after filtering and conditioning it Keeping my pool topped off, I’ve had great success using rainwater but last year we had 35 days and not a drop of rain. Thank you would appreciate any information or any links to look at continue your success.
Love your vids Seth! I have a creek flowing in spring, fall, and when it rains. I'd like to use it to fill my pond I dug out (50 feet wide, 7 feet deep, give or take a bit). Prob 2 feet of drop on the creek. Think that's enough drop to get one of these going??? Trev =)
Just found this and it's awesome. Question: to conserve water/decrease erosion etc., could you run a pipe from the open end of the snap valve through a one way valve back into the supply pipe? I am essentially imagining a loop to stop the squirt of water from wasting on the ground and being fed back into the system. Would that create too much back pressure for the snap valve to work properly? Thanks!
If you feed it back into the supply pipe the pump won't work. The supply pressure will simply feed to both sides of the valve and the valve will never cycle. The valve needs high pressure on one side and low pressure on the other. You could pipe it back to the creek, as long as the plumbing used is large enough to create no back pressure on the valve. In practice you would likely reduce the efficiency somewhat no matter what you do.
I give you A for effort, but if you are trying to sell your units, I would tidy everything up, and put clamps on all your joints and make it more a professional look. Very hit and miss.
I buy those unisel from the Aussie global website. Warehouse is in Florida so shipping is quick. Just finished a hydro video today. Should be coming out on Sunday.
I noticed the small diamater of your pipe. How does flow resistance play into the calculations. Would a bigger diam pipe help flow? Or because the flow is so slow does it not matter much?
Hi Seth you are doing great for all of us. Many thanks.I have been watching ur videos trying to find out solution about my situation..There is an irrigation system passing in my land i want to utilize it ..The irrigation(like a canal) is made of concrete and the wall is around 3 feet high and the depth of the water in that canal is around 20inches( during heavy rain it overflow..)..I don't have the flow rate but it looks it has a good water current flow( since it is an irrigation).. How i can use the Ram pump to discharge water to a 25 feet elevation..But i need to place the Ram pump outside the canal thus the supply/drive pipe has to install vertically from the bed of the canal over the wall of the canal..Is it posible to do it..Hope you got my idea..Thanks
Hello. Thank you for watching. If the canal is raised up above the rest of the land you can syphon out to pump and lift water out. But if the canal is the lowest point you won't be able to use the ram pump. If you are able to get water lifted up out of the canal by syphon and then down to the pump you'll need approximately 4' of drop to lift water to 25'.
You need a couple lessons in fluid hydrodynamics. The force of it filling from the bottom increases as you fill the barrels. It's much easier to displace the weight of the water in the lines to the top of the barrels than the sum of the weight of the water in the barrels as they fill. Just put some gauges on it if you don't believe me.
Can you run a stand pipe off of the waste valve to increase head pressure for a secondary drive pipe on another system? Much like your silt bucket but to build head pressure for another ram pump for low head rivers and streams?
When you add a pipe on the waste valve it reduces the head pressure of the first pump. You can capture the water from the first pump and use it as the input to the next.
Why don't you put a T piece with a value in towards the bottom of the line so you can drain all the water out before it freezes and starts braking pipe fittings? 👍
I'm interested in buying one of these from you my grandfather told me about these when I was a young boy and I got property with my grandmother that has a creek that I could pump from how much do you charge for these ram pumps
Im a mechanical engineer and i couldnt have explained it better. I love how much intuitive knowledge you have without needing equations. Good stuff.
Thank you. I actually have over 130 test videos on the ram pump. That does help with my intuitive knowledge.
Great observation! I often tell children that they instinctively use Calculus... Of course, they deny this, until I have them throw a ball at a target... Then show them that our brains do their own form of Calculus whenever we "calculate" - or judge - how high to throw the ball, "understanding" how the ball will arc from gravity's influence... Same thing.., just different!
I’m a gas station attendant and I couldn’t have said it better.
lol have a deal for you. You come tot he UK and show me how to make one of those pumps and I will show you how to garden ;)
I have faith you can build a ram pump... as for my gardening.... lost cause.
