What is a Hand Pump and How Does it Work?

What is a Hand Pump?

Hand pumps are hand-operated pumps; They use human power and mechanical advantages to move fluids or air from one place to another. They are used for a wide variety of industrial, marine, irrigation, and recreational activities in every country in the world.

There are many different types of hand pumps, which operate mainly on a piston, diaphragm, or rotary valve principle, with a check valve at the inlet and outlet openings to the chamber operating in opposite directions. Most hand pumps are either piston pumps or plunger pumps and are positive displacement pumps.

Hand pumps are often used in developing countries for both municipal and private water supply and can be installed in boreholes or hand-dug wells.

How Does a Manual Water Pump Work?

The manual water pump is a device that works thanks to a piston or plunger, a lever attached to a moving point, a connecting rod, and a washer.

The process that sets the water in motion is as follows:

• When the lever is raised, the piston lowers and the water enters through the holes or tubes and the washer is raised by the water pressure. Basically, a suction effect is generated.
• When the lever is lowered, the washer does the same thing, cutting off the flow of water and causing the water to pool in the pump.
• If the process is repeated several times, the amount of water that collects and ultimately flows out of the outlet valve increases.

The manual water pump can be used both in the household, to pump small amounts of liquid from a barrel or a shallow well, and in the industrial sector, as its simple but safe operation enables sufficient suction of chemical substances.

Types of Hand Pumps

1. Suction and lift hand pumps

Sucking and lifting are important aspects of the pumping fluid. Suction is the vertical distance between the center of the pump and the liquid to be lifted; lift is the vertical distance between the delivery point and the pump.

The suction depth of the hand water pump is regulated with the help of atmospheric pressure and the working depth is less than 7m.

Lifting the pump depends on the pump and the operator’s ability to lift the weight in the supply line. Therefore, the same operator and pump can achieve a higher stroke with smaller diameter hoses than with larger diameter hoses.

Advantages of Suction and Lift Pump:

• There is no need of electricity
• These pumps have high reliability
• These pumps can lift a large amount of water with smaller tubes.

2. Force Pump

If it is necessary to raise water to a height above which a suction or lift pump will work effectively (about 7 meters) or increase the pressure so that it exits a nozzle with a strong force, e.g., through a fire hose, a pressure pump can be used.

As with a suction pump, in its manual form, it relies on an operator to pump a handle. The difference, however, is that once the water has been sucked through the lower valve (by lifting the piston attached to the handle) it exits through a pipe or nozzle on the side of the master cylinder.

The water that was sucked in via the lower valve and trapped there is pressed down again on the next stroke when the piston or plunger is pressed down again.

3. Siphon

The simplest syphon (or siphon) is a bent pipe. The one side of this manual water pump is placed into the water so that it can flow, while the other side is placed into the water tank or reservoir to suck the water inside the pump.

In the case of this pump, the height of the receiving water tank should be less than the height of the supplying vessel. Thus, the water always flows from the high head to the lower head area.

Following this principle, a simple pump with a rubber or plastic bulb and flap valves on both ends are used to pour the fuel tank or water tank into the lower head tank. When the bulb is full, the liquid flows comfortably from the upper tank to the lower tank.

The main Advantages of syphon is, it can work at a height that exceeds the hydraulic pressure of the fluid and it Can work in a vacuum

4. Chain pump

A chain pump is made of an endless chain carrying a series of discs that descend into the water and then ascend inside a tube, carrying with them a large quantity of water. They are a simply made, old hand-powered pumping technology in the 18th century they were used as ship’s bilge pumps.

5. Direct action

Direct action hand pumps have a pumping rod that is moved up and down, directly by the user, discharging water. Direct action handpumps are easy to install and maintain but are limited to the maximum column of water a person can physically lift of up to 15 m. Examples of direct-action pumps include the can zee pump and the EMAS pump.

6. Deep wells

Deep well hand pumps are used at places wherever the water has to be lifted from a deep source. These pumps are used over 15 meters of depth. Deep well hand pumps include the weight of the water which is to be lifted and is too high, to aid a human in operating this pump.

