Anyone use a monoblock pump?

Hey fellas, have a query, so the thing is the residence we live in have terrible water force. We actually never did have any reserver/underground tank and another overhead, as the water pressure was excellent we never contemplated that, so we only have a loft tank of 500 ml (just a family of 2), placed inside bathroom, at around 7-8 ft. or something, and as the water pressure was good it used to fill up within an hour or so.

But of late the water pressure has been absolutely shite, and therefore that loft remains empty, the pressure simply isn't enough for the water to reach that height any more.

So either now we have to do the usual method of making a reserver/underground tank, crafting a reserver costs pretty much, and then a tank at roof, and a pump to push the water there, but this will cost around 12-15k at least, we having a bit of financial crisis of late, so I was searching for alternative, and a local hardware store told me to use something called monoblock pump! I have never heard of these before. Searching on Amazon pulls these results:

https://www.amazon.in/Kirloskar-Chh...qid=1523722248&sr=8-1&keywords=monoblock+pump

And so on....

The question is has any one of you used something like this? AFAIK you just turn on the pump, open your tap and it pulls water or something. But question is will that really work?
 
How high is the loft tank from the ground floor.
Is there enough pressure to fill a water tank on the ground.
If yes, just buy a 1000L tank and put it at the ground level. Send one pipe from main water supply to that tank. Put a domestic monobloc pump ( power of pump will depend on height the water has to be pumped) between the ground tank and your loft tank.
That's it.
Since you are going to be using a pump, just pump the water directly to your loft tank. No need to pht another tank on roof. Unless you have very long power cuts, there is no need to put another large storage tank on the roof.
 
The loft tank is at 8 ft. from the ground level. As the water pressure was high enough for this long it used to be filled up within an hour with direct municipal water supply, never had to think about any pump.

The local hardware store guy advised me to just install a monoblock pump, and turn it on when municipal water supply comes, as the pump will help to boost the water to the loft tank, without the need of a tank at ground level.

Though thanks for your advice, I think it's the most practical one.
 
The loft tank is at 8 ft. from the ground level. As the water pressure was high enough for this long it used to be filled up within an hour with direct municipal water supply, never had to think about any pump.

The local hardware store guy advised me to just install a monoblock pump, and turn it on when municipal water supply comes, as the pump will help to boost the water to the loft tank, without the need of a tank at ground level.

Though thanks for your advice, I think it's the most practical one.
So, wait, you live on the ground floor and yet the water doesn't even rise 8ft to your loft tank.
In that case, it would be better to get your pipes checked and also complain to your water provider to get the main water pipes checked for reason behind such low pressure.
In our area, we used to have trouble getting water to a tank 15ft high. So we placed another tank at floor level but still it's top was at least 6-7 ft high.
But mine is a village in Himachal where water problems are aplenty and the water lines are not maintained properly. It's free supply, so getting maintenence done is a lot tedious.

P. S. - Attaching a pump directly to the main line is considered illegal by many providers and it can also cause meter to give faulty reading and increase your bill disproportiantely.
 
So, wait, you live on the ground floor and yet the water doesn't even rise 8ft to your loft tank.
In that case, it would be better to get your pipes checked and also complain to your water provider to get the main water pipes checked for reason behind such low pressure.
In our area, we used to have trouble getting water to a tank 15ft high. So we placed another tank at floor level but still it's top was at least 6-7 ft high.
But mine is a village in Himachal where water problems are aplenty and the water lines are not maintained properly. It's free supply, so getting maintenence done is a lot tedious.

P. S. - Attaching a pump directly to the main line is considered illegal by many providers and it can also cause meter to give faulty reading and increase your bill disproportiantely.
LoL yeah right, the water doesn't even reach 8 ft. height ha ha. You say you live in village area? Well I live in a semi-urban area, the problem is with my ward only, the councillor as we call it over here for this ward is a total idiot. We have already complained many times, he keeps saying stupid things, we also had our ferrule washed, and of course the pipes were cleared like three times in last one year. That's not the problem. There is no overhead tank nearby, and the booster pump which is used to send us water is over-utilised. But this idiot councillor doesn't give a damn anyway. There was no water just six months ago, a written letter to local municipality and patience of a tortoise did the job, but not going to do that again in this short span.

So looking for a permanent solution really. I know it's considered illegal to attach a pump directly to municipality line, but seriously considering illegal/legal is fair when people who are in charge are remotely even educated or responsible for having basic jobs done for us.
 
I was in same shoes in yr 2k11 when i shifted to another rented house.
There was water scarcity all over and being on top floor the water hardly used to reach from ground society tank. To add, the society was age old and nobody cared as everyone had tanks which were always on so drip by drip their tanks used to get filled in 24hrs.
Complaining to owner yeilded nothing as he was an a$$h$$+_.
Hardware shops suggested such pump but it will create lot of noise during operations and society chairman unluckily was my neighbour so cant even think of risking such thing. After just 2 months gave up and shifted to another society and lived their 6 yrs with piece of mind at least in terms of water supply and water management.
If yours is rented house better shift to another location within your city if not you have full rights to deal with it either by hook or crook.
 