@@LandtoHouse lol never a lost cause. Winter is a great reset
@SHIIEEET It's called a birth certificate. 🤗
Watched your install on Stoney ridge farm. You have one key part of a ram pump system that’s needed with all ram pump systems. Your water storage. But you need a overflow. I grew up on a farm that was started in the 1700s. All our water came from a spring. The water was pushed up to the top of the tallest hill by a single 1” output ram pump that was brand new in 1870. At the top of the hill was a cistern that was 5x5’ about 10’ deep. And we constantly had a overflow when it was full. The pump needs no pressure on the output to run correctly and constantly. Yes we did have to replace the football inside the balloon shaped cast iron pressure tank once in 1997. The balloon shaped tank was to build pressure. Both check valves where ball type. No flap or spring. But it is still working today on the corner of stone chapel and Avondale road in Westminster Maryland. The waste actually is pumped out the top of the tank it sits in. And people used to fill milk jugs of that spring water for there own drinking water. It works better in the water. And will not freeze or stop if in the water in the winter. Might want to give it a try. The guys that installed them and made them 200 years ago can’t be to wrong.
Interesting info
Interesting info my brother i
I just “discovered” your channel this week so I have a lot of catching up to do. As a time frame reference, my Dad would be 107 now, were he still with us, and I remember him telling me about something called a ram pump that his father had built when my Dad was just a boy, down in Choctaw county Alabama. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of pumping water uphill with no power supply other than the water itself. Now, with your help I am finally figuring out how to build my own. Thank you so much. Really enjoying and learning from your videos. Keep ‘em coming.
Thats really awesome! The ram pump is an almost lost concept. Nice to hear that your dad passed the knowledge on to you. Thanks for watching!
Nice start up video. May be a video in the fall/early winter to do the ram pump shutdown for hard freeze. See what parts need to be cleared and disconnect etc.
Yes, that would be awesome. And it would save you, Seth, from buying freeze-busted piping in the spring! ;-)
I first saw one in a Mother Earth book about 60 years ago I had asked and asked about them every one thought i was nuts and never heard of sutch a thing. I was living in the carolinas at that time. Were you would think people would know about them. The old timers were a lot smarter then people thought. They are about the coolest way ever was to move water up hill and for long long distances. Basically free. NO POWER needed.. nice
A question for you. First, cool setup love that it is powerless and just works.
You have the whole supply tube and screens at the top in that make shift "puddle" which feeds into the bucket. But the bucket is right beside that sluice way, which in other videos has running water in it. Why the feed pipe instead of just filling the bucket from the sluice?
@@danielwake7621 The sluice wasn't put there as an overflow for the bucket, look at it. it start Way up the river. It looks as if the sluice was there before the bucket and pump, and he has conveniently used it as the overflow because why not. So again, my question stands... why go through all the effort of laying the pipe and things, when the sluice would seem to be the better option. Would love to hear from him on why that choice was made... Does the pipe make a difference to the amount of water? was the sluice entrance no close enough to the stream? Is it more effort to clean out than the screens? I am just curious.
welcome back again 🌹
More ram pump videos to come.
@@LandtoHouse how can i sent to you about ram pump new idea to built?
Please feel free to send an email to landtohouse@gmail.com
@@LandtoHouse I will sent the idea with the drawings as soon as possible with all calculations, and we are waiting for you to build the idea with thanks
Thanks. I will check it out and see if we can test the idea.
Thanks for another good instructional video. Please install a 30 psi gauge in the top of the accumulator so your viewers can watch the pressure wave increase and decrease.
I have seen you do this"First pump of the year" video a few times. Not sure why I watch it every year, but I'm glad you take the time to do it. Keep up the good work.
*Great video and explanation as usual good sir! Thank you Seth. - Danny*
Think you. Now that I have this up and running I can do lots more ram pump testing.
Thanks for sharing, I like your setup.
When will you be doing the water wheel? I am curious to see how you can get it to work.
I really like the Ram pump and want one! I just don’t know how to figure my drop and rise.
Google Earth can be a handy tool for measuring that. Otherwise you can take a garden hose and a tape measure and find the water level that way.
