Pump size for mixing water from basement

[wwu123]

I recently moved my RO/DI unit to a basement-like crawlspace, where I could set up a 30 gallon Brute as a RO/DI reservoir. A couple of times a week I need to bring up about five gallons for weekly water changes or to refill my ATO, but it's kind of a pain because need to navigate around two cars in a tight garage, and into the low-height, dirt-filled crawlspace.

Thus I'd like to pump the water up, but I can't really run any large tubing up through the floor. However, I was able to run two 1/4" PEX lines up to below the kitchen sink, one of which is used for RO drinking water. The other PEX line is unused. Is it reasonable to be able to pump up five gallons of mixing water fairly quickly through such a small tube? I've looked at the head loss calculator on the home page, but the smallest pipe diameter there is 3/4". By fairly quickly, somehting like up to five minutes might be fine, but any longer, I'll likely wander off and forget, and come back to an overflowing bucket in the kitchen....

I don't want to buy a pump that's way too small or large for the head loss, plus with the size pumps that seem to be needed, I can't figure out the best way to reduce the fittings hat all the way down to 1/4" PEX either. I've got a bunch of PVC, barb, and quick-connect fittings, but reducing all the way from a 3/4" connector down to 1/4" seems difficult.

 

[webfinger]

Seems like 1/4" could be effective. can always test it with a left over piece. Probably take a few minutes depending on the pump. I think your biggest challenge will be the pump selection. I use the smallest panworld pump I could get. I use it as the mixing pump and have a T with a valve so I can pump it right out of the can up to the sump.

 

[PRDubois]

If you use a Fountain Tech FT-450 Uses 3/4" inside diameter tubing.
Will pump up 9'.
You would need to reduce the 3/4 to 1/4 but it should work.

 

[5pacey]

Well.. I tested a Mag 18 @13 ft head and got about 410 Gph w/1" pipe.

Spacey

 

[wwu123]

Just to report back for future reference, my plan didn't work. I had a cheap Chinese pond pump that was unused, tested it could pump vertically the 8' needed with reasonable flow. But add 25' of 1/4" PEX horizontally, you end up with a trickle - like Aqualifter volume.

At that rate it'd take an hour or more. Putting a stronger pump would worry meabout blowing out the fittings, the whole PVC to PEX setup was already quaking from the backpressure.

Hauling 5 gal jugs up and down can't be helped.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I use a Mag 18 with 5/8 inch tubing (python tubing) to pump water from my basement Brute to the tank on the first floor and it works fine. It is probably moving about 375-400 gph. I think the 1/4" tubing is just too narrow, so if you decide to try again, see if you can get 5/8" plastic tubing like this (http://www.aquacave.com/Lees-UltimateVac-Gravel-Vacuum-Kit-50-P2078C536.aspx) put in place of the smaller tubing.

 

[shifty51008]

I use a Little Giant Model 3-MDQX to pump my water up from the basement and it works great, however using 1/4" tubing will be hard for alot of pumps I would try to at least up it to 1/2" min.

 

[5pacey]

Yea ... its the 1/4 tubing... imo. It kills 90% of the possible flow just because its so narrow over such distance. Check out the much more precise head loss tables from reeflo. W/out looking back to verify, this narrow tubing at your distance probably adds 10'+ of head easy...

Spacey

 

[wiz224]

I use a odyssea return pump that i got new for $30 from aquatraders and half of an old garden hose to get my water from one end of the the house up the stairs. Not sure the flow but it has worked great for what i use it for.

 

[wwu123]

Thanks for the input, folks. I've got 1/4" PEX plumbed through the subfloor right now, but maybe I can shorten that segment to just a few feet, and feed most of the length with 5/8" tubing, to reduce the overall head loss. I'll do a few more experiments...