Pumps

[SamT]

Hmm - I don't see how a wooden musical instrument would be ideal as a water tank... 

:-[

 

[ra]

Either of these anygood?



From http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/productnl_013.html
Availible from Thursday 31st August from Aldi. £19.99

or


Availible from 7th September from Lidl. £16.99
http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20060907.p.Immersion_Pump.ar9?OpenDocument

As with all these offers in the lidl\adli\netto, they are only availible while stocks last.
If their outdoor gear offers are anything to go by yhen quality is variable and you have to pick and choose which of the special offers you buy.

 

[AndyF]

Either of these anygood?

(Pics snipped)

As with all these offers in the lidl\adli\netto, they are only availible while stocks last.
If their outdoor gear offers are anything to go by yhen quality is variable and you have to pick and choose which of the special offers you buy.

Aldi sold these last year, I bought one cause they were cheap. They ARE good, and pump about 5-6m BUT they are 240 volts only - not great for caving if you are also neck deep in the water too..! 

Don't know about the LIDL one...but prob just as good.

 

[dudley bug]

We bougth three of these from Aldi last year. With slight modification we ran the outlet of one into the inlet of a second to double the height of the lift that we got. With a suitably large generator these have worked quite well. A great buy at under £20 each.

 

[Peter Burgess]

The diggers returned to the Burwash dig last weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn't join them. Here is a report from one of the main protagonists:

From a dry start, as we dug down we soon hit water flowing in again, as happened last dig.
So the petrol engined pump was installed 5 feet above the shaft base, with gas-tight exhaust pipe to surface etc. Also a 12V electric blower and ducting.
The pump cleared the standing water, but has to be re-primed each time the suction runs dry. (I can solve this problem with a manual bleed valve).
So digging continued down, eventually finishing with another frame and sheeting installed.
However the 'permanent' inflow is now about 100 litres per minute, to keep the shaft base from flooding.
The water is coming in from the side of the shaft, and is fairly clear if undisturbed.
I think we are tapping into a large reservoir, possibly flooded workings, but the inflow is heavy.
My guess is that the 'spring' (by the Dudwell) is the outlet from a collapsed sough, and that the geological make of water is high.
The pump can shift 180 litres per minute, so is currently not being overwhelmed.

The pump probably ran for an hour in total, perhaps removing 5-10 000 litres of water, a small amount in relation to the possible mine volume. The water level very rapidly returns to its initial level when pumping ceased. Perhaps a full refill in only three minutes. This may be due to inflow, or may be because we are at the same level as a large reservoir of flooded workings. Only time will tell. We intend to have another session now that the pumping method has been shown to work safely. The old shaft timbering continues below our current level.

 

[AndyF]

The diggers returned to the Burwash dig last weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn't join them. Here is a report from one of the main protagonists:

From a dry start, as we dug down we soon hit water flowing in again, as happened last dig.
So the petrol engined pump was installed 5 feet above the shaft base, with gas-tight exhaust pipe to surface etc. Also a 12V electric blower and ducting.
The pump cleared the standing water, but has to be re-primed each time the suction runs dry. (I can solve this problem with a manual bleed valve).
So digging continued down, eventually finishing with another frame and sheeting installed.
However the 'permanent' inflow is now about 100 litres per minute, to keep the shaft base from flooding.
The water is coming in from the side of the shaft, and is fairly clear if undisturbed.
I think we are tapping into a large reservoir, possibly flooded workings, but the inflow is heavy.
My guess is that the 'spring' (by the Dudwell) is the outlet from a collapsed sough, and that the geological make of water is high.
The pump can shift 180 litres per minute, so is currently not being overwhelmed.

The pump probably ran for an hour in total, perhaps removing 5-10 000 litres of water, a small amount in relation to the possible mine volume. The water level very rapidly returns to its initial level when pumping ceased. Perhaps a full refill in only three minutes. This may be due to inflow, or may be because we are at the same level as a large reservoir of flooded workings. Only time will tell. We intend to have another session now that the pumping method has been shown to work safely. The old shaft timbering continues below our current level.

Be carful guys! A freak accidnet involving a pump failure sounds like it could drown someone sharpish...

Can you dig open the sough..?

 

[Peter Burgess]

They often have a fixed ladder at the bottom of the shaft, and a platform a short way up. Perhaps these should be in place whenever pumping is taking place, so that as soon as the pump stops, a quick retreat to the top of the ladder is mandatory. I'll pass on your concerns.

 

[Peter Burgess]

The 'sough' (wrong term for Sussex), if that is what it is, was attacked a couple of years ago with an excavator, and all they achieved was a deep hole at river level with the water continuing to rise up through the base. No sign of a level. The ground is fairly loose shaley stuff (breaks down to sticky clay), with limestone bands in it.

 

[emgee]

We bougth three of these from Aldi last year. With slight modification we ran the outlet of one into the inlet of a second to double the height of the lift that we got. With a suitably large generator these have worked quite well. A great buy at under £20 each.

Of course some one has to invoke the wrath of Sod's law. Two of them failed on the last digging trip.

Both with the same fault. There's a little ball bearing which floats up and down inside the casing it's function is to let out air trapped in the pump then block the flow of water when the pressure builds up. When you get low on water level and more mud in the water two things happen one you need the valve to work more often to purge air two you get more grit in the pump and the valve sticks. Taking it to the surface and dismantling and cleaning is a ten minute job (on the surface) assuming you've got a couple of screwdrivers and a small amount of clean water.

Having stripped one down was surprised at how little wear on the impeller so they should last rather better than we hoped.

Suspect for most caving applications just taking the valve out would work the amount it leaks is tiny.

Dudley bug's penance for annoying the great god Soad was to kneel in cold liquid mud digging till his extremeties where numb and his wellys got stuck.