@@LandtoHouse what is the press relief valve that you use set at for psi and do you use and adjustable relief valve
I love this. I'm regularly re-watching the 2019 one. :)
Happy to help! This particular video went well.
For the filter bucket, if you take the overflow 90, turn it downward and extend it to the bottom of the bucket. Then when it overflows it will suck up the sediment off the bottom and take it out into the flume. You could also try turning your supply line inlet slightly to make a whirlpool effect in the bucket. This should increase the sediment separation in the filter bucket.
Öiuu 👋 thanks for letting me know and jump
Great. Thanks
Wow!!!!!! Tnx!!!
It's fascinating, this is exactly the same as a boost converter in electronic circuits
Maybe digging a hole around your inlet PVC and pouring a couple buckets of pea gravel around it and covering it completely up with pea gravel would keep the silt out of it and actually add to the filtering ability
Brilliant, and a very educative explaination. Nevertheless, I think that there ist no fixed 1-to-7-ration. There is a maximum pump height for a certain head height (defined by the maximum pressure you can reach), but below this maximum pump height you can pump to any height. The flow rate will just increase for decreasing pump height, and will go to zero for the maximum pump height. ... Probably stuff for more ram pump testing videos, which I would be looking forward to.
I really enjoy the videos. Have you ever considered raising the bucket more on a level with the drive pool? I don't know if you want or need more head. In the eastern piedmont of N.C. it is hard to get much head. I usually run the fill pipe from a pond to a barrel, raising the barrel to the level of the water source so that it doesn't run over. This way you could avoid having to connect the bucket to the flume for the overfow. How much more head can you get for your ram if you raised the bucket? This may be the same as having a tower on the drive pipe, except you would not have to connect to the flume for over flow from the bucket. Thanks for the experiments with the rams. Very informative.
@Land to House did you notice the salamander? It came out around 6:08 running from the water from the hose.
We have tons of those here! Very healthy creek.
Excellent information. Thank you. Question: I have an 3 inch diameter overflow pipe coming onto my land from a neighbor's water supply. Can I use this as a drive pipe and reduce it down to 1" at the ram pump? Or must drive pipe be 1" diameter all the way from the source? Thanks again for the great content!
Just bought the 1 and a quarter...fingers crossed..!
Hey Seth, I have watched Josh & your pumps working. My situation is I have 2 ponds & need to pump water up hill from both ponds to water livestock & gardens. One pond is approximately 20 feet drop & the other is approximately 8-10 ft drop. Can I use 2 pumps to accommodate this. The lower pond is roughly 800feet down from area to be watered. Second pond is roughly 5-600 ft down.
Wow! Love it, and I'm now planning to carry on the task. Any link I can view for detail information?
Hello. I have over 130 ram pump videos on the channel. There is a little more info on the Land To House website.
www.landtohouse.com
"Let's scoop the sediment outta here".... As he proceedes to just shovel it directly back into the creek upstream from the intake 😂... Probably works for the city; gotta keep yourself in work I suppose. Lol. All joking aside, this is some amazing engineering And craftsmanship. Can't wait to implement this at my place
Thank you for doing your 2021 ram pump startup video. It should stop snowing soon in Colorado and I hope to startup my ram pumps at the beginning of June.
I think you said you have two 3 inch filter pipes feeding one 1 inch supply pipe. Interesting I have one 3 inch - 2 foot long filter PVC pipes with screens patterned after yours on each 2 inch supply pipe leading to stand pipes and down to two 1 1/4 inch Land To House ram pumps with 30 inches of total fall. I have wondered if I might be starving the ram pump for water and plan to test the water to the supply pipes without the filters. Also for operation, I plan to convert to acrylic screen sprayed with silicone that is sewn on like a sock to try to minimize algae accumulation on the filters. I have a third Land To House ram pump in my office and intend to install it this summer. Because I'm using small nozzle mini-wobbler sprinklers, I have to do some filtering of the supply water - a small piece pine needle piece will clog the nozzle and has done twice.
