Basic Guidelines for making a pulser pump of your own
The pulser pump is a water driven pump with no moving parts. All the
pumping is done by air, sort of like a vacuum cleaner.
A pulser pump has 5 basic parts.
1 A sieve or filter to prevent debris from entering the system.
2 THE INTAKE PIPE A pipe going straight down (water flowing down this pipe
carries air bubbles with it)
3 A chamber underground connected to this pipe. THE BUBBLE SEPARATION
CHAMBER
The pipe end extends into the chamber (15 to 30 cm)
In the chamber, the air bubbles rise to the top and separate from the water.
4 WATER EXIT PIPE The majority of the water exits the chamber
and returns to the surface (at least a half meter lower than when it started)
through this pipe. This pipe does not need to be vertical and it may be better
(for occasional cleaning) if it is at a 30 to 45 degree angle)
It should be at least as low in the chamber as the pipe no. 2
5 A WATER DELIVERY PIPE leading from the top of the underground chamber to
a height suitable to the end user. This would typically be up to 8 or 10
times the "head" or "fall" that powers the pump.
The air bubbles return to the surface through this pipe. In doing so, they
push pulses of water up too.
The water delivery pipe does NOT need to go straight up to the surface but
it IS more efficient when it is vertical.
TYPICAL DIMENSIONS FOR A PULSER PUMP
A pulser pump needs to be a certain size to be worthwhile and run trouble
free so I have set out a few minimum requirements
T he water delivery pipe should be at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter
(in the simplest type of pulser pump, the delivery pipe can occasionally get
blocked if the right piece of debris gets through the sieve). Using 2.5 cm
minimum diameter allows you to push through a standard garden hose to unblock
it.
The minimum head should be half a meter. (You could (in theory) use
a much smaller head.
Please trust me when I say that it is not worth it!)
The minimum entry pipe diameter is 15 cm.
The bottom bubble separation chamber should be long enough so that there
is at least a 60 cm gap between the entry pipe and the water exit pipe.
The water exit pipe should be at least as wide as the water entry pipe.
You generally will need at least 600 liters of water flowing per minute and
falling at least half a meter to power your pulser pump.
The pump should produce at least 2.5 meters of pressure. (by that, I mean
that the bottom of the intake pipe should be at least 2.7 meters below the
level of the water BELOW the dam)
The mesh size on the sieve should be about 2 cm square.
I think that the water dilivery pipe needs to be plastic (or iron) pipe.
However, the choice of material for the rest of the pump is up to you.
As long as you keep the water intake pipe round, smooth, and vertical, you
should be ok.
Brian White