Drill Pump - flood solution

During the wet winter months it is common for flooding to occur. A ruptured pipe, melted snow, leaking water tank. I have spent alot of time bailing water out of flooded areas. That was till I fond this little device. It is a water pump that is powered by a common electric hand drill. These drill pumps can be found at your local hardware store for about $10. Often times they are packed with a bunch of hose attachments and ball valves and sell for close to $50. No Thanks. Just look for the drill pump by it self.

How does it work. Simply attach the quarter inch arbor to the chuck of your hand drill. Attach garden hoses to the two ends and hit the trigger. The pump is self priming, however I found that the self priming is very limited. It is helpful to keep the intake side hose short and close to the water. Make sure that there are no leaks in the hose as the pump will draw air and not water. The discharge side is less sensitive to hose length and condition. The pump is capable of pumping water at the rate of about a gallon a minute. Of course this all depends on the speed of the drill.

I found that the pump required a bit of torque and quickly ran down the batteries of my cordless drill. Even with a large corded drill, be weary of continuously running the drill and burning it out. Be extremely careful when using a corded drill, as the extension cord connection can easily fall into the water which you are pumping. This often times is the same water which you are standing in. Getting zapped with household 120 can kill!

A drill pump is not a long term solution for any large volume of water which needs to be transferred often. However before I was able to clear my garage drain, this was how I cleared out my flooded garage. I now keep this little gem handy, and is another tool in my proverbial box of tricks.