One of the tests that I plan on doing is adding a 2nd waste water check valve to one pump and see if this influences the volume of water output. My expectation is that it won't help with our low 30 inch head, but we'll see. I didn't think the stand pipe that you and others suggested would help either, but much to my surprise, in my situation, it increased the water volume output by 70 percent.
Here is a link to pictures and discussion of my installation -- my plan is to double the number of ram pumps used for irrigation and try out a water wheel pump:
facebook.com/groups/240458583255303/permalink/663829874251503/
One inch PVC check valves typically have a metal spring crack open pressure of 2.5 lbs. I have seen one from Midline on Amazon with a .5 lb. crack open pressure. Would the weaker spring work better because it stays open longer? Or would it fail because it opens too soon?
Cool Video, & What is That little Flaherty Valve Called & How Long Does The Pressure Stand Pipe Need To Be & How Big Around Does it Need To Be Thank You 👍
Please add links to supplies needed for full built .. mostly of the connectors with both poly pipe and pvc options and all sizes.. this would be sooo helpful!! I’m having a hell of a time finding right fittings from male threaded to pump to poly pipe barbed .. thanks keep being awesome
Nice video as long as you have some source of water you can move it anywhere. now lets set up some kind of water purifier for drinking off of one tank. maybe sand, charcoal and stone.
Im from Malaysia...good news for me to know this techniques and methods of how to deliver the water uphill in my garden..Thanks alot..
I wish I could hire you to fix my water ram pump I have in Costa Rica. I paid so much money to have it done and it is keeps breaking down or stops working and now the actual pump has broken at Steel’s because I think there’s too much pressure and I had it resealed rewelded, and few days later they broke again seems like no one knows what they’re doing and I’m paying out so much money to get it fixed with no real results. Any advice or suggestions?
The difference of filling top or bottom is a CHECK VALVE. Bottom fill requires check valve.
If a person uses a bigger PVC pipe for the pressure tank would there be a higher lift, verses 7to 1. I think I have 35' head pressure so that should get me up to 245 ft in elevation, right?
Why the heck don't you drain your system in the winter? Cute little cottage industry you got there.
What you keep explaining about filling the tanks is true, but incomplete. What people need to know is that the pressure from the ram pump is always greater than the pressure pushing back down from the filled tanks.
You can just pick a higher spot in the creek and have the water come down in a pipe by gravity, it is much simpler and you get more water. The ram pump concept is very inefficient, There are better ways out there such as a water pump propelled by a water wheel from the same water or the downhill pipe from an elevated than the tanks point as I mentioned.
Could you make the force from the water hammer more effective by adding another one-way valve on the drive pipe side of the swing valve? That way the force generated when the swing valve closes will mostly be directed towards the pressure tank and the delivery pipe.
So much fun¡
Just out of curiosity... fancy having a ram pump this size? ruclips.net/video/UIW93Up87kM/видео.html
Admittedly you don't get to see the setup or how they are catching the water..
Awesome setup. All you have to do is remember to shut it down and clear before or near the first frost
I wonder if there's a way to run this system thru winter, if you had a deep enough river nearby that doesn't completely freeze during winter and keeps the system under pressure so it can't freeze maybe?. It's such a versatile system that can run and do so many things with some minor adaptations.
So, you are using water pressure to move water from a creek to an area uphill from the source? The advantage of this system is that it doesn't use electricity or fuel of any kind, just gravity and a clever usage/position of one way valves.
I'm a little curious why all that effort only for 3 little barrels and just to water garden and stock etc.. love the insight tho. Love learning new things. 👌
I would think water will not freeze as long as it is running. Just like I drip my faucets when it gets to cold. I guess, if it was to malfunction, then yes it will freeze and bust.
Been a long time viewer, and haven't really asked what that long tunnel water thing is for next to the intake bucket :)
Thanks for watching. That flume was an old idea I had for a water wheel. Someday I may come back to that idea.
Wait the pressite build up in the thick pipe becomes enough to pump water up 7 x higher than where it came from am i correct your explanation was a bit light some of us hsve not heard ogf a rampump or know how it works hence we looking at your videos so we would appteciate a explanation for rocket scientists please
Great explanation of filling a tank from the bottom. Higher input pipe is higher head pressure then filling from the bottom unless it’s full. Most tanks fill this way in industry
46 members of a government didn't like this because you aren't paying for the water 🤣.
