A few months ago, we at Well WaterBoy Products made some changes to our first WaterBuck Pump model. We installed a stronger sucker rod system adequate for the torque created by our pump – ¾” fiberglass rod. We also redesigned the pump lever to increase torque for efficiency and installed a new pump cylinder.
Before we made these changes, the performance of the WaterBuck was quite impressive for a deep well hand pump considering the static depth and size of cylinder being operated. (80’ of head, 4” cylinder, 2” column of water)
After the leathers were broken in on the first cylinder, Darren was able to pump 7 gallons during a 30-second sprint and 13+ gallons in one full minute. A 64-year-old-grandmother pumped 7 gpm. In each of these tests, a 5’ pump lever was being used. Another test result by 2 young women pumping together non-stop yielded 55 gallons in 5 minutes and 45 seconds with a 4’ lever.
Now that the pump seals are close to being broken in, today we decided to make another 30-second sprint, with the enhanced mechanics and a 4’ pump lever. Nine gallons from a deep well pump by a man in his 50s is not bad! Next, we set up the barrel and discharge pipe to record the time for Darren alone to fill a 55-gallon barrel non-stop. After 6 minutes and 45 seconds the barrel was full.
On April 17 we performed another test, a 60 second sprint
What is so impressive about this new manual well pump is that an average man in his 50’s pumped 17.5 gallons in one minute. That’s more water in 1 minute than a 12-foot diameter windmill can pump (at peak performance and same application with same size cylinder) and what a common deep-well hand pump can – combined.
The maximum gpm for a 12’ windmill operating a 4” cylinder with 80’ of head is 13.8. The maximum for a common deep-well hand pump at same application with a 3” cylinder is 3 gpm. That’s a combined total of 16.8 gallons in one minute. The average man using the WaterBuck Pump beat the windmill by more than 3 1/2 gallons.
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Just think about those results. It’s great to not have to wait for the wind or sun or use fuel or depend on electricity to get a lot of water needed from a deep well quickly and efficiently.
At shallower applications with the use of larger cylinders, up to three times as much water can be yielded in the same amount of time with the same operators. With the use of smaller cylinders, much greater depths can be achieved — much greater than what was ever thought possible under human power, and as much water as a windmill can produce a minute, if not a little more.
