Pump for water tank

[AB..]

Hi all, I have just bought a 3000Lt water tank for general garden use, Iam unsure what size and type of pump I need to water the garden with. Maximum length of hose would be about 20m, any advise would be appreciated.

Regards,
AB..

[watson]

Being from a dry area...even when we had water......I have a lot of pumps.
Automatic.......or what ever, you name it....we've had them.
If you can be bothered to turn on a switch, and a tap, when you want to water the garden, then a transfer pump may suit your needs.
The reason I say this is that a transfer pump, without all the pressure sensors etc.....is a damn sight cheaper than the automatic type.
I've used Onga/Davey/Das and would stick with the Davey,

FWIW

[raff]

I used a 800W Commerical Electric (Ozito brand) pump I grabbed from bunnings for $150. Has the constant pressure controller with run dry protection. It may not be the best pump available but for the money it does a great job. Other no name pumps from ebay and tank sellers are near on double the price from the places I searched. Has the normal 1yr warranty also.

I plumbed 25mm PVC from the pump to a front tap (8m run) and to a rear tap (10m run) and then I run my normal 13mm garden hose on the end of that. Pressure is great, not much difference between mains and my pump tap outlets.

Worth getting a pump cover too protect the pump from the elements.

[Bloss]

If it just for garden use visit an Aldi store if you have one nearby - they had a 800W garden pump on one of their specials recently and I know a couple of the local Aldi stores still have them - $79.

See this link (but Aldi takes them down after a while so might not work) http://aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_7139.htm?WT.mc_id=2009-02-06-05-15

[sundancewfs]

I have one of the Commercial Electrics from Bunnings too. I run it with about 50m of 1/2 garden hose on it and it waters well.

[Luxyboy]

Most of the pumps have the same warranty and they do not cover the main failure part :((
There is an O-ring that is meant to have a service life of around 2-3 years, if you don't get that changed it was not worth the money buying an expensive one because it will fail just like the cheaper ones :wink:

Used to sell tanks and pumps and researched heaps, cheap it the way to go just be careful connecting as the plastice connections will split if tightened too far :2tsup:

[totoblue]

I used a 800W Commerical Electric (Ozito brand) pump I grabbed from bunnings for $150. Has the constant pressure controller with run dry protection. It may not be the best pump available but for the money it does a great job. Other no name pumps from ebay and tank sellers are near on double the price from the places I searched. Has the normal 1yr warranty also. ...
Worth getting a pump cover too protect the pump from the elements.

I've got one of those pumps too.

Because of the pressure switch, it is hard to get a pump cover to go over it (probably the same for all pumps with a pressure switch). I used a recycling crate because the crappy pump covers available at the time were all expensive and ugly. The recycling crates - I had to use two because of the height - are still ugly but cheap (one was the old council supplied one replaced with a recycling wheely bin.

I used the Plasson brand fittings with 25mm pipe to plumb it - they are excellent. Easy to use and watertight (just use lots of teflon tape on all screw fittings where the Plasson stuff joins to the tank and pump).

Use a proper shut-off valve on the tank (not a normal garden tap). I have a pump filter to stop crud from wrecking the pump (e.g. one little gum nut could easily sneak around the inlet filter and would probably wreck the pump). I also have a back flow valve which I think helps with the fact that the pump is 80cm higher than the base of the tank.

I also have a QB60 pump (as sold on ebay for $20-50) on our other tank. It is plumbed with 19mm garden irrigation pipe (wouldn't do that again, as it has drips so you have to shut off the water from the tank to the pump when not using it). There is no pressure switch and it is switched with a wireless remote control I bought at Bunnings (remote cost about $50 - you can now buy a pressure switch on ebay for that price). While the Bunnings pump is more powerful and looks like it will last longer than the QB60, it is *much* noiser. The QB60 is almost inaudible while the Bunnings pump is noisier than than the neighbour's pool pump. It seems to be hard to find noise levels in pump specs, even brand name pumps like Davey. The noise level is ok for watering the garden but if for example it was refilling your toilet cistern at 2am, it'd probably be thought of as too noisy.