Let’s face it, for those of us who have experienced life with easy access to water in an emergency, things get difficult really quickly. We don’t often think through all of the ramifications of daily living when pressurized water inside our homes is suddenly gone. Likely the most common sense portion of our brain quickly dives into rudimentary thought processes that include carrying buckets of water. However, there is a better way, and when an emergency situation that knocks out a normal supply of water comes your way, a little bit of normalcy can be a major blessing.
The Flojak Hand Well Pump mechanisms are designed with pressurization in mind. Your normal submersible pump in your well - if you have one - also operates with pressurization in mind. Most of the time, a typically blue colored “bladder tank” will be located a short distance from your well in an outbuilding, shop, barn, or even utility room of your house. These tanks will receive water from your well, and then use a pressurized air bladder within the tank itself to compress the water inside and feed pressurized water, generally around 30 PSI, into your home.
With a little ingenuity, it’s not difficult to DIY an alternative supply source to your bladder tank. A job of this type would also be fairly simple and low cost for your local plumbing contractor. A few fittings and an extra valve will allow you to switch between your normal electrically-powered submersible pump, and a manual backup well pump, such as the Flojak Plus or Flojak Rigid backup well pump. When the power goes out, this would allow you to simply shut the valve to your normal well pump, and then open the valve to your Flojak water pump.
You can then use your Flojak hand well pump to pressurize your bladder tank, and feed pressurized water into your home. Yes, the volume will be small, but it would allow for the normal - very conservative emergency consumption - operation of your plumbing system, such as faucets, toilets, and even showers. Of course, you’ll need to repressurize the water as often as you need to based on usage, but this would allow you to avoid carrying buckets of water.
The Flojak hand well pumps are designed with high quality, CNC precision machined valving systems that can accommodate pressurization of water in water lines. It is recommended that another exterior check-valve be installed if setting up a more permanent installation of a Flojak hand well pump.
In a pinch, you can also open an exterior hydrant or water spigot and connect a hose directly from your Flojak Hand Well Pump to the water lines in your home through the spigot or hydrant. You will want to shut off the water line between the bladder tank and your submersible well pump. In quick fashion, though, this setup would also allow you to have access to pressurized water inside your home during an emergency situation.
We hope this helps you out and gives you some ideas for preparing for emergency situations and ensuring your family has uninterrupted access to water.