Do you think you could use this on your 3 55 gallon drums into a fish pond and back into the 55 gallon drums to keep fish alive ?
What about powering 2 pumps but 1 from a stream and the second from a tote higher up the hill. Lets say the first pump get the water 3/4 the way up the hill, empties into a tote, the water from the tote is piped to a pump halfway back down the hill which pumps it to the top of the hill into a tote. to keep from wasting water at the top of the hill the tote has an overflow pipe that drains back to the lower tote. can this actually be done?
Hey Seth, reinstalling the pump I got from you last year for my garden and it is popping twice and then waiting maybe 10 seconds to pop twice again.
Any ideas?
Last year it worked like a charm but I didn’t need it much as it was the second wettest year on record.
Thanks
Hello, and thanks for the excellent content! If I place a ram pump in a spring which tends to dry up at times, does the ram pump need to be primed once the spring starts flowing again, as in, will it self-start or does it need to be primed manually first of all to get it to pump again? Thanks in advance :)
Yes, just like he did in his video to get his pump running by pushing the valve a few times
How do I know which size RAM pump I would need? Is it about how far the lift is from source to where I want the water?
I am really interested and want full specifications of the materials to build this ramp pump. I Love it
looking forward of this videos, I will make one on my farm that have spring on the top which is good for ram pump.
would burrying the pipe with some sand around it save it from blowing apart each winter?
i know its a waste of time but i really want to pan some of that sediment to see what comes out. lol just out of curiosity. everytime i see a river i get the compulsion to pan the river mud.
would adding a schrader valve to the top of your air chamber be an easier maintenance point to add air with bike pump if air chamber becomes water logged?
Thanks for the video! Also.....did you see the salamander at 6:08!? 😁
When priming a gravity feed pipe. You can also stick your thumb over the end. As the pressure builds, you can uncover the end and let the pressure and flow rate grow till re-establishing full flow.
Not useful with ice cold water, nor pipes larger than a hand.
Brilliant, and a very educative explaination. The only think I see different is that fixed 1-to-7-ration. There is a maximum pump height for a certain head height (defined by the maximum pressure you can reach), but below this maximum pump height you can pump to any height. The flow rate will just increase for decreasing pump height, and will go to zero for the maximum pump height. ... Probably stuff for more ram pump testing videos, which I am would be looking forward to.
6:07 if you look closely on the left side of the screen (centered), you can see a lizard or something hop away.
I love this. I've been on a deep dive with ram pumps on RUclips. Thank you.
You could use that as a triple purpose system. You could have it flow into a 1000 gallon water tank you can buy those huge white/clear ones from oilfield companys for like 150 a unit. they usually hold oil gear oil ect but you could clean it and use it for this purpose. have a matching outflow valve ran thru a small turbine made from a washing machine that charges up a bunch of deep cycle batteries. it could also be used as an emergency generator by storing enough water to run said diy turbine for a couple hrs. Then have it used for flowing water to your home as it's second purpose and have it water your garden or small field. Then have it run for your livestock I think it's genius. So many possibilities from one small simple pump.
I'm real curious where you're getting 1000 gallon tanks that cheap, you mind giving more details? I'd love to snag one for that price, even If I'd be scrubbing it out for a day...
Why
If you fill from the bottom you have to have a valve, to me seems like it would make it fill slower but that’s just me ig
Nettle makes a great high in iron tea, and many other health benefits. harvest it when young and boil.
you should try Panning that silt, ya never know what fine minerals it might turn up?
you can use the pump to produce free energy forever ram pump the water up put a water mill on it to spin then hook a car alternator up to it spin free energy forever
Good morning Mr, how can I order one or two of them the Ramp pump from you.
Please call me and te
Have you seen this monster Ram pump? ruclips.net/video/Esln877z4IE/видео.html
I clicked as soon as I saw ram pump
Haha it is a popular topic here on Land To House. Thanks for watching!
.
Love from India. Kerala
Where it available in India wt price
Outstanding. What can I attach to filter my creek water to make it safely drinkable?
