Client Story: Living Simply

Thank You Simple Pump!

Just wanted to send a big “thank you” for the water pump that we received last November. We finally put it in today. We had promised to wait until Spring, but the temp reached a balmy 45 degrees, so even with nearly a foot of snow on the ground, we decided we couldn’t wait any longer.

The entire process took us under two hours and was quite straightforward. We had a moment of surprise on the third drop pipe when we thought we hit bottom! I think it was just the end of a well pipe section, because it happened every 10 feet after that. A little jiggling, praying and/or swearing seemed to do the trick.

For the next few months, we’ll use the handle, but once we get a little farther in the building process, we’ll set up a solar array and buy a motor from you.

Thanks again for a wonderful product that allows even beginners to become independent.

Jen Solt in Helena, Montana

p.s. Here’ s the blog that my husband, Kevin wrote about our day:
(Reproduced with permission from The Living Simply Blog.)

OUR NEW WELL PUMP

February 27th, 2010

After ordering our new self-install well pump three months ago, we finally had the opportunity (aka warmer weather) to finally install it. It was a fairly simple and straight-forward process, even though we had a few “hold-our-breath” moments during the install.

The first curve ball was getting the new well cap to fit the well pipe casing. At first the well cap didn’t fit snugly around the pipe. We discovered that there was some metal that had to be filed down, so after ten minutes of filing, it finally fit into place.

First step – new well cap in place.

Ooh… shiny!

The next step was to install the pump cylinder and 80 feet of “drop pipes”… without dropping any of the pipes into the well. This was the nerve-wracking part… but we managed the installation at a slow and steady pace.

Drop pipes with lift rods.

The “drop pipes” are on the left. The two pipes on the right are the top and bottom pipes. The thin rods in the middle are the “lift rods” that do all of the pumping action.

Next was the installation of the pump head and pump lever. After securing everything in place, it was time to test out the pump. If we got water, we installed it correctly…

Installed pump: working perfectly, in the snow.

We installed it correctly! The water was clear, cold and fresh! What more can we ask for? The whole task took us two hours. We bought our well pump from a great company called the Simple Pump Company.

Tomorrow we’re going to solder the copper pipes for our solar water heater, and finish the frame construction. Next week, we start construction on our Ofuro (our Japanese soaking tub). So we’ll have hot water to heat our new soaking tub.

We also managed to buy three 55 gallon steel drums, and a 20 gallon drum for our rocket stoves, and for our biogas unit. The rocket stoves will be our main source of heating in the dome, workshop, and “Duck Mahal”. (Our duck’s living quarters) The biogas unit will be our source for cooking gas once that is up and running.