Bruce and Matt, both ideas have merit, the problem with the water car is we need the railroad to fill the car with water and run it out to Lava Loop to park it. Then we have to cut the pipe in the frost house, and rethread the pipe up to the tank as there is currently no tee fitting in there. The amount of water required to fill 2,300' of 3" pipe is almost 900 gallons. With just my current pump you see in the photo, it would take almost 5 minutes of running just to fill the pipe, that is ALOT OF WATER even at 200 gpm.
The idea of a booster pump half way up has been considered too, but the pipe is buried so we have to find it, dig it up, cut the pipe, and then thread both sides of a questionable pipe. Then we have to have someone manning the pump and know how to prime the pump which would be next to impossible on a steep hillside, (about 45 degrees).
I am doing some more research into running the two pumps I already have in series which 'according to what I am reading' should provide enough pressure from the pumphouse location to make it all the way up to Lava tank. The first issue is to get the pipe we know is leaking repaired so we can check the rest of it.
One way we could test the integrity of the tank liner inside the Lava Tank would be to pump water in it from a water car or two. LOTS easier to pump water 30 feet vertical rather than 400+. We would tie up the main line but it shouldn't take too long.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2016 08:42AM by John Cole.