Storing water from a well?

[haboob]

This question has been bugging me for a while and I keep getting different answers...So here goes...
Can I put a storage tank (like the kind you can get at Tractor Supply) and plumb it in-between the well and the pump-house? So that the water goes in and rises up and then after that flows into the well-house and on into the house....
Then I would have clean water to draw from in case of a SHTF event. I don't see why this wouldn't work...... But what do I know?

 

[hashbrown]

It will work if it doesnt get too cold where you are.

 

[haboob]

It does get down in the teens during the winter....?

 

[Caribou]

We've all seen the city water towers, that is essentially what you are describing.

You can insulate the tank. You can partially bury the tank and rely on ground heat to keep it from freezing. Heat tapes on your pipes. You'll need two water pumps or the tank will need to be higher than the house.

 

[hiwall]

Obviously the plastic tank cannot be pressurized. So you could use your pump to fill the storage tank then shut your pump off. Then like Caribou says, either another pump to pressure feed the stored water into your house or if the tank is high enough you could just use gravity.

 

[Aerindel]

This question has been bugging me for a while and I keep getting different answers...So here goes...
Can I put a storage tank (like the kind you can get at Tractor Supply) and plumb it in-between the well and the pump-house? So that the water goes in and rises up and then after that flows into the well-house and on into the house....
Then I would have clean water to draw from in case of a SHTF event. I don't see why this wouldn't work...... But what do I know?

Sure.

My well fills a 550 gallon storage tank. I fill this manually once every month in the winter, or once every three months in the summer. I have float sensors in the tank that turn on LEDs in the house to show the level.

I wanted gravity flow, but to keep the water from freezing or getting too warm I had to install the tank underneath my kitchen floor.

I then have a small solar powered pressure pump hooked up to that tank that pumps to a pair of of 55 gallon drums suspended from my ceiling, and THEY gravity flow to the rest of the house. I fill the secondary tanks about once a week, or whenever I want cold water. The pump from the storage tank is wired to a switch next to my kitchen sink so its easy to do. I an also flip a valve and switch from gravity feed to a pressurized system run from that same pump, but I like gravity feed better for day to day use.

 

[viking]

Obviously the plastic tank cannot be pressurized. So you could use your pump to fill the storage tank then shut your pump off. Then like Caribou says, either another pump to pressure feed the stored water into your house or if the tank is high enough you could just use gravity.

The neighbor on our east side has the ideal system, 1,500 gallon black poly tank fed by a submersible pump controlled by two float switches, one for low water turn on and the other for high water shut off, the outlet at the bottom of the tank feeds a 1/2 hp pressure controlled pump that feeds a pressure tank the feeds the water to the house. This. system is enclosed in an insulated shed. The only thing that should be added is a solar charged battery powered pump for when the grid is down. I try to recommend this type of system to anyone concerned for having water if there is a SHTF situation or just common sense for grid down due to weather or whatever. Thankfully what we did shortly after we bought our property was to build a 1,100 gallon concrete water cistern at the top of our property for a gravity feed system, this gives us 25 psi in our home. The spring that feeds the cistern is about 500 feet up the mountain to the west of us, the only maintenance I've had to do on the spring is an occasional clean out of tree roots and silted in veins in the bedrock, I have one other thing I'm going to do and that is to buy a rotary hammer drill and some long masonry bits and drill horizontal holes on the uphill side of the spring where I believe I'll run into other water veins, I'm pretty sure there is more available water as the times I've cleaned out the spring before, water has squirted out of the cracks in the rocks.

 

[The Lazy L]

Obviously the plastic tank cannot be pressurized. So you could use your pump to fill the storage tank then shut your pump off. Then like Caribou says, either another pump to pressure feed the stored water into your house or if the tank is high enough you could just use gravity.

I believe a plastic tank could be pressurized at a low pressure.

Divide the height of the column of water by 2.3 to get PSI at the base of the water column. If the top of the filled elevated plastic tank is 10 feet above the sink faucet, the gravity feed PSI would be 4. If the plastic tank could withstand being pressurized to 12 PSI, the flow to the sink faucet would be greatly increased.

 

[hiwall]

I believe a plastic tank could be pressurized at a low pressure.

Divide the height of the column of water by 2.3 to get PSI at the base of the water column. If the top of the filled elevated plastic tank is 10 feet above the sink faucet, the gravity feed PSI would be 4. If the plastic tank could withstand being pressurized to 12 PSI, the flow to the sink faucet would be greatly increased.

I have not seen a large plastic tank that could be sealed well enough to hold any pressure. I do agree the tank itself could hold some pressure but most have a large opening that does not lend itself to seal against internal pressure.
But maybe you could find one that could be pressurized.

 

[Aerindel]

One thing I want to emphasize, is that I spend YEARS trying to figure out pure gravity feed solutions....some of which kinda sorta worked...but my small DC on demand solar pump works perfectly and was less than $300 in total. I wish I had been less reluctant to use a pump because I wasted years using funky systems that where a lot of work that turned out to be unnecessary.

 

[joel]

My father installed a 100 gallon tank on the farm, years before the balloon pressure tank were in use.
This kelp the farm watered with out running the pump as often.

 

[viking]

I recently replace our leaky Delta kitchen sink faucet with a Moen faucet, wife really likes it, my only concern is that the water connections are small tubing and that causes a low output and I told her that I was considering installing a demand pump in the line coming down from the cistern, she told me not to do that because she's happy with the flow and even though it's slow, it's not a problem. I'm so thankful not to have to pump water from a well, it certainly helps keep our electrical grid costs low. It does help to have a mountain behind us, it sure helps for gravity flow pressure, it's been a blessing for us and over the years it's been a very low maintenance system.