Hand water pump

[Atash Hagmahani]

I dunno if this has come up before, but hand pumps are probably a good idea for a lot of applications. When I was a kid, these were very common outside the city. Some folks even had them inside their houses. Now they are relatively rare.

On a city water system, they usually pump the water up to a high point, maybe even a water-tower (there are two big ones up the hill from me), so that it flows down without power. I dunno how long they would last if the lights go out long enough, because there is some pumping happening.

In deep-rural areas where people have wells, there is NO water when the power goes out--and the power is APT to go out anyway due to lack of grid redundancy such as exists in the city.

You can purchase models that have thread fittings on them so that you can thread a hose to them.

[Lady Lilya]

I asked my father about this once, in regards to my parents' summer house that has a well that uses an electric pump.  He said that the well was too deep for a hand pump to be used at all. 

There is a hand pump about 100 feet from their house, on a section of land that is community property and anyone can use it.  It is shallow, and tests show it isn't safe to drink without boiling.  But it is a decent alternative. 

Until recently, my father didn't believe a serious economic collapse could happen.  The disaster he was preparing for was something like a serious terrorist attack on the city.  He assumed we'd only need a few months worth of food and stuff.  So he was preparing the summer house for that. 

Now he is planning to sell that house and buy something in the Carolinas with land that is fertile and a fresh water source.  He'd like to set up much of it as orchards.  He wants to get some cattle.

But, they aren't going anywhere until Grandma dies.  She is 93 now, and doesn't want to move anywhere.  They definitely can't leave her alone.  So they are staying put for a while. 

[Dame]

Most of the older farm homes have cisterns where potable water is kept.  Even if there was a well they had a cistern.  The cistern was inside or adjacent to the house.  The hand pumps for the cisterns were generally (at least one of them) in the house.  Water was moved from a watersource, or collected from the roof (with overflow) and then used in the house.  This is how they prevented major storms, spring run off, frozen up well pumps etc from interfering with useable water.  Call it a continuous supply available irrespective of emergency or not.

If all else fails one can put a bucket on a rope to get water out of these cisterns.

[darkdwarf]

I have been looking at this model. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_5844_5844?cm_ven=Aggregates&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=Water%20Pumps%3EHand%20Pumps&cm_ite=108980?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=108980 I can afford a few of them and will have spares and a few for neighbors if necessary. We had one when I was growing up and I miss it. Once in the winter, I convinced my little brother to lick the handle during a rather cold day. My dad made certain I didn't sit comfortably for some time afterward--worth it though.