12v/battery/eco friendly power generator for water pump

[Fraseree]

Hi all,

I hope someone can help me with some advice. I have an 800 litre baffled water container that I want to use for pressure washing. I don't have access to electric as the tank located in a van. The tank is usually used for plant watering contracts and I just let gravity slowly empty the tank through the hose.

Ideally, I want to try and avoid using generators and find something that would work from the cigarette lighter or portable battery. Is there someone out there with experience of this? I'd like to try and replicate the sort of pressure you get from a normal garden hose - 40-60 PSI?

I've sourced a pressure washer with a built-in generator but would like to try and stay electric for the water pump if you see what I mean.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Fraser.

 

[James]

Something like this?

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SEAFLO-11-6-Water-System-Pump/dp/B01N1GKIDT/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=12v+water+pump&qid=1601544763&sr=8-14

 

[Fraseree]

Something like this?

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SEAFLO-11-6-Water-System-Pump/dp/B01N1GKIDT/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=12v+water+pump&qid=1601544763&sr=8-14

Hi James, thank you for looking at this. I assume this would need wiring onto a leisure battery??

Cheers,
Fraser.

 

[James]

Hi James, thank you for looking at this. I assume this would need wiring onto a leisure battery??

Cheers,
Fraser.

That is what I would do, fit a leisure battery to van with a split charge relay.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Do you mean you want the pump to provide a pressurised water supply to feed a pressure washer? If so, what is the maximum flow rate of the pressure washer as this will dictate the size of pump required. The pump linked above will deliver 2 gallons per minute @ 20 PSI (you won't need any higher pressure than this) at about 5A consumption. You could safely run it for an hour off the vehicle battery. To run all day you would want an auxiliary battery.

FWIW some pressure washers will run from a gravity water feed without a pump, provided the connection is short and unrestricted and remains primed.

 

[Fraseree]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I've attached some pictures of a pump I've got. I just need to increase the water flow out of a large container for watering plants. At the moment, gravity does all the work so any increase would be welcome!

I'm trying to understand if a car/leisure battery that I can recharge will do the trick?

 

[Fraseree]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I've attached some pictures of a pump I've got. I just need to increase the water flow out of a large container for watering plants. At the moment, gravity does all the work so any increase would be welcome!

I'm trying to understand if a car/leisure battery that I can recharge will do the trick?

Any advice someone could give me, I am a novice when it comes to this sort of thing. I need to wire the pump to the battery too. Ideally, the pump and battery will be mounted to a platform together and stay connected. Thanks

 

[Lucien Nunes]

First thing, we need to know how the battery is going to be recharged... by the vehicle or from the mains back at base. Connecting the pump to the battery is easy - you just need a fuse and a switch. Connecting the battery to re-charge in the vehicle is more complex.

Also, how many hours pumping will you want to do between charges?

Example.

Your pump uses around 2-4 amps according towhether it's pumping against flow resistance. Call it 3A. A carryable leisure battery of 75 amp-hours will run a 3A load for 75/3 = 25 hours, when it is brand new, fully charged, room temp etc. That performance will drop with time and under less than perfect conditions, and it is not good for a battery to run it completely flat before charging. So let's say it will run the pump for half that time, 12 hours.

At 3A load the pump will deliver something less than maximum flow rate, say 3 litres per minute, 180 litres per hour, 2200 litres per charge of the battery. So under real world conditions, the 75Ah leisure battery will pump at least two full IBC tanks out of a nozzle under moderate pressure on one charge, without flagging.

Is this in the ballpark? Obviously if you only needed to pump say 500 litres on a charge, you could use a much smaller battery.