Decdeal Submersible Water Pump DC 12V 5W Ultra-quiet Pump for Pond, Aquarium, 280L/H Lift 300cm
Why we love it?
Stator and circuit board sealed by epoxy resin. Adopt high performance stainless steel shaft.
Some comments about this we saw on the web:
* /u/WookieWatcher on /r/BurningMan OMG excellent tips. Thank you so much. I really feel a lot more comfortable about my ability for success on this project with your tips. I do have a few questions.- I ordered two pumps (1 as theoretical back up arriving from China sometime between August 17 and Sept 2). Both seem comparable from a L/Hr standpoint they used but presumably too weak per your rec. Since you are speaking from experience I may return the solar powered one since I realize a battery will be necessary and get the one you suggested..and it will be too weak.
http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-powered-fountain-pump-66093.html and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JWJIC0K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Have you used the one you recommended in a similar cooler? Or just did a quick Amazon search? Do you think the 170GPH would be the best option? Or would the 60GPH or 140GPH be sufficient?
2) Thanks for confirming.
3) Makes sense. Did you use any specific sealer on the section above the fan?
4) Makes sense.
Originally I was thinking of calculating out the amps of fan/pump and hoping it lasts for the week. Then recharging with the battery with my car if there was a miscalculation. What are your thoughts on this? Think i should just get a panel to top it off on a regular basis? Any recommendations on a panel or battery? I’ve read quite a few posts/blogs with recommendations but curious about what you think.
——* /u/otisanek on /r/BurningMan https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JWJIC0K/ref=od_aui_detailpages01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
——* /u/bad_tenet on /r/BurningMan Sure! For starters I spent months researching eplaya and elsewhere on the web. There are some companies that sell turn-key systems, like Goal Zero, that seem crazy over-priced. I told myself I would’t charge anything to my CC and I’m pretty good at figuring shit out, so I wanted to take a cheaper route. I wanted avoid soldering a bunch of Chinese stuff together if I could. Once I figured out what I needed, I had to look for components…
Panel - I looked at everything from 5 watt panels for fountain pumps to big ass 100 watt panels. I am flying from the East Coast so I needed something portable. I was thinking I need 20 watts to be comfortable, so I looked for 30+ watt folding panels. A cherry-on-top feature would be both AC and DC power. I committed to a DC cooler system but it would be nice to charge phones and power banks too. If I am going to spend some cash, I don’t want a single purpose device. I came across SunKingdom early on but the panels were mad expensive. Almost like Goal Zero expensive. Then one day out of the blue this guy popped up on sale! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MTAFEJ6/ref=s9_hps_bw_g107_i4
I got it for $79! Very happy with it so far. I’ve used it several times already.
*Charge Controller *- This was pretty simple. I found one that could handle the load, was easy to use AND had two USB outs for good measure. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018ICLC3K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I must confess I don’t know how to “use” it. I plugged it in and it does what I need it to do for now. It has some really shitty instructions (none) so I hope I don’t need to figure out how to do something else with it.
Battery - I am going to buy a 100+ ah battery in Reno but I needed something to test with. I found this 12 v 12 ah battery on sale at Radio Shack for like $12. She told me it was for a discontinued Verizon cable box.
Bucket - I have a few Home Depot buckets around the house as a matter of course. I cut two rows the first time and decided I’d rather have one row of squared off holes instead of two rows of round holes. This way I get a lot of airflow and maximize the water holding capabilities of the bucket. I can probably fit another .75 gallons in my bucket with one row of holes.
Padding in the bucket - Went with FIGJAM’s suggestion for $22. It comes with two in case you fuck one up. Cut to FIGJAM’s spec and adjust as needed but give yourself an extra inch in all measures and fine tune from there. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UTNFPW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Pump - I was told 60 gallons per hour (GPH) was good enough so I bought this for $10: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JWJIC0K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
At first I didn’t think it was powerful enough but I had a dead ass battery. After I charged it up, this little guy acted like a freshman going to prom with the homecoming queen. It squirts quite well. I bought 2 more as back up.
Tubes - I bought some tubbing at Home Depot and experimented. It’s took a few rounds of $5 tubes to figure out the spacing of the holes. I heated up a nail on my stove to poke holes in the tubes. Ended up with nice, clean holes.
Fan - VERY IMPORTANT PART - IF YOU CAN’T MOVE AIR, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS My smaller 4 person tent does’t need much so I thought a 150 cubic foot per minute (CFM) fan would be fine. I wasn’t crazy about the horsepower of my first fan that was $8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0099TTAIG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
So I ordered a 200 CFM fan for $18: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054S92FW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Again, I charged the battery and got MUCH better performance from the 150. However the 200 makes me feel like I ate a York Peppermint Patty so I am using it and taking the 150 as back up.
Connectors - All “raw” cables get connected via these $5.55 things that are very easy to hook up. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015OCV5XO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
My pump and fan need to go to one line so I got this for $4.38: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Q8IKRE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The “watch this” moment comes by the way of this $6 switch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G6GNREI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I think that is everything. Now I need to figure out how to get a big ass battery from Reno to the Playa on Saturday, pre-gate. I can probably use my camps local asset or ask someone driving in.
——* /u/the_real_xuth on /r/BurningMan I have lots of stupid little things that make my time nicer. One of the things that I learned that helps quite a bit is methods for managing your cooler.
- have a decent, well insulated cooler and keep it in the shade.
- have a couple of lidded containers that are wide and flat that can float on top of the ice and water in your cooler. Put your leftovers and open packages in these.
- have everything else in the cooler be in completely water tight containers that can be fully immersed in water (ie vacuum sealed or with water tight lids). Let the melt water completely cover everything that isn’t floating on top.
