3 Reasons For a Backup Water Pump
If your property is in an area where you are dependent on well water and you turn on the faucet in your home, but no water comes out, then your first question is undoubtedly how to turn it back on. There could be several reasons for the failure but most of the time it is due to the sudden failure of your submersible well pump. Prepare for these occurrences with a backup water pump.
1 – YOUR SUBMERSIBLE PUMP STOPS WORKING
If your submersible well pump stops working, there could be one of several reasons.
A submersible well pump’s average lifespan is dependent on the quality of the submersible, but the average submersible pump can be estimated to last between 7 and 15 years. The older your submersible pump gets, the bigger the need for a backup well pump gets for keeping the water flowing to your home.
If your submersible well pump is not starting, here are five troubleshooting steps to try:
- Check for tripped breakers and blown fuses.
- Check your voltage, which should be at +/- 10 percent of the motor rating.
- Check your pressure switch for wear or defects.
- Check your control panel.
- Check your splice connections.
In some cases, replacing a fuse or resetting a breaker could do the trick. On the other hand, if your well pump circuit breaker keeps getting tripped, then your well pump could be failing. In addition, a short in the motor or wiring can also cause fuses or breakers to trip or blow completely. Better safe than sorry, so if you encounter any electrical problem, you should call a qualified technician to take care of it since any electrical issue could be dangerous.
2 – THERE’S A PROBLEM WITH YOUR PRESSURE TANK
Your well water pump is responsible for moving water to your water pressure tank, where there’s an air bladder (or diaphragm), inside. It will become compressed when the water is pumped into your tank. This compression (i.e. pressure in the tank), moves the water through the pipes in your home. This design ensures that your pump doesn’t need to start running every time someone turns on a faucet inside your home, which could easily lead to your well pump’s premature failure.
A brief inspection of your pressure tank can tell you if something is wrong, so look for:
- A waterlogged pressure tank,
- A broken aid bladder,
- Incorrect amount of air pressure,
- The tank is heavily pitted or rusty.
Obviously, all of the above issues could require professional repairs, however, if you had the presence of mind to think ahead and have a backup water pump, then your lack of water problem is covered in the meantime.
3 – YOU LOSE POWER
It’s a very humbling feeling when you lose power in your house. You search for candles or flashlights. Depending on the season, you look for blankets or open windows to try to heat up or cool down your house. One of the other top priorities for people that have a water well for their water source is to think about their water supply. For most people, their submersible pump runs on electricity. The same electricity that is now not available. So how will they pump their water? They can hook up a generator or they can pump the water manually.
BACKUP POWER FOR YOUR EXISTING WELL PUMP
One viable option to keep your well water flowing even during a power outage is to have a backup power supply installed. One of the most used backup power sources is a generator. So, what size generator would you need for running your well pump on backup power? If you have a one horsepower submersible well pump; you would need a three to four KW generator for starting up your well pump although 1only one KW is needed for powering your well pump while it is running.
There is a pretty simple calculation for finding out your water pump’s power consumption. Typical water pumps require wattage that can be varying at between 250 and 1,100 watts. So, if you take the wattage of your water pump and multiply that number by the number of hours per day it’s usually running, and you will get the actual amount of kilowatt-hours that your pump uses.
Simple Pump provides a solar power motor-operated water pump that is another option for powering your water pump in case you lose power to your house.
BACKUP HAND OPERATED WATER PUMP OPTIONS
In many rural areas, one of the biggest challenges, when the power goes out, is access to your water. Living outside of your municipal water systems’ reach means wells with submersible water pumps for pumping your water into a pressure tank. The problems that arise are pretty basic. When there’s no power, then there’s no water. That’s why it’s so important to have a hand pump installed next to your submersible pump just in case your submersible pump should just stop working for some reason.
If your well isn’t too deep, then a hand pump can be instantly utilized as a back-up option for pumping water to your home. But, of course, you have to have one installed to be ready for that.
OPTIONS TO GET ACCESS TO YOUR WELL WATER
A water well hand pump is your best option during a power outage or other event that causes water pump failure. They’re becoming increasingly popular for not only off-grid living but also for homeowners who may be connected to the grid but are also striving for greater resilience. If this sounds familiar, then what you want is easy water access even during a power outage.
HAND PUMPS: THE BEST OPTION FOR BACKUP WATER PUMPING
“Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”
This is every homeowners’ mantra, especially if their home is on well water, not municipal water. If you are one of the many savvy homeowners who like being ready for anything, then you need to explore the options for ensuring that you’ll have the ability to pump water no matter what might happen. A hand pump is fairly easy to install right alongside the existing water system, or a backup power supply could be installed to keep your existing pumps running.
Watch our video on how to install the hand-operated Simple Pump.
Having a backup hand-operated water well pump gives you the self-reliance and the water independence that everybody is striving for by providing an uninterrupted flow of water for your animals and garden as well as for cooking, drinking, and even for a relaxing hot bath or shower.
Most hand pumps are in one of these two categories:
- Suction pumps, which have an above-ground cylinder and are good for shallow wells.
- Lift pumps, which have a below ground cylinder and can pump in deep wells.
The Simple Pump Hand Operated deep well pump utilizes a piston rod lift system.
REMEMBER TO ALWAYS BE PREPARED
Hopefully, this information will help you to keep your water well doing what it’s supposed to be doing. Proper preparation prior to a pump failure caused by a loss of power or some other problem will be worth every penny that you spend on it. With the weird weather that the entire world has been contending with lately, from floods to fires, hurricanes to earthquakes and tornadoes, the weather doesn’t seem to be on our side.
Outsmart those annoying (and often costly) extended power outages that can be caused by inclement weather and keep your well water flowing for you, your animals, and your family.
