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Thread: priming 7,000 ft water siphon

  1. #1
    Associate Engineer
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    3

    priming 7,000 ft water siphon

    Greetings.
    I would like to bring water from a pond 7,000 ft away from a remote work area. The pond is 60 vertical feet above the work area. The terrain is level for the first 6,000 ft from the pond until it drops 60 ft over the last 1,000 ft. I hope to use 1.5 in hdpe pipe with a valve at the lower end and another valve at the 6,000 ft location at the beginning of the elevation change. My hope is that I could use a 2 in honda trash pump to push water through the 1.5 in hdpe to prime the entire length so i will have water on demand using a valve down at the site. I imagine closing the valve at the lower site and opening the valve at the 6,000 ft point until the lower section fills up and water comes out of the upper valve. Then shutting off the pump and leaving the intake in the pond for water on demand. I am wondering if the 2 in trash pump will be able to push the water that far and anything else I might want to consider.

  2. #2
    Technical Fellow
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    1,043
    Your description is confusing. I don't understand the need for valves and hondas. A sketch will clear this up, but I think you are failing to understand basic principles of water flowing with a Head of 60'.

    If I understand the explanation, and I am not sure that I do, you are starting at the wrong end. Homany Gallons Per Hour are you expecting at the outlet point when water is flowing or being pumped and at what pressure? That will first define the pipe diameter.

  3. #3
    Associate Engineer
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    3
    Thank you for the reply. The 2 in pump will push water into the hdpe pipe. valve 1 will be open and valve 2 will be closed. when the lower section fills with water and valve 1 shoots water out, it will be closed and the pump will be removed from the hdpe at the top. the hdpe intake will remain submerged in the upper pond. valve 2 will be opened to start the siphon. not too worried about gpm but hope to have a usable amount.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #4
    Associate Engineer
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    3
    There is an online friction calculator for hdpe pipe on a another website but unfortunately it doesn't show the equation used. However, inputing 7,000 ft length,1.5 in diameter, hdpe, and gpm of 9 we have head loss of 55 ft. re-imputing to solve for the remaining 5 ft of head, we get 2.5 gpm. i think this is what we should expect to get once the siphon is functioning because of the 60 ft of elevation change between the source and our working pond. This a very conservative value for elevation change and if we then moved up to 2 in diameter hdpe pipe we should have a considerable amount of additional water. I really am unsure how to attack this problem, but it would be nice to have 10 - 20 gpm discharge.
    Last edited by Kelly_Bramble; 05-29-2013 at 07:26 AM.

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