In this manner there are no warm spots and you are keeping things colder than you would a normal refrigerator (ie right at the edge of being able to freeze but not quite) and food lasts longer (milk and meat stay fresh for two weeks or more with no problems if kept like this).
When adding ice, drain only enough water that you can add your ice. Since you’ve taken the effort to keep everything well sealed this water is clean and can be used for showering, evap cooling, misting, etc.
To make your life easier, when transferring water, don’t try to use the cooler’s drain. Use a small fountain pump (and tubing). Depending on your electric systems at your camp, you can get 5V fountain pumps that plug into a USB port, 12V pumps that will run off of 12V battery systems or 120V pumps that will run off a generator. This in and of itself was a huge deal for me and saved me from making muddy messes in my camp.
——* /u/the_real_xuth on /r/BurningMan I wrote this for an infrastructure question a few days ago:
Methods for managing your cooler.
- have a decent, well insulated cooler and keep it in the shade.
- have a couple of lidded containers that are wide and flat that can float on top of the ice and water in your cooler. Put your leftovers and open packages in these.
- have everything else in the cooler be in completely water tight containers that can be fully immersed in water (ie vacuum sealed or with water tight lids). Let the melt water completely cover everything that isn’t floating on top.
In this manner there are no warm spots and you are keeping things colder than you would a normal refrigerator (ie right at the edge of being able to freeze but not quite) and food lasts longer (milk and meat stay fresh for two weeks or more with no problems if kept like this).
When adding ice, drain only enough water that you can add your ice. Since you’ve taken the effort to keep everything well sealed this water is clean and can be used for showering, evap cooling, misting, etc.
To make your life easier, when transferring water, don’t try to use the cooler’s drain. Use a small fountain pump (and tubing). Depending on your electric systems at your camp, you can get 5V fountain pumps that plug into a USB port, 12V pumps that will run off of 12V battery systems or 120V pumps that will run off a generator. This in and of itself was a huge deal for me and saved me from making muddy messes in my camp.
——* /u/checkitoutmyfriend on /r/BurningMan A couple of things to know about evaporative cooling. Ice or cold water does not improve cooling, it actually hinders it. In fact it works better if the water is hot. Google it for more of an explanation why this is true but basically evaporative cooling is ‘boiling’ water to a gas. So don’t throw ice in there. Use it for drinks…. ;)
The next is air flow and wetting of the pads. Air flow should be even and the pads fully wet. No dry spots. Now when you first fire it up it will take a minute or two to get the pads fully soaked. This is where you see him adding more holes in the ‘header’ tubing to get more water where the pads are dry. Dry spots also have less restriction than wet so the air will flow through these spots more than the wet, defeating what we are trying to do. I do like his ‘hot wire poker’ for making the holes. Much better than a knife or drill.
Finally, The space you are cooling needs someplace for the air inside to go. Think of your tent like a balloon. Obviously, it is not completely air tight like a balloon, but close. If you have all the vents sealed up like you do to keep dust at bay on the playa, with a large enough fan you could blow it up like a balloon all fat a puffy. The problem is once the fan packs the air into the tent with nowhere to go, the air flow slows down through the cooler, reducing the efficiency of your cooler. So you will need to play with opening a vent, preferably up high, (hot air rises). Having a positive pressure inside the tent is a good thing as it will also help to keep the dust out. But not so much that it reduces the air flow through the cooler. Experiment to find the happy medium. Now if you tent leaks like a sieve, you may not to open any vents. ;)
I am making a slightly larger unit than the HD bucket cooler but not as large as FIGJAM’s Trash Can evap. Notice his tent is ‘slightly’ puffy. Side panels bow out, not hang in like normal. Now if you go the trash can route, do be aware how much air an automotive radiator fan moves. Many newer vehicles have electric radiator fans. Open the hood when its running and note the air flow. There are ways to slow them down but we can talk about that later if needed.
I am using a storage bin similar to this one It has ‘keeper lathes’ on each end to keep the lid in place. And the lid itself is flat for mounting 2 fans and 2 PVC/ABS fittings on top.
Let me also note that I will have unlimited 12VDC power (two deep cycle marine batteries) and will not be using solar panels. But the wiring is the same. You will need to calculate the power requirements of the fan(s) and pump to buy the correct panel if you’re going to go this way.
Here is what I have arriving tomorrow.
My unit is actually for grey water evaporation, but the theory is the same. This float switch is to shut things down when the water level is too low for the pump. I most likely won’t be there when this happens and don’t want to hang around waiting for it finish. For cooling just keep an eye on the water level and ad as required.
The media(pads) you can get at HD, Lowes, or any air conditioning supply house. I do like the expanded paper media opposed to the poly fiber. Either will do the job.
The ABS/PVC fittings, tubing & barb fittings from the same vendors.
I am going to use larger PVC(white)/ABS(black) fittings then FIGJAM. The fan is 12cm which is approximately 4-3⁄4”. PVC pipe is not quite 4”, ABS just over 4”. I may go 5” PVC, ABS does not come in 5” so I would need to go to 6”. The reason for this change is these fans are not design for much positive pressure. So the smaller 4” fittings/pipe does restrict the air flow some. The larger fittings allow the fan to have less pressure, thus more air flow. Will the average burner notice the difference? Probably not but I tend to over engineer things so bigger I will go.
When you price these fittings, do be sitting down. They are not $5 fittings.
Just realized the wall of text I have so I will stop here for now. I am building mine this next weekend and will take pics and post back if you like. For now what questions would you have after this and the other links provided?
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