Great video - kids and I enjoyed watching. Might be a dumb question: Could the ram pump air cylinder be used to harvest compressed air? (Thinking some kind of trompe/ram combination - compressed air harvested would be cooler and dryer and could power lots of things on a farm)
Thanks for watching!
The compressed air in the tank is so small it would not do much. Its only there to soften the hammer effect.
what about a big volume of water to be pumped up using the same principle?
Cool man but you outting out some erroneous info. Pipe size matters because of frictional pipe losses. Also there is a difference with pressure at your tanks comparing top/bottom of tank. The velocity head & pressure heads are almost equal but the gravity head is not the same. Please review Bernoulli's equation.
ΣΗ = P + ρν²/2 + ρgh (total head pressure = pressure head + velocity head + gravity head)
P/ρg + v²/2g + z
Is another way to express where z is just the vertical drop or gravity head
Check into weight displacing siphon with no moving parts.
Very cool Seth. Just came across these videos today and loving them! In a bit of a drought here in central Texas so recently installed a small rainwater system (2 @ 50 galllon tanks) just as a start and am wondering if I could install a ram pump set up to move water back uphill for intermittent watering of gardens? Or does the set up require more continuous flow? Looking forward to future videos. Thanks for creating.
Hi! Thanks for watching! The ram pump does need continuous flow. If you use it in a limited source system you will be disappointed. It is best in a creek or river.
@@LandtoHouse I bought a creekside acre in TN to live in my ambulance conversion. With hopes to build a cabin. Been wondering how to get water up to rig. Thank you! Next Amazon purchase will be me!
You manually pushing that valve like 1000 times. Just close the delivery valve then once it's cycling itself Crack it open just a little and it'll prime itself
Yes that is a valid way as long as you can find that sweet spot. Another method is to bring the delivery down the hill and let it fill from the head pressure.
Hello, just purchased one from you off of amazon. I was not sure which size to get as our stream is pretty small, but our land will allow me to get at least 6-8 ft of drop. I am a little concerned with how the brass will hold up since we are a half mile off of the coast in Oregon. I am curious, will I have better luck with the smaller hose size since our creek is pretty small or does that not have any bearing on this? Is the drop all that matters? I'd say our creek is 5 gallons per minute in the July/August, but quickly builds up as we have rain 9 months out of the year, it increases to probably 20 gallons per minute.
Thank you for ordering a pump. 6' of water drop will lift water to 42'. In normal freshwater the brass valve typically last between 2 and 4 years. It does depend on how frequently you run the pump. With a flow rate of 5gpm you can run the 1/2" pump, 3/4" pump and sometimes the 1" pump. The 1" I typically say 6gpm is the minimum flow rate.
I have a small river approximately 210 feet from my home but it’s about 60 feet below me with this ram pump pump water up and that far and if not other modifications I could make maybe to the reservoir that would allow me to do it cost of water is pretty crazy now and I would like to pump it into a small 200 gallon reservoir and use that water for watering my grass maybe washing my car and after filtering and conditioning it Keeping my pool topped off, I’ve had great success using rainwater but last year we had 35 days and not a drop of rain. Thank you would appreciate any information or any links to look at continue your success.
Certainly a good option, always go bigger on storage if you can though!
Love your vids Seth! I have a creek flowing in spring, fall, and when it rains. I'd like to use it to fill my pond I dug out (50 feet wide, 7 feet deep, give or take a bit). Prob 2 feet of drop on the creek. Think that's enough drop to get one of these going??? Trev =)
He mentioned a 7:1 ratio, so with 2 feet of drop you should be able to pump up to 14 feet above the pump
Need a ball valve on the top of the pressure tank to break vacuum.
Just found this and it's awesome. Question: to conserve water/decrease erosion etc., could you run a pipe from the open end of the snap valve through a one way valve back into the supply pipe? I am essentially imagining a loop to stop the squirt of water from wasting on the ground and being fed back into the system. Would that create too much back pressure for the snap valve to work properly? Thanks!
