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Water pump for fire hose
2

Water pump for fire hose

Water pump for fire hose

(OP)
I am trying to speck a water pump that can be used as a fire extinguisher.

Have a water basin right next to my house at street level. Depth of this basin is ~ 1 meter.
From the bottom of this pond to the top of the house is approx 15 meters or 12 meters to terrain from where one will stand with hose.

I have searched several models and brands, but when asking for technical help (besides whats written on the crate - Hp, Motor size, liters / min.) no one is able to answer.

Hope someone her can assist.

Cheers
Replies continue below

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RE: Water pump for fire hose

Well if that's all the information you can give us I'm not surprised....

Flow seems to be anything you want. Anything from 30 to 250 gpm based on a 1" to 2 1/2" hose

You probably want 30-50 psi at the inlet to the hose.

Depends what you're trying to do. Put out a small domestic fire or trying to stop half a house which is on fire?

Or is this a wild fire type scenario? where you're dousing the walls? Might be better with a fixed sprinkler system pouring water down the walls?

Remember all that water needs to go somewhere....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

For a tugboat (about the size of a house), US Coast Guard requires 80 GPM at 50psi at the highest hydrant. This is sufficient to run two 1.5" (small) fire hoses. The lowest cost pump that I have found that meets these requirements is the MP 2x2 HHLF with 6.7 inch impeller at 3450 rpm. I strongly suggest a bronze construction pump as the cast iron pumps lock up if not used regularly. You can get away with 7.5 horsepower for the motor provided you don't run it wide open. Pumping through a hose should provide sufficient resistance to keep you from overloading the motor.

https://www.mppumps.com/en-us/high-pressure-water-...

RE: Water pump for fire hose

How big is your "basin"?

You would be surprised how fast even a decent sized bit of water can disapear.

Also any pump you get might need to be self priming.

Diaphraphm pumps are pretty tolerant of pumping dirt / fish, etc that you'll be sucking up.

A bit more background would help here....
Like power supply?
How long you want to pump water?
What are the neighbours going to do?
Is this portable of fixed?
Why can't you use the local water supply?
Could you put it in a tank instead?

Many options, few answers.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Quote:

Diaphraphm pumps are pretty tolerant of pumping dirt / fish, etc that you'll be sucking up.

I strongly disagree with this statement. It only takes one piece of debris on a check ball to shut the pump down and worse, hard debris between the diaphragm and casing can break the casing.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

To be fair there a lot of simple robust submersible pumps which accept a lot of dirt as well.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Finding a single phase trash pump with that kind of output is going to be challenging if not impossible. You could do it with a phase inverter. You are probably looking at a 45 amp circuit. You will still need to solve venting / priming.

Depending on how committed you are to having on demand water the pump style in the link below is a better fit for your application. It is just an example you will need to look at the specs to see if it would work for you.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DUROMAX-212-CC-7-HP-2-...

It would be ideal if you could find one with a propane engine. With a bit of design you could get it to auto vent/prime and start remotely.

The pump is also likely to require at minimum a depth of 1' of water.



RE: Water pump for fire hose

Did you see the specs on that pump? 63 GPM at 10 feet and it's already far to the right on it's curve. OP needs 80 GPM at 160 feet to get any meaningful capacity.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

We have no idea what the OP needs or wants....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

(OP)
Thanks all. Yes some more information would be helpful.

Water flow should be (in my estimation) 15 to 20 liters / min.
Water pressure is difficult to say but 5 bar (?)
The water basin is no more that 25 m3 with a bit of silt and no twigs leafs or other debris.

Water output that of a good and strong water hose as an outright fire hose would be too expensive I suppose.

Cheers

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Do you have underground cabled electric power to your property?
Even that may not be sufficient protection.
If the supply lines do not burn out, some Hawaiians are wondering why the electric grid wasn't purposely deactivated.

https://www.csemag.com/articles/back-to-basics-fir...

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Well 20 l/min / ~5 USGPM is about what you get from standard garden hose.

Is that all you want?

That's going to be a pretty small fire.

To fight a house fire or car fire, most fire engines I've seen recently run about 1" or maybe 1 1/2" flexible hose reel, like you see in some buildings.

They put out something more like 30 to 50 GPM, so up to 10 times your flow.

Think this post is going no where as you clearly haven't given this any thought or research into what you want to do, how much water you would need, where you would get enough power, what type of pump etc etc.

Something sitting there as a once in decade use, if that, then almost certainly won't work when you need it as you won't go and test it every week. will you?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

(OP)
OK @LittleInch can you tell me what kind of pump would be required for the type of pump and hose you have seen on fire engines? What are the specifications on such a pump? Alternatively what is the specs for one half the size?

RE: Water pump for fire hose

I've already told you that.

You need a min of about 25 to 30 Usgm / 100 to 120 l/min at a delivery head of about 40 to 60m

Connect using a 1" or maybe a 1 1/4" hose.

Prob about 1.5 to 2 Kw depending on pump efficiency which is quite low for those size pumps.

Fire truck pumps are much bigger and a lot more robust.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

(OP)
Got it - thanks.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

At a minimum your pump is going to require a 6.5 inch diameter impeller at 3600 rpm. This works out to be 7.5 horsepower. If you have 50hz power you will need a larger diameter impeller.

Firetruck pumps use a step-up gearbox to allow them to generate higher pressures.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Here are you pump options:

Pumps

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Great article. I'm surprised it doesn't mention whether any of the pumps are self priming or even mention the issue of excessive suction lift or priming the pumps as far as I could see.

In fact the article makes some incorrect statements about suction lift implying you can lift 30m. You can't.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

The 30 metre is way wrong, probably should have been 30ft (which in itself is optimistic) the problem when writing and using mixed terms - feet,metres and PSI.

Of course everyone is still in the dark - does the OP need a motor or engine driven unit.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Not the least important question BTW. Fire often knocks out the power first, if the power did not start the fire to begin with and purposely is not cut off then, or later.

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Biggest issue really is that people buy them, maybe fit them and run them once or twice for fun / look at me, then do nothing for 5 years until they suddenly need it when it won't start of the fuel has either evaporated or gone off...

That's before they wonder why it won't flow any thing when the inlet line is full of air or the inlet has become clogged with dirt /fish / rocks or just perished in the sun..... Or has been stored in the shed which is now burning.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose



If he has a basin with water is there a reason that a submersible wouldn't be a good idea. They can be outfitted with some type of suction screen to limit debris going in(whether it starves the pump eventually is something he should test out)

Also agree that main electric supply should not be relied upon for this type of equipment although if he has a whole house generator, that could be considered if the generator is sufficiently far away from the house.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

A submersible, especially if it sits inside a small bucket or on top of a few paving slabs plus a petrol powered generator is probably the best scenario as you could test it on mains power regularly, use the generator for other things and be good to go when the flames arrive.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

(OP)
The submersible I have looked at are not big/strong enough.
Looking at a gas driven one such as the Hyundai HY50. Unfortunately they don't write the (max) water pressure.

RE: Water pump for fire hose

Says TDH of 32m.

So assuming a 2m lift into the pump that's 30m output, 3 bar, 45 psi. Bit low for firefighting.

Also 500 l/min - this is as the article says more of a water moving pump than a fire fighting one.

At least this one does say it is self priming, though suspect you still need to fill the impellor casing with water.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

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