On-demand water pump?

[goplay808]

Hi Folks, I have a rain catchment system (~500 Gal) and would like to get an on-demand pump for it. Anyone have any info/suggestions/ideas for this? It would have to be an inline one, submersible is not an option. Thanks!

[Jason Rose]

You may try the Irrigation forum specifically, there's some sharp guys on there!

If I was doing something like this I'd use a "cycle stop valve" and a small pressure tank. This would allow you to run water at most any flow rate (up to what the pump can handle) and keep the pump running all the time. a 1/2 or 3/4 hp. centrifugal pump would be more than plenty for running a couple hoses and sprinklers.

[cgaengineer]

Are you planning to hook to an irrigation system? If so its pretty easy. All you need is solenoid attached to your irrigation system to operate pump when timer cycles. They make these switches for 220V and 110V.

[goplay808]

No, I wasn't planning on hooking up an irrigation system. I will use a portable sprinkler. I also want to be able to wash my truck with the water. I was looking at the on-demand pumps by flotec.

[cgaengineer]

The company I work for designed a waste water re-use system for 4 ballfields and we used a similar pump (Much larger 40hp). At the time the treatment plant was discharging the nearly crystal clear wastewater back into the creek and since the sewer plant was a just a little over a mile from the ballfields the ballfields got to use this water at a fraction of the cost of city/county water and are not limited by water restrictions during drought conditions. This sytem has likely paid for itself 10 times by now and is a great way to use water that would otherwise be wasted.