Thanks for the input. Do you use the pump to pull water from a pond also? Does the strainer that comes with the pump do a good job of keeping trash from the pump (and ultimately the sprinkler heads)?
Thanks for the input. Do you use the pump to pull water from a pond also? Does the strainer that comes with the pump do a good job of keeping trash from the pump (and ultimately the sprinkler heads)?
Yes, we pull water from our pond. The strainer keeps large debris and fish out of the pump, but we hang the suction hose off of the pier to keep it out of the mud. Most of the debris in a pond is floating or on the bottom. So if you suspend your suction hose you are good to go, drive a tee post if you don't have a pier to hang the hose on. I have never had a sprinkler head plug up!
Super...now all I have to do is find one on ebay... [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I have a Honda WX 10 water pump that I use for irrigation. It will suction lift up to 26' and I routinely run a couple of hundred feet of garden hose to the sprinklers."
The reason it will only run two sprinklers is the couple hundred feet of garden hose. That pump is rated at around 40 gpm.
bob...
I'm not trying to be a wiseguy here, but why does the length of hose matter? If water isn't compressible, once it fills the hose, shouldn't the pressure be the same no matter where it's measured?
The hose constricts the flow, it is not pressure (well sort of) it is volume. It will handle more sprinklers if you increase the size of the hose but you are talking more expense. The garden hose and two sprinklers works fine for me and is easy to move around. I am no expert, just relaying my experience. speedbump will have far greater knowledge about pumps than me.
Not only does the hose restrict the flow, but it caused a great pressure drop as well. Garden hose is not always smooth inside so that adds even more. The bigger the pipe the less the friction drop in pressure.
bob...
Ah, that all makes sense...I assume if I go with somelike like poly pipe, which is smoother and more rigid, that I can expect less pressure loss...
That's right and size is very important also. If you want to see how much, go to my website and look at the "helpful info" link. There are a bunch of charts there including the friction loss chart. The one there is for plastic pipe. To change the head in feet per 100' of pipe to pressure, multiply head in feet X 0.433.
bob...
adegiulio, Pumps are sometimes rated for the max pressure they can produce and the max volume they will flow. These are mutually exclusive. You will only get the high pressure with low or no flow and you will only get the max flow with no output restriction at all (low pressure.)
Better specs are those that tell you how many gal/min at a specified head of pressure, feet of lift, or equivalent.
The longer the run and the smaller the ID of the run the more losses you have. If you have to go long then you need to go bigger. The tables that Speedbump pointed out are indispensable for determining what actual performance to expect.
In math terms the pressure P and the volume V multiplied together is a measure of the work done. A given pump can only do so much work. The product of multiplying the pressure times the volume will be approximately constant. Doubling the volume of the flow in gal per min will cut the pressure in half and so forth.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"