Adventure 19 – Ram Pump One Way Check Valve
George Spartan, a youtube subscriber, asked what would happen if you added a one way check valve to the ram pump delivery pipe. I had no idea so I made this video to find out. Basically I add a brass one way valve to the delivery pipe at the height of 15-20′ and the water from the pump surges to that check valve and presses through it but then cant come back down. This adds vertical lift to the pump potential. Watch the video and see for yourself:
That is a great experiment, and one that will be useful to the people who don’t quite have enough head that is needed to pump water up the last 10 feet or so of the hill they are trying to pump over. That check valve just might make the difference between success and failure for some homesteaders as far as their water needs go.
What do you attribute to the increase in water with the check valve in place? Is it because without a check valve some of the water runs back down the line between cycles of the pump and the check valve stops that back flow saving the pump from having to re-push the back flow back up the pipe? That was a considerable increase in water volume considering you only had a small head of water that you had to work with. I have never seen that check valve experiment tried by anyone else before. Have you seen or heard about it before, or was that a first as far as you know ? Great stuff, keep up the good work and good luck with all your endeavors !!!
When I said it will be useful to the people who don’t quite have enough head needed to pump water up the last 10 feet or so of the hill they are trying to pump over it was because I was assuming that because of the increase of water volume that was gained with the check valve in place it would also increase the elevation capability of the pump.
But, maybe not, in any case the increase in water output would be a big help for those who do need a larger volume of water.
You got it! Without the inline valve all the weight of the water is pressing down on the pump. With the valve the water is cut in half and this allows the pump to work less hard. An example of this on nature is the neck of a giraffe. They have one way valves for blood flow.
I had read about this idea and noticed that nobody else had filmed it.