How DOES that pump work w/o electricity?

[cc-rider]

I was at a campground the other day and used the outdoor water pump to rinse dishes. I had never thought about it before, but how does that water pump work when there is obviously no electricity / pump around??? This is flat ground in Ohio.... couldn't be gravity or anything.

I mean, you lift up the handle, and water flows. No priming, etc. I'm confused!

Now that I'm dealing with having to get water for my new farm, all of a sudden I'm starting to question things......

CAN I drill a well and have it "pump" water without a pump? Or electricity?

Clear as mud.... sorry!!!!!

[uncle Will in In.]

You most likely were getting water out of a hydrant at a campground. If so there was an underground pipe going from it to where they did have electricty and a well with an electric pump. Some primitive places do have a hand pump right on top the well pipe that goes down to a vein of water underground. The hand pump requires that you "pump" the long handle up and down causing water to come out the spigot.

[bare]

Sure you can, just get a six foot frost free hydrant, stick it in the ground and pull the handle.

It's hooked up to a water system somewhere. Could be coming from miles away, or there could be a pump house behind the nearest tree. Unless of course you've run into a rare artesian well.

[Beeman]

Go to Lowes or a plumbing supply and look at a frost proof yard hydrant. There is an underground pipe feeding that hydrant which is fed by a well or city water supply.
Simmons is one company that makes hydrants, they have a website that explains it all.

[cc-rider]

Ahhhh... I feel stupid. I should have guessed that it was just a hydrant instead of a well. And that SOMETHING was causing pressure so that it would work.

Hmmmm....but that means that once I DO put in a well, and have a pump, I could run a line, say, to the barn, and have a frost-free hydrant out there? That's a thought.

Thanks again!
Chris

[cfabe]

There are some artesian wells in ohio, it could have been one of those. Unlikely in a campground unless it used to be farmland, though. Most likely just a hydrant hooked up to a water system or a normal well elsewhere.

[uncle Will in In.]

By Jove, I believe you've got it! They had wells without electricity for centurys. They used hand pumps, windmills, pumpjacks with gas engines, And various other methods of raising the water up a pipe going down to a vein of water. They even invented a manual pressure pump that would push water up into an overhead tank. Then when the tank was full the overflow would run out an underground pipe to a livestock watering tank. These were first run by windmills but later with a pumpjack powered by a gas engine. When electricity was introduced to rural areas (when I was A kid) They took the gas engine off the pumpjack, and put an electric motor in it's place. Another ten or twenty years and they tore down the outhouse. Ain't progress grand. I hear they are cooking out in the yard since they poop in the house!

[cc-rider]

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

Ain't progress grand. I hear they are cooking out in the yard since they poop in the house!

Hehehhehe. You've said it. The big thing around here this weekend for the "Parade of Homes" is all of the homes with outdoor kitchens now, including weatherproof stoves and fridges. Geesh. And the homes "only" start at $400K.

Isn't it funny how people are trying to get back to nature, but in a hoity-toity manner??

[whodunit]

Boy, at that price, I'll take two!