Harbor freight pump as a fire pump because it's better than a bucket/nothing in theory.
Back story:
Excel power is going full ratard. Whenever it gets windy they threaten to turn off the power as of this year. Which is funny because in 2020 there was a wind storm with 90mph gusts and all they said was "high winds may cause power outages". When the power goes out will there be any utility water? I'm betting no. Or if there is a fire there won't be hardly any water pressure.
The pump maximum pressure on the box is 95ft at zero flow. In the owners manual there's a performance graph and it shows 110ft at zero flow. Well I can test that.
Wide open flow near zero feet of lift is 35gpm.
The sweet spot for me is 5 to 15gpm for fire fighting where I'll get 100 to 80ft of lift or about 43psi to 33psi.
I only get 10 to 20psi at my squirt nozzle after running 61psi of utility water through a length of hose at some level of flow.
The 5 modes I can think of are:
Zeroth mode, storage. Needs to go from storage to run immediately. It needs to not freeze and bust so dry storage is a must.
I'll store it without gas and keep metal quart containers of ethanol free gas with it. Probably keep a qt of oil with it too.
A full 5 gallon jug of water with some propylene glycol RV antifreeze mixed in to keep it from freezing and busting my container, to prime the pump if needed.
1, The most obvious mode, tank to nozzle. Hook the pump to some sort of water tank and the pump feeds tank water to a squirt nozzle, either a tank on my pickup or drawing from our hot tub. Maximum pressure, several gallons of water per minute to 15gpm. Probably go for 7 to 10gpm.
2, tank to tank transfer. Maximum flow as close to 35gpm as I can get. Pumping from a tank, pool, hot tub, stock tank, body of water or cistron to a pickup truck mounted tank.
3 as a boost pump. Where I hook the pump up to a faucet through some distance of hose and use the pump to boost the pressure back up near the end.
The faucet can provide 10gpm wide open no restriction, with a one 50ft 7/8'' hose and a nozzle about 7gpm, add more hose or use a smaller hose, 4gpm.
I'll just have to try it and see what happens.
Put the pump at the end of my heavy wall industrial rated collapse resistant hose then use the pump to push through cheaper normal garden hose.
This mode will have to be minimal flow at max pressure, probably go for about 5 to 7gpm.
4 switching between modes quickly, as if there's a fire that needs to be put out...
Quick to prime, if needed.
Quick change suction hose setups.
Quicky changeable discharge setup, probably just make it garden hose compatible, 1 hose for normal, 2 hoses for tank filling.
Has anyone used one of these at all?
Has anyone one used one of these as a boost pump?
The most important question what oil?
The manual says 5w-30 for -20f to +32f and not to use 5w-30 when it's warmer out, not sure why. 10w-30 for 0f to 100f and up. Straight 30wt for +60f to 100f and up.
I'll put straight 30wt and see if it's difficult to start at say 40f.
Very unlikely I'll need it when it's cooler than 40, more likely to need it at 80 to 100f. So the w part shouldn't matter.
For break in and just screwing around I'll probably run straight 30wt. Run it at the heaviest load at max speed till it runs out of gas. Then see how hot the oil is with a probe thermometer after a hard run.
If I can get it around 230f I'll probably run 40 weight oil.
Back story:
Excel power is going full ratard. Whenever it gets windy they threaten to turn off the power as of this year. Which is funny because in 2020 there was a wind storm with 90mph gusts and all they said was "high winds may cause power outages". When the power goes out will there be any utility water? I'm betting no. Or if there is a fire there won't be hardly any water pressure.
The pump maximum pressure on the box is 95ft at zero flow. In the owners manual there's a performance graph and it shows 110ft at zero flow. Well I can test that.
Wide open flow near zero feet of lift is 35gpm.
The sweet spot for me is 5 to 15gpm for fire fighting where I'll get 100 to 80ft of lift or about 43psi to 33psi.
I only get 10 to 20psi at my squirt nozzle after running 61psi of utility water through a length of hose at some level of flow.
The 5 modes I can think of are:
Zeroth mode, storage. Needs to go from storage to run immediately. It needs to not freeze and bust so dry storage is a must.
I'll store it without gas and keep metal quart containers of ethanol free gas with it. Probably keep a qt of oil with it too.
A full 5 gallon jug of water with some propylene glycol RV antifreeze mixed in to keep it from freezing and busting my container, to prime the pump if needed.
1, The most obvious mode, tank to nozzle. Hook the pump to some sort of water tank and the pump feeds tank water to a squirt nozzle, either a tank on my pickup or drawing from our hot tub. Maximum pressure, several gallons of water per minute to 15gpm. Probably go for 7 to 10gpm.
2, tank to tank transfer. Maximum flow as close to 35gpm as I can get. Pumping from a tank, pool, hot tub, stock tank, body of water or cistron to a pickup truck mounted tank.
3 as a boost pump. Where I hook the pump up to a faucet through some distance of hose and use the pump to boost the pressure back up near the end.
The faucet can provide 10gpm wide open no restriction, with a one 50ft 7/8'' hose and a nozzle about 7gpm, add more hose or use a smaller hose, 4gpm.
I'll just have to try it and see what happens.
Put the pump at the end of my heavy wall industrial rated collapse resistant hose then use the pump to push through cheaper normal garden hose.
This mode will have to be minimal flow at max pressure, probably go for about 5 to 7gpm.
4 switching between modes quickly, as if there's a fire that needs to be put out...
Quick to prime, if needed.
Quick change suction hose setups.
Quicky changeable discharge setup, probably just make it garden hose compatible, 1 hose for normal, 2 hoses for tank filling.
Has anyone used one of these at all?
Has anyone one used one of these as a boost pump?
The most important question what oil?
The manual says 5w-30 for -20f to +32f and not to use 5w-30 when it's warmer out, not sure why. 10w-30 for 0f to 100f and up. Straight 30wt for +60f to 100f and up.
I'll put straight 30wt and see if it's difficult to start at say 40f.
Very unlikely I'll need it when it's cooler than 40, more likely to need it at 80 to 100f. So the w part shouldn't matter.
For break in and just screwing around I'll probably run straight 30wt. Run it at the heaviest load at max speed till it runs out of gas. Then see how hot the oil is with a probe thermometer after a hard run.
If I can get it around 230f I'll probably run 40 weight oil.
