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10 Comments

    1. Thanks! Always looking for another way to pump water. Added that to my collection. I could have wrote about radios, guns, ballistics or other, and did a bit the other day, but there is plenty of that material available already, and water is right up there with ‘security’. ‘Security will be ‘job 1’, but no water, no life. After years of looking into the topic, the Slow Pump, is still at the top of the list, and it can go with me should I have to leave. If forced to leave, the ability to grown food becomes even more important as the bulk of one’s food storage may have to be left behind, or is lost. It is simple to use, compact, lightweight, and adaptable to most situations where one may find themselves, and there are several ways to power the pump, small gasoline generator, bicycle/alternator, bicycle/ treadmill motor(generator), batteries, and directly from a standard solar system. Mine is stored in my RV ready to go.

      No, pumping water is not as interesting as other topics, and the Dankoff Slow Pump is rather boring, but growing food, and watering livestock could be interesting. If one has a well, then there are better pumps for that job, but the Slow Pump can be used for that purpose as ‘well’, should the casing be 6 inches, or larger in diameter. It could be a back up, or alternative to an existing pump. If using P.A.C.E. (Primary, Alternative, Contingency, and Emergency) in your planning, it fits in any of those categories. After years into the topic, I do not know what other water pump could be a better choice. And that makes the pump particularly interesting to myself. But I could talk about how to turn standard cup and core lead bullets into anti-material rounds if you like. That could be interest too, but it would not as important as pumping water.

      1. Well written article, Tunnel Rabbit. Good to link to Engineer775’s videos/channel, as he has quite a bit of experience with installing water pumps. [And using Solar Power too] … It’s always good to learn from someone else’s experiences.

  2. Thank you for your kind comment, yet the credit should go to JWR as he had to clean it up. I am not, or never will be, the author of a best seller, or any book. I didn’t write it to win any prizes, but to get this information out there. As we see Engineer775 finds the pump to be useful, and he had done a great job at proving to be useful, and continues to use it in new installations, even after all these years, this pump is without a doubt useful, especially in mountainous water ladened regions, such is the American Redoubt. The pump is under-appreciated, but as in the case of Engineer775, there might be someone else who will run with it. If there is, rumor is that there is a big price increase expected in Oct. 2019, upwards of 40% on the pumps, upwards of $240 USD, or Federal Reserve Notes , and based upon a retail price of $600.00. That is significant.

    The reason the LCB’s (linear current boosters) are so high in price ($700), is that the single manufacturer for Dankoff LCB’s suddenly went out of business, leaving a very short supply. The remaining units are therefore priced extraordinarily high. There is another manufacturer Beta testing, and prices might be reasonable, and in the $300 range once again. Call Dankoff to see if they can make a recommendation. It is difficult to fully compensate for the lack of a LCB, yet four 100 watt panels should adequate, and six 100 watt panels would not be a excessive, and would improve the performance yet further. Because it freezes in Montana, I would use the pump only seasonally, or for about 4 months out of the year. Brushes are said to last 5 years with continuous use, and the pump head, 10 years. Therefore, if used only seasonally, the brushes may last up to 15 years, and the pump head, 30 years if fed only clean water. In the case that the pump is only used seasonally, the extra panels could be added to the PV system for the house. Or one could run power out to the pump from the ‘house’ solar system saving money there. The advantage to running off, or with the assistance of batteries of a PV system, is that regardless of the weather conditions, the pump will run continuously, albeit 20% slower, it should pump closer to it’s rated capacity, or 2.5 gpm less 20%, if the TDH (total dynamic head), or line pressure is less than about 100 psi, and it likely will be in most installations. The brushes may actually last longer too. Knowing your options can make a difference.

    A good way to make a rough estimate of the amount of water needed per day, is my own formula based upon my garden’s consumption during long hot and dry summer days. There are many variables, and no constants, such as wind, soil type, plant type and stage of growth, so this is only an estimate. Take the garden’s square feet, and multiply by 0.15. That would be the minimum capacity I would want. If I had a garden that was 50 x 50 (almost 1/4 acre), there would be 2,500 square feet x 0.15 = 375 gallons per day, or 1 gpm for 6 hours. The 1303 can potentially do twice that, or more. More is always better. And I would have as much water storage to cover several days if I could, especially if it was operated without a LCB, as the pump will not produce as well during overcast days. Have the ability to store excess production that occurs on cloudless sunny days, if at all possible. Of course a garden would not need as much water during cloudy days, but it may need extra during a heat wave.

    There is more I could say about it, or ram pumps, yet if there is no interest….? Please feel free to ask any question. If you can afford an expert, contact Engineer775 though his website, PracticalPreppers.com. His name is Scott. If there is a next time, I might do something that is of more interest, yet practical. I could talk all day and night about radio, or ballistics stuff, but that is well covered already. Learning how to manage resources, and the logistics side of the house, is actually more important than the bang- bang side. No, MRE’s will not fall magically from the sky, and there will be no food-fairy that magically appears, and kicks it off the truck. Besides, I need to learn more about water and gardens, and by writing, I learn. Thanks for listening.

  3. Your article is excellent. You made one conclusion regarding the size of a garden measuring 50 feet by 50 feet, that it would comprise one fourth of an acre.

    A square acre measures 208.7 feet by 208.7, or 43,560 square feet. As you correctly stated, a 50 by 50 foot garden is 2,500 square feet. Comparing your 50 by 50 garden to an acre would require dividing 2,500 by 43,560. The result is .057, or 6% of an acre. Math can be confusing.

    1. Thanks for catching that. Unfortunately my email has not been sending a notice when there is a reply, and I missed your post, and continued the error of comparing my example garden sizes (50′ x 50′) to 1/4 acre.

      Fortunately the analysis was only flawed in that regard, as the basic math accompanies the argument for clarity. Yet the error is important in as it is used in an old ‘rule of thumb’ that a “1/4 of an acre can feed a family of 4”. Fortunately I found, and used a real world example as a benchmark in the last installment that calibrates, providing a comparison that compensates for abstractions, and error. Stated that my estimates are, “unsubstantiated”, and “rough”, and based upon my crude experiment, and indeed they are, yet I found it helpful as another measure provided by the University of Montana (450 gallons per acre), is lower than my home derived estimate. It is an attempt at verification. I am a student of the Scientific Method, and welcome peer review.

      Any farmer or gardener knows well that there are too many variables to be precise, that we may strive only to be accurate. Who knows what the weather will be! I suspect, but do not know what it will be in the near future, perhaps wetter and colder? Thankfully the math preserves the analysis. This is why figures should always be included, ad nausem. It is confusing, but fortunately the error was not at the heart of the analysis.

  4. TR,
    Just stumbled on your article. Good info.
    When delivering water to your garden, is some type drip system used to put the water directly on the rows of plants?

    1. A drip system can be used to good effect, especially when water storage is limited, the ground can be deeply soaked, and water stored in the soil at where is will be used by the plant. The poly pipe in the parts list is the kind that can be punctured, and used with a drip irrigation system. This pipe I believe was made by Rain Bird to use their accessories.

      I am not receiving email notices for this article, so I may not see your reply.

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