If you feed it back into the supply pipe the pump won't work. The supply pressure will simply feed to both sides of the valve and the valve will never cycle. The valve needs high pressure on one side and low pressure on the other. You could pipe it back to the creek, as long as the plumbing used is large enough to create no back pressure on the valve. In practice you would likely reduce the efficiency somewhat no matter what you do.
first of all it looks good ...And get some close on you er not a play doy..?
I give you A for effort, but if you are trying to sell your units, I would tidy everything up, and put clamps on all your joints and make it more a professional look. Very hit and miss.
I do a startup video every year. This one has been in the creek for a long time. Ram pumps get dirty for sure. Very real life look in this video.
Hi Seth , could you tell me if you sell the uniseal too?
Thanks
Keep the video coming!
I really enjoyed them, also the ones about the turbine.
I buy those unisel from the Aussie global website. Warehouse is in Florida so shipping is quick.
Just finished a hydro video today. Should be coming out on Sunday.
Great Job! Keep it up. I wish I had found a great spot like you have there years ago. Ram's are the answer.
Water was the primary reason for buying this lot!
I noticed the small diamater of your pipe. How does flow resistance play into the calculations. Would a bigger diam pipe help flow? Or because the flow is so slow does it not matter much?
The output (or delivery) is low flow and low pressure. The pipe size does not make much of a difference.
Why the pumped up bicycle tube in the pressure tank?
Have you ever put multiple ram pumps in parallel and or in series?
put a water valve on lines to drain them in the winter ------
great one again mate. Im sure you could have some sort of ram-pump startup party....Ram Pump Day....couple of weeks after Mothers Day.
Ha fill the missing day between mothers day and fathers day. RAM PUMP day.
Sayaorangindponesiacaranyasangatsimpelsekalitrimakasih
Hi Seth you are doing great for all of us. Many thanks.I have been watching ur videos trying to find out solution about my situation..There is an irrigation system passing in my land i want to utilize it ..The irrigation(like a canal) is made of concrete and the wall is around 3 feet high and the depth of the water in that canal is around 20inches( during heavy rain it overflow..)..I don't have the flow rate but it looks it has a good water current flow( since it is an irrigation)..
How i can use the Ram pump to discharge water to a 25 feet elevation..But i need to place the Ram pump outside the canal thus the supply/drive pipe has to install vertically from the bed of the canal over the wall of the canal..Is it posible to do it..Hope you got my idea..Thanks
Hello. Thank you for watching. If the canal is raised up above the rest of the land you can syphon out to pump and lift water out. But if the canal is the lowest point you won't be able to use the ram pump. If you are able to get water lifted up out of the canal by syphon and then down to the pump you'll need approximately 4' of drop to lift water to 25'.
@@LandtoHouse Many thanks Seth..I'll try to find the ways and means as you have suggested..Thanks again and more power to you..
You need a couple lessons in fluid hydrodynamics. The force of it filling from the bottom increases as you fill the barrels. It's much easier to displace the weight of the water in the lines to the top of the barrels than the sum of the weight of the water in the barrels as they fill. Just put some gauges on it if you don't believe me.
ruclips.net/video/O9ZSarsHf7w/видео.html
That should help you.
Can you run a stand pipe off of the waste valve to increase head pressure for a secondary drive pipe on another system?
Much like your silt bucket but to build head pressure for another ram pump for low head rivers and streams?
When you add a pipe on the waste valve it reduces the head pressure of the first pump. You can capture the water from the first pump and use it as the input to the next.
Trying to get cattle out of ponds. Can you help. County says have to fence off all water supplies. Electricity is not available.
You might check my new 1/2" ram pump video on the channel. It is for goats pasture.
Why don't you put a T piece with a value in towards the bottom of the line so you can drain all the water out before it freezes and starts braking pipe fittings? 👍
I'm interested in buying one of these from you my grandfather told me about these when I was a young boy and I got property with my grandmother that has a creek that I could pump from how much do you charge for these ram pumps
Hello. Thank you for asking. I have ram pumps available at landtohouse.com and on Amazon as well as ebay.
Seems like we should be able to adjust the back pressure by changing the location of the check valve under the tanks.
The main thing is the weight of the water going up hill. You can close the delivery valve partially to increase friction.