In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

If the Texas calamity came your way what would you do ?

Discussion in 'Modern EPA Stoves and Fireplaces' started by Rich L, Feb 20, 2021.

  1. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    Honda is proud of their stuff.
     
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  2. Rich L

    Rich L

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    As a child I used to play with my uncle's hand pump in his back yard.I never did it in the winter.If that hand pump did work in the winter and didn't freeze then something like that could be an option when fuel gets low.
     
  3. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    Back when I was a kid we had a well that had a hand pump option.
    The well was only 100 ft deep.
    The current well is 800 ft deep....Hand pump not gonna get it done.
    Approx. 400 lbs of water in the pipe at this depth.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2021
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  4. Canadian border VT

    Canadian border VT

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    No offense Snowy, but most of This current generation is afraid of a snow shovel much less a hand pump!
     
  5. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    Pretty much...
    The new well (Dug in 1985) is 800 feet deep and the pump inlet sits at 720 feet.
    3 horse 240 volt Grundfos stainless steel 36 impeller pump down there.

    The old well at 100 feet had a Meyers Jack pump with the cylinder at the bottom.
    Rod inside the cylinder and the leather cups inside.. (Worked just like a pitcher pump)
    The auxiliary handle was about 6 feet long and connected easily to the pump after removing the top link pin from the motorized crank unit.

    Even with the long handle it took a strong body to run that bad boy..

    I was about 12-13 YO the last time I yarded on the handle.

    I am 68 YO now.

    The water was good in that well...just fluctuated too much with the season.

    Late summer and into early fall would be very skimpy on water volume.
    In 1985 Dad decided to get a new well drilled much closer to the house...
    800 feet deep and most of it in hard rock..
    Plenty of water....just a long way down there.

    Having a spring would be a sweet deal.
     
  6. Highbeam

    Highbeam

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    The static water surface is 800’ deep? Wow. That’s just 361 psi in the pipe assuming 800’ is the static water level. My last city well was dry at 490 but at 500 we hit water with so much pressure that we had to build an 8’ tall casing above ground to keep it from pouring out of the top. The only pumping we need to do is to bring it up to mainline pressure.
     
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  7. stuckinthemuck

    stuckinthemuck

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    Would that be considered an artesian well if it has pressure to push water to the surface?
     
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  8. Highbeam

    Highbeam

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    i believe so. Some people call any old wet spot an artesian.

    The ground is 60 feet above sea level and at 500 feet the mud that came up had sea shells in it. No salt in the water but lots of flow. I had to get manganese and sulfur out of it.
     
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  9. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    OK


    STATS
    Elevation at the well shack 1250' ASL
    Well depth when they stopped drilling 800' From well head
    Static water level 500'
    Pump inlet level 720'
    Water struck at 500'
    More picked up 625'...700'...750'.. there may have been other amounts near the 800' mark
    At the deep depth and the equipment the drill rig was equipped with (Air compressor)
    The best they could blow was about 35 GPM measured at the well head.... The best guess was that the well could likely supply 75 or more GPM

    The pump installed is rated at 12 GPM...
    Stock tank faucet was accidentally left on one night and ran for about 14 hours before we found out.....never ran it dry.

    An Artesian would be sweet.....but nope...not this one.
    Been a good well....only caveat is the minerals and iron.....Good clean water, just leaves a bit of crap on faucets over time.
    Spendy to R&R the pump, pipe and stuff when it needs service.
    First pump lasted 25 years
    Second one had issues immediately and self destructed... ***Stainless jacket with plastic impellers*** NEVER ALLOW ANYONE TO INSTALL JUNK LIKE THIS AT THESE DEPTHS.
    Current pump installed MARCH 2017 is a Grundfos all stainless unit.
    Cost twice what the plastic POS did.

    PIX of second pump destruction

    One impeller in the lower portion of the top stack broke the drive hub (Plastic ) and caused the impeller to float and block the water flow...starving the upper impellers and resulted in the destruction of the thrust plates WHITE PLASTIC

    First indication of trouble was small pieces of the white plastic clogging faucet screens in the house and at the barn...
    Pump outfit made every excuse they could to avoid fixing the issue.....the pump made 9 years I think before it finally tore itself to pieces and stopped altogether.
    What was supposed to be a very reputable pump company turned out to be LESS THAN POOR.

    That mess ended up costing us $9000.
    The new pump that replaced it and labor was about $7000 (We replaced only the pipe below the water line and the pump).....220' of new pipe.
     

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    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
  10. Pallet Pete

    Pallet Pete Moderator

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    Fire up the generator for the fridges
    Use the oil lamps for light
    Keep the wood stove rolling
    Dig out the chainsaws and have fun.
    Wood stove has a cooktop as well so we can still cook.
     
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  11. Rich L

    Rich L

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    I like to wrap potatoes,carrots, and other veggies in foil and place them at the edge of the fire.Not on the fire.Cooks in no time.
     
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  12. BCB

    BCB

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    i converted my generac portable genny to propane last weekend. $35 modified replacement carb off amazon. works great and easy to install.
     
  13. Lastmohecken

    Lastmohecken

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    I was out of electricity for 11 days, in a 2 ft snow and ice storm that hung on for pretty much all of that time, a few years ago. Our rural water system was down also, for most of that time, but we were lucky there, as I am down hill from the main line and had a lot of residual water in the line, and it gravity fed my house. I also had a large hot tub at the time, and we used the water out of there for flushing the stool.

    I didn't have a generator, could have bought one, but the news kept saying we would only be out a day or two. That was B.S. But I just kept thinking any day now and never bought one. But I do have a big gas welder/generator now, if something like that happened again. We put some food out on the porch to keep it from spoiling. But I failed to clean out the deep freeze or fridge like I should have. It was a mess.

    We bought some battery powered lanterns to supplement the Kerosene Lanterns we already had, and we did have a bunch of candles. We cooked and heated the house off of our wood stove, and a Colemen stove. I still went to work every day, except for the first couple of days. We got pretty used to no power after a few days. We read a lot in the evenings by lantern light. It was very cold, around zero a lot of the time, so I had to keep the wood stove stoked heavy. We had 4 wheel drives to get in and out, but some things like batteries, and lights and even lamp oil was hard to find in the stores for a while. It pays to keep stocked up on some of those things.

    The thing I missed the most was not being able to take a hot shower or a good bath, because we only had an electric hot water heater, that of course it didn't work, and it's a pain trying to heat enough water for a bath. Thinking about it now, I would be in better shape on heating water, if I had to, I just wasn't desperate enough at the time, but I could have rigged up a barrel or stock tank or something and built a fire around it or something to get more water hot at one time. And now that I have a big generator, I could run the hot water heater, if need be. I probably ought to have a way to stock up on more gasoline. We couldn't wash clothes either, really. And I don't remember, but I am sure we wore the same clothes for a few days, but I don't remember it being much of a problem. I guess we had enough clean clothes to coast for few days.

    But those people in Texas, that lived in apartments, they would have had it a lot rougher, which is a good lesson for not becoming too dependent on public facilities for our well being. The more independent you can be, the better off you will be in an emergency.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2021
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