LoL yeah right, the water doesn't even reach 8 ft. height ha ha. You say you live in village area? Well I live in a semi-urban area, the problem is with my ward only, the councillor as we call it over here for this ward is a total idiot. We have already complained many times, he keeps saying stupid things, we also had our ferrule washed, and of course the pipes were cleared like three times in last one year. That's not the problem. There is no overhead tank nearby, and the booster pump which is used to send us water is over-utilised. But this idiot councillor doesn't give a damn anyway. There was no water just six months ago, a written letter to local municipality and patience of a tortoise did the job, but not going to do that again in this short span.

So looking for a permanent solution really. I know it's considered illegal to attach a pump directly to municipality line, but seriously considering illegal/legal is fair when people who are in charge are remotely even educated or responsible for having basic jobs done for us.
I understand man. Things are pretty much the same over here. We got fedup of the situation because even the 1000L tank on the ground floor wasn't getting filled up in 2 days, so we dug our own borewell.
I have lived in a rented house where a motor was attached to the pipes directly and frankly there were more hassles with this setup.
First, you have to getup at the time the water supply comes. Then you have to check whether the water is coming or not, otherwise you run into the risk of burning the pump. The slow flow in the mainlines are an issue too so the pump doesn't work efficiently enough.

Adding a buffer tank at the ground floor takes care of all the issues. You don't have to worry about anything. You won't have to face the dread of not having water if you didn't wake up on time or if you forgot to switch on the motor. The pump will have a long life as it won't be starved for water when running.
So I feel that you should add the buffer tank as it will save you from the above hassles I mentioned.
 
I understand man. Things are pretty much the same over here. We got fedup of the situation because even the 1000L tank on the ground floor wasn't getting filled up in 2 days, so we dug our own borewell.
I have lived in a rented house where a motor was attached to the pipes directly and frankly there were more hassles with this setup.
First, you have to getup at the time the water supply comes. Then you have to check whether the water is coming or not, otherwise you run into the risk of burning the pump. The slow flow in the mainlines are an issue too so the pump doesn't work efficiently enough.

Adding a buffer tank at the ground floor takes care of all the issues. You don't have to worry about anything. You won't have to face the dread of not having water if you didn't wake up on time or if you forgot to switch on the motor. The pump will have a long life as it won't be starved for water when running.
So I feel that you should add the buffer tank as it will save you from the above hassles I mentioned.
Ha ha yes, you are right mate, I will consider adding a ground level tank for reserving purpose and then use the pump to push the water to the loft tank.

Just outta curiosity, do these pumps consume a lot of power? I mean say if we are to run the pump for like 15-20 mins daily, how much that will affect the monthly electricity bill?
 
Ha ha yes, you are right mate, I will consider adding a ground level tank for reserving purpose and then use the pump to push the water to the loft tank.

Just outta curiosity, do these pumps consume a lot of power? I mean say if we are to run the pump for like 15-20 mins daily, how much that will affect the monthly electricity bill?
For your usage, even a 0.25HP motor would be enough.
Even if you go for a 0.5HP motor for future proofing, that means it will consume only 370-400W power (1HP =746W) . For 15 minutes usage that is around 0.1 unit of electricity.
Even if we consider motor to be only 50% efficient i. e it consumes 746W to produce 373W, even then daily consumption would be only 0.2 units or 6 units a month.
 
Visit any website of the major pump manufacturers and they have given the ratings viz Head and Flow rate which gives the values for the various pumps in terms of how many feet water it can push and at what rate.
You can choose between submersible and monoblock pump. The monoblock pump will be installed above the tank and it can pull the water from 8-10 feet below. This does have it's issues as air can enter the pipes due to the pulling action of the pump.
Submersible pump is installed inside the tank and there aren't issues with air entering the pipes. However it should always be submerged inside water and never run dry. It can't survive running when there is no water which the monoblock can for a few minutes.
Monoblock is a better option if you buy a self-priming version as it takes care of the air mixing issue and it can be repaired easily too as the motor isn't sealed like in submersible pumps.
 
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I got confused between one with more head but less flow rate.
which parameters to target for best out put?
more head or more flow rate?
 
I got confused between one with more head but less flow rate.
which parameters to target for best out put?
more head or more flow rate?
Give me an idea on what will your setup be.
How much height we are talking about. I am assuming there is not much horizontal distance in this. Horizontal distance doesn't matter a lot as those are just friction losses, but have to be taken into account when horizontal distance is large. In my case, a horizontal distance of 100ft adds just 5ft in frictional losses.

A pump will have a head range, like say 6-26m for my Kirloskar KDS+ 1.525++ and will have different flow rate at different heights.
You need to choose one where your height requirement lies within the head range. No point in spending money on a pump with higher head if you are not going to use it.
My pump is rated at 1.32Lps which translates to around 80 litres per minute at 26m head. My requirements are lower at barely 42ft total head so I'll get an even better flow rate.

If your usage is only going to be residential and hardly any scope of head increasing in future, then just buy one with enough overhead to account for fittings and turns in the piping. Not worth spending any money on very high flow rates either because even a 1000L tank will get filled in 10-15 minutes with a good pump with a decent flow rate. High flow rate only benefits if one is filling 10k-20k litre tanks on a daily basis.

P. S. -
1) Every pump has a suction and delivery pipe size. I would advise to stick to that size when laying pipes and not get forced into going for a smaller pipe size to save money. Going for a smaller pipe size has a negative effect on the life and perfirmance of the pump.

2) Some companies, like Kirloskar, have launched Low Voltage versions of their regular pumps. It would benefit you to look for those if voltage is an issue in your area.
 
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