Strainer - keep or chuck?

I'm upgrading my 8" Gold Rat sluice with a header and a little 3HP petrol water pump via 1.5" hoses. I just received the pump this morning and it came with a plastic strainer for the pick up hose (photo below) and was wondering whether it would be adequate? I was expecting to buy a brass foot valve to assist in priming but I thought I could get some of your opinions before I fork out any more $$$.

My little pump came with that style strainer and it seems to work pretty good.Keep it.

Wrap it with some shade cloth.
Another thing I did with mine before I replaced it was
drilled a few more holes in the lid then glued it shut
with silastic.
I now have a brass foot valve.
Yes, The pump has one as well and it is self priming but
I prefer to have a foot valve as well on the end of the suction hose.
Makes it a lot quicker to prime up hence extending the life of the seal and
impeller.

I like the idea of the foot valve aiding the priming, and as you say, it may extend the life of the pump. Does the foot valve impede the flow at all? I read in some earlier posts about using shade cloth, but again, does that impede the flow excessively, particularly if you're using any length of hose?

If your suction hose isn't too long the foot valve isn't needed. That seal on the pump will outlast you mate, so don't even consider that.

Get one of these https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/j-burrows-8l-wire-mesh-waste-bin-black-jbbin8lbk
Put your strainer in that, cut the opening with tin snips and fold around the pipe, cable tie/wire it up and you have a nice big strainer.

If you are worried about too much reduction in your flow, you should have bought a bigger pump (I know great in hindsight). A bigger pump can always be turned down, but a smaller pump won't work any harder than 100%. Ken.

ken2m said:

If you are worried about too much reduction in your flow, you should have bought a bigger pump (I know great in hindsight). A bigger pump can always be turned down, but a smaller pump won't work any harder than 100%. Ken.

Click to expand...

A bigger pump would be an overkill. This is a 3HP motor, light to carry and perfectly adequate for an 8" sluice. I would rather use a small motor running efficiently than a big one inefficiently.

Thanks for your input.

I made up a SS woven wire box for mine. Works a treat!
Use a a bit of 1mm gal sheet. Say a 125x125mm. Cut a hole out of it in the center to allow fitting slide over.
Cut the corners out,25mm x25mm squares, and fold the remaining 25mm lips up to 90deg to make a 100m square with 25mm lips on all four sides
Glaziers will have off cuts of SS security mesh in their bins!
Fold the wire mesh up to fit snug internally in the 25mm lips.
And overlap the 4th lip 25mm .
Pop rivet through the back of the plate into the factory sieve.
Then through your 4x 25mm lips into the mesh.
Make the cap lid by cutting 150mm of mesh, fold 25mm in from each end at 90deg.
Use the tiny zip ties to hold in place (4 of)
This keep the strainer off the bottom from sucking sand up into your pump. ( pump killer)
Mine actually has a brass flapper valve with a camlock on it.
This helps it sink and allows the hose to join up to make a ring for easier transport.
a simple brush when needed to remove any debris.
I've heard all sorts of ways to arrange fittings.
But I beleive arrange you cam locks like an air compressor. ?.
feamales out. Male fittings going in towards motor.
This allows for easy joing of extension hose etc.

Shop around for brass flapper valves, they vary a LOT in price.
Dont use spring loaded types.
The camlock allows you join your hose, male to female.
Always remember water pumps push far better than they suck, so keep the sucker hose to a minimum. The shorter the BETTER!
Even if you have 2 x 1m hoses,
I kink in layflat with a small, pump will kill your flow!
So you can use your 2nd 1m sucker hose up to your sluice to rid the kink etc

I was going to cut the inlet hose to 2m and 3m lengths with the ability to join them if needed. I will do the same for the pressure hose at 20m and 10m. I'm still undecided whether to use camlocks or threaded fittings. If I fit camlocks, I will have to unthread the one on the pump every time I want to stow it in the toolbox on the caravan which would be butt painful. The poly nut and tail fittings come off anyway so that wouldn't be an issue. I'm uncertain about the durability of one over the other, and as there's bugger all difference in the price it really is a choice of which would suit me better.

The options suggested of creating a strainer are great and I will do something to minimise the erosive effects of the sand. Without physically seeing a foot valve, how can I tell whether it's spring loaded or not?

This is the type that I was thinking of...

Anolphart said:

ken2m said:

If you are worried about too much reduction in your flow, you should have bought a bigger pump (I know great in hindsight). A bigger pump can always be turned down, but a smaller pump won't work any harder than 100%. Ken.

