Building a Hydraulic Ram Pump in CR?

[Sam Wilson]

Ken?  I think you get these messages..,

Gene is the guy to ask about ram pumps.  He's built and rebuilt at least 1 or 2 versions over on his creek and... they worked!  I was amazed the first time I saw that creek pumping itself 20 meters up the bank to a tilapia pond and water trough for cows.  Really amazing clever how those work. Parts can either be had locally or a combo of that plus Amazon purchases... jejeje.

Explain your topography and what you are looking for (water flow, etc.) and the pump can be calculated.

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Sam

[gene]

we are here to help!!!

pura vida...

gene

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[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

I'm about to push out a few videos/pics of Gene's ram pump rigs on Gene's behalf.  I'll try to faithfully describe each correctly...

This attached video is of the original rig without a foot valve.  Gene bought one-way floppers at El Colono, and later he got foot valves from Amazon. He's using bicycle inner tube inside sewer pipe for the chamber.

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Sam

[Sam Wilson]

This is version #2 with a foot valve:

The attached video is a doubled up version 2 w/foot valve...

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Sam

[Sam Wilson]

The attached video is I believe the latest rev...

That's all I've got on this triumph of clever over gastos...

[Ken Gilmour]

That's awesome, Sam, thanks!

We have a 7 hectare farm in Sarapiqui that's very hilly. Because of that, the Muni use a lot of pressure to feed the water to the house, but the way they set this up means we suffer a lot with water hammer, which is expensive and annoying to solve when it's the Muni pumps causing the problem, so I set up a tank system to feed the drinking water to the houses. That's where I learned about using water hammer to an advantage with ram pumps). 

Now with drought, crops are not getting enough water so I have to draw some from the spring (for the animals) and the river (for the plants). The Muni here only allows water use for human consumption. So for everything else I need to fill a bunch of tanks on the tops of hills with the river to gravity feed drip hoses and timed sprinklers, fill the animal troughs and for general cleaning.

The benefit of drip irrigation is that you can just keep it going all day, but I have to keep filling the tanks and electric pumps burn out from the load. I don't necessarily need high pressure as much as a consistent flow transfer rate.

The soil is only getting rain a few days a month when there's a storm, and it's very dry, so I need to get cracking on filling those tanks.

Topographically, the hills are more than a 30 degree gradient (because the tractor has a hard time getting up some of them) and I think the up part would probably be about 20 meters as well.

I'll try some of the stuff you mentioned in your other posts.

Thanks!

Ken

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[gene]

much easier and safer to drive tractor uphill backwards...

pura vida...

gene

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[Ken Gilmour]

Have to get my money's worth out of my pacemaker so why not. Hold my beer!

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[Sam Wilson]

Ken,

I'm sure I don't have all the latest measurements right, but I believe Gene's rig was pumping 20+ meters above pump and damn near 100 meters from creek to water tanks (2 x 2500L plastic, Gene?) and then overflow to cow drinker and 9000L tilapia pond.  I don't remember the flow rate at the top of the tank, but it must have been more than cows could drink and the tilapia pond could leak. This rig was powered by 90 meters of pipe laid upstream from the pump to get a 3 meter head from pipe input and pump output.. 90% of the water that entered the feed pipe upstream was returned to the creek. I think the rest resulted in 2 liters/minute at the tank at the top of the creek bed where Gene was pumping the water.

Attached is a video of the tilapia pond 20 meters or so above creek...

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Sam

[gene]

pretty accurate    ....

i think cement pond is 6000 liters ...

pump could pump 2800+ liters per 24 hours  ...

bit 40 cows can drink a lot of water....

pura vida...

gene

-------- Original message --------

From: Sam Wilson <sliw...@gmail.com>

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[Ken Gilmour]

That is amazing. Did you manage to get all the parts from the same place and where did you get them?

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[gene]

got most at el colono...

got foot valve and guage at amazon...

colono had pvc parts and 1" steel pipe and 2" black roll pipe...

build a small one in your hands and use 5 gal bucket for drop...until you get it working..

a bit tricky to start...close output valve...to allow pressure buildup in tube...slowly open output valve...

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[gene]

had to resize images...too large for group

pura vida...

gene

-------- Original message --------

From: gene <ge...@genefrench.com>

Date: 7/8/23 7:41 AM (GMT-06:00)

To: costa-ri...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [Living in Costa Rica] Building a Hydraulic Ram Pump in CR?

stand pipe  ...necessary for long runs...

last 100 ft of steel pipe to ram pump....

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[Sam Wilson]

Hi Gene,

Yeah, hate it when that happens... I usually end up taking a screenshot of the hires image and replace the hires image with a picture of the hires image at lower res... jejeje

I forgot to mention the standpipe in my earlier description and didn't very well describe how the entire upstream was laid out.

2 pics worth several thousand words... jajaja:

steel pipe for the ram leading to the pump in the background

looks like a cajun kid on the side scratchin ant bites...  ;-)

the standpipe at the junction of poly hose and steel pipe

That standpipe was 3 meters tall, right?

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Sam

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[Ken Gilmour]

What determines how big the standpipe should be?

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[Ken Gilmour]

Also, what happens when it rains and the river gets high, does the pump need to be buoyant or anchored? Looks like anchored but I would imagine if it's fully immersed it would stop pumping?

[gene]

amount of head ...

altitude difference between inlet and pump...

i put up a taller pipe ..

trimmed it down when it stabalized...

if water overflows make pipe taller...

i trimmed just a few inches below overflow...its open at the top...but put a screen to keep leaves and stuff out of your system..do the same at inlet...

i have my inlets easily removable from pump to flush out lines...they will get mud inside when we get heavy rains and dirt washes in the river...at least i do...the pipes self clean when allowed to free flow....ask why i know this...lol

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[gene]

our quebrada frequently floods...stuff raging down the river is what messes up your day...ie a log hurdling down stream...

pump is stationary...built a cement platform sitting in a frame with 4 pipe legs pushed down into the river bed...plan on maintanance ... things beyond your control....jerry checked on herd daily  ....simple task to look for problems....cows do damage to pipe and valves on tank...part of ranching!!!

in a perfect world the pump runs till the valves wear out...but costa rica is not a perfect world   ...no matter how much i like it...lol

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[gene]

once the raining stops...in 20 minutes or so...river level has returned to normal....

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