SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Hello all,

I am currently looking to purchase a pump that will not break the bank. I am drawing water from an irrigation district, the specifics of what I am getting is as follows

GPM - 60+
PSI - 13 - 15 psi
Will be covered in a 10 * 16 Shed.

The questions I have are,

What is a good pump that can handle lets say 50 GPM with a working pressure of about 50 - 55 PSI?

Because my head or static pressure is at 15 PSI already, does that mean I only need a booster pump that is capable of only boosting 40 PSI? ( 55 PSI required pressure - 15 PSI static ) = 40??

What sizing of wire would I need to run to my shed and breaker size to properly run the pump.

Would I need a device that is after my zone controller to help my pump start up ( don't remember the name of it right now)

And am I missing anything that I should be considering?

Thanks all..

-NV

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

Your numbers do not work, if you want economy. With economy first, you give up on 50+ psi in your system, and settle for about 40+ psi. This allows you to apply a simple centrifugal pump as a booster, because those pumps move good volume as long as the boost is 30 psi or so. For instance, a 1.5 HP centrifugal could boost a 50 gpm flow by 35 psi.

The key question, is how many acres are you watering? Flat ground?

Thanks for your Reply,
I am watering about 1.5 acers and the ground is close to flat. My water pump is located 5 - 7 feet ABOVE the lowest point, and maybe 3 - 5 feet below the highest point.
I got paid to have TORO do a design for me and they came back with 23 zones. I would like to reduce that a bit. They have 10 sprinker zones and about 13 drip and micro spray zones. Not sure why they set up or used so much drip line for my shelter belt (bushes)
I just got the design back and the max GPM per zone is 18, so even if the pump could handle 40 GPM?? They have stated that I need a pump that will handle 25 GPM at 55 working PSI, and that is for a zone with a max of the 18 GPM. I have attached the drawing that they provided me to give you a better idea of the layout. The drip zones are extremly small in water volume so not sure why they created so many zones. I think in total its about 50 gpm spread accross all the drip zones.
Thanks again for your help and input
-NV

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

For an acre-and-a-half, 50 gpm is overkill, even on sandy soil. 20 gpm would do just fine, which keeps you with standard 1-inch zone valves. This also changes the pump situation. You can use a 1 HP jet pump, which gains more pressure in exchange for delivering less flow.

As for the system drawing, it lacks a scale, so no one on the internet can know exactly what you are looking at. You need to add a line with inch markings.

Attached is my rought scale drawing. I laid out drip irrigation for my trees and shrubs this weeked with the wife. We ended up going with emitters and a main line. Its all above ground but we will be buring it later. We went with a 1" poly pipe. We had to go that large because we only have 15 lbs static pressure atm and are waiting to put in the pump.
Its all running off the turnout nicely, but will balance out better when we can finally add pressure to it. I may do it on one or two zones, but right now its all running at the 15 psi.

50 gpm is over kill I know, but its nice to have. What would you suggest, We have 10 or so sprinker zones,

Is there a good pump that would run two seperte zones at once, I have found quite a few but its almost impossible to find pump curves on them. I would like to keep it to about 500.00 for the pump but then again I maybe dreaming?

I do have static pressure of 15 psi, so does that mean I would only need to find a pump to boost it 35 - 40 PSI?

What is the difference between a booster pump, a jet pump, or the other types of pumps on the market.
I have not run my eletrical yet, so I would need to run it about 150 feet to my water shed from the house so I need to be thinking of that, if I need 120 or 240.

Is there a cost difference to run a 120 vs. a 240 pump, I know 240 you can run it on a smaller breaker, does that mean wire as well? But then I would need to bury two lines to get my 240 volt?

If I were to water all zones one at a time how long would that take, there are 10 sprinkler zones.
This is the controller I would like to use THIS ONE. If I am reading it correctly I can us this for up to 12 zones and its a controller, I don't need anything else besides my PC. Any feed back on it?

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

If your zones ran two minutes each, you'd be done in less than half an hour.

{in other words, not enough information}

LOL, thank you helpful, your math seems accurate. What did you need to know.