The present installation technical details are:-
Drive head - 2.13 m.
Delivery head - 10.97 m. from drive head level.
Delivery flow rate - about 5,000 litre per day, 35,000 litre per week,
1.825 megalitre per annum.
- The inlet pipe screen tends to clog up with algae. This needs to be cleared about once per month. This is a 5 minute operation. The inlet screen stops yabbies (fresh water crayfish) and debris entering the drive pipe.
- The dome bell on the pump contains compressed air to smooth out the pressure pulses. Over time the air dissolves in the water. When the air is completely dissolved, the dome goes "solid". The pump then vibrates severely and output severely declines. About once per month the pump has to be stopped to drain the water out of the dome. This takes about 1 hour. The long term plan is to insert a small wheel tube into the bell to provide a permanent air bladder that can't be dissolved in the water.
This pump was dug out of a creek bed on Peter Gaston's property at Tawonga.
Thanks Peter.
It had been buried under 1.5m of silt and had been unused for between
15 and 20 years. It had previously been used for domestic water supply.
The brass parts were in great condition, but the steel parts including the bolts were severely corroded. Jack Cottrell (Thanks Jack) dug it out for us using his back-hoe that was conveniently on site for another job. The bolts were cut off by Chris Rigoni (Thanks Chris) using his angle grinder. The steel parts were then sandblasted, primed and painted and the pump was re-assembled using new stainless steel bolts. Allan Tyers (Thanks Allan) machined a new brass stem for the clacker valve. Dave Sauervein (Thanks Dave) dug a trench for the pipe work and Mark Bland (Thanks Mark) organised pipe threading for the 2 inch steel drive pipe.
As installed the drive head is about 4m. coming from the outflow pond of our first pump. This pump now delivers about 12,000 litre per day into our dam, with a delivery head of about 15m. With the second pump operating, the dam level is rising rather than falling.
To reduce noise the pump is covered in a masonry enclosure.