In such cases, some mechanical additions like a lever or flywheel are used to make the work easier. Here are some more details about the installation and maintenance of deep good hand pumps:

• It is quite complicated and expensive in comparison to other hand pumps. These are the kinds of pumps which are found to be stronger in owing the nature of the work involved.
• A deep well hand pump is found having no limitation when it comes to the depth at which it can operate.
• Practically it is limited by the strength of human. The deep well hand pumps in general are found having an operational depth of 80 meters.

7. Diaphragm

Diaphragm pumps have the advantage that, due to the lack of tie rods, they pump relatively easily and are corrosion-resistant. Their disadvantage is that they require a certain length of tubing and high-quality rubber diaphragms, which are expensive and relatively inefficient due to the additional labor required to deform the diaphragm.

Rubber diaphragms eventually leak and have to be replaced. Because this is typically complicated and expensive, diaphragm pumps operating in poor rural areas are often abandoned when the diaphragms wear out.

8. Progressive cavity

A progressive cavity pump is also a type of positive displacement pump. This pump is found to have more efficiency even after a compact design. The pumps include a helical rotor which is inserted inside a double-helical stator. As soon as the rotor moves, the cavity is filled with water and is eventually pumped out.

Design being compact, its typical gear mechanism system makes it nearly impossible for a local technician to repair or maintain it. As the pump is found to have a typical mechanism, this is what increases its cost also. Considering a simple example of progressive cavity pump a rope and washer pump could be some of them.

Criteria for Choosing a Hand Pump

For many experts, the reasonable cost is the fundamental criterion when choosing pumping equipment. But you can be wrong. When deciding on a well hand pump, you should consider the following criteria:

• Depth. Traditionally, mechanical pumping stations are divided into two broad groups: devices for lifting liquids from a depth of 30 meters and mechanisms that operate at a depth of 6 meters.
• Well Diameter. Experts strongly recommend drilling a well larger than 10 cm in diameter. This means that any pump can be installed in the future.
• Degree of contamination and type of liquid. There are modifications for operation with contaminated and clean water, please refer to the accompanying documentation.
• Requirements. Due to technical limitations, not all mechanical pumps meet all of the owner’s requirements.
• Usage time. this time is important as there are devices that are only designed for operation during warm periods. If you need year-round water supply, consider buying a more expensive model.

For some homeowners, the attractiveness of the apartment plays an important role. Most of the housings are made of cast iron and have good physical characteristics.

Installation of a Manual Well Water Pump

One of the best advantages of our water well hand pumps is that they are conveniently installed. The procedure is simple and does not require special skills. To install a manual pump station, you just have to follow the following steps:

1. Check the package, all attached parts must be in place.
2. The pump casing is installed in a vertical position so that the bottom part is submerged in water. If you install the pump wrong then you can damage the whole unit.
3. If the attached user manual says that the device is not designed to pump water with a high content of solid impurities, you must also install cleaning filters. Our manuals are comprehensive, they are made to help you install the device without problems.
4. The structure must be fixed to the surface of the earth so that it remains firm and constant.
5. Purge the pump so that the interior is flushed with plenty of clean water.

We recommend choosing the installation area as even as possible since stones and other debris are pre-cleaned. Follow our advice and install your Hand pump easily and effectively.

Applications of Hand Pump

The hand water pump has the following major applications:

• These pumps widely use in rural areas because, in the rural areas, maximum people use groundwater for drinking.
• They also use for shear-sensitive fruits and vegetables
• The manual pump also uses for agriculture applications
• It uses to transfer sludge and slurry
• For oil pumping (lubricating and non-lubricating)
• For varnish and paints
• Hand pump also use for lotions, creams and cosmetics applications
• Adhesives
• These pumps also use to pump water from the wells, aeration, and pond filtering.

Advantages of Hand Pump

Here are the top four advantages of hand pumps:

• Water pumps are easy to install
• They offer great efficiency and versatility
• Manual water pumps are very resistant
• They are an economical and durable option
• The hand pump has a low cost
• It has a simple design
• There is no need of electricity or any other power source

FAQs.