Click to expand...

A bigger pump would be an overkill. This is a 3HP motor, light to carry and perfectly adequate for an 8" sluice. I would rather use a small motor running efficiently than a big one inefficiently.

Thanks for your input.

Click to expand...

I was only stating that if your pump is running flat stick all the time there is no room for anything to go even slightly wrong. Things that could have a negative effect are pumping a further distance, pump flow and pressure reduced by leaking seals or impeller wear, a few leaves partially blocking the intake, longer intake hose.

I have run a pump that was capable of 12,500 lpm at 135psi , when this pump had a vertical lift on the inlet of 6m and the outlet was connected to 250m of pipe the flow rate dropped to somewhere in the vicinity of 3,600 lpm.

This is an extreme example but all the problems are real world problems and can have drastic effects on how well a pump works. Ken.

Hmm, im a bit confused about the needing to unscrew terminology.
There are a couple of variants in camlocks.
# male end (internal fitting connector)
#female end (outer sleave with the cam closures)

#male with barbs ( for hose)
#male with male thread ( threads on the outside, visible)
#male with feamale thread ( thread is on the inside, internally)

#female with barbs ( for hose )
#female with male thread ( thread on outside, visible)
#feamale with feamale thread ( thread is on the inside, internally)

Make life easier, undo any screw type fittings on the pump and throw them away!
Fit a feamale cam to the outlet on pump. This will most likely be the female with a male thread type to screw it in.
Fit barbed cam locks to your hoses.
One male at one end, and feamale at the other. This allows for easy banking of hoses
Same for sucker hoses.
the sluice with have a male cam fitted to it.
Average decent cost of black poly camlocks should be $10/12 a pair.
avoid alloy as the hate any grit in them and they become a bugga to close up.
the inlet side can be either, male or female. Just have the opposite cam on your strainer.

Sorry Ken, I probably sounded abrupt in my comment and I didn't mean to be. The two most important requirements for me are size and weight. All of it has to be light enough for me to carry the whole kit some distance, and small enough to fit in an aluminium toolbox on the back of my caravan. It will only be used on my annual trip to Victoria from northern NSW.

I have used a friend's high banker recently that used a similar pump and it was idling most of the time. This pump will power an 8" Gold Rat sluice with a header - no spray bar. I'm more interested in water flow/volume rather than high pressure. The absolute maximum hose length that I will use when combined will be 30m. Of course the head will vary depending on location, the pump claims 25m but I suspect that's Chinese meters and I doubt that I would go anywhere higher than about 2 - 3m max anyway.

Mudgee hunter thanks for the tip about avoiding aluminium cam locks, I actually assumed that they'd be more durable than poly. My problem is that if I fit a cam lock to the pump it would make it too wide to fit into my toolbox, whereas if I use a nut & tail, it gets removed every time I remove the hose. Images below.



The pump just fits inside my toolbox as it is. Adding a permanently mounted cam lock would make the overall size too big.

brass all the way mate, those little plastic pickups tend to crush at the worst possible time. keep it for a backup but a good check valve nice and heavy will last a lifetime

Just use the camlock the same as and unscrew it the same perhaps. Yeah the alloy ones are not as forgiving unlike the black poly. Especially if you mix brands over time.
I agree with weight issue on the pump. 3hp is a good all round size. There wherc places I would never of draged a big arse pump by myself .
Handy to have both if able.
Keep an end cap on that threaded outlet to protect it hey

Had a look to today at the above check valve, my opion is go for the simple flap valve like mine. Cheaper aswell. Put a cam lock on it. Then you can split it from the hose easily.
The general strainers on the market are not designed for sitting on the bottom of any creek/dam etc. Normally suspended off the bottom with a float.
Flat on the bottom of the creek bed they willl suck sand in people! Major impeller damage!
3m sucker hose is pushing limits on small pumps. 1m is ideal if you can get away with it.
Barbed fittings to sucker hose can be a real task to fit sometimes!
And removing the part of the barb has to be done some times.
I use my belt linisher, this will cause burring of the poly, remove with wire buffer etc, then GENTLY flame over it using a gas torch.
Dunk in water, knife of excess. Flame again till shiny and smooth.
failing to smoothen out burs will tear the hose.
The better sucker hose actually has a spiraling wire in it, than a plastic one. Priced accordingly but.
But wears better.

.

All good advice guys, thank you all.