Lake Water Plumbing Questions
 

I'm finally down to the last few tasks involved in redoing all of the lake water plumbing at our place on Rattlesnake. Some of our reasons for undertaking the project include: 1) installation of a UV water treatment system (including sediment and carbon filters) 2) desire to get the existing pump & pressure tank up off of the ground and into a permanent, fixed & dry position 3) replace all of the existing undersized sized piping with pipe of appropriate diameter (per pump specifications) 4) run the suction side piping out into deeper water so that I can get it up higher off the bottom and thus suck up a lot less sediment in wavy weather. The last significant task that remains is to run the new pipe down from the pump and out into the lake. In preparation for doing this step, I bought a 100' of 1 1/4" black poly coiled pipe/tubing (the key word here being "coiled"). Can anyone suggest a good (and hopefully quick) way of straightening this tubing out so that it'll lay flat on the ground/lake bottom?? Every time that I attempt to uncoil it...it simply snaps back into its origional shape (perhaps there is a better type of tubing that I should be using??). Additional questions that I'd like your input on are: 1) how high off the lake bottom should the pipe be in order to minimize sediment pick up? 2) how have you tackled/solved keeping the lake end of the pipe in the appropriate position? Lastly...my son-in-law and I will be drawing straws to see who has to wade out into the lake to put the pipe in place.....does anyone want in on this drawing? Thanks in advance for your advice/recommendations.

We used to have 1 1/2 black pipe but found that 1” works fine. Now we use the 1 ½ as an outer shield for the 1”. My guess is that the 1” would be a little easier to handle than the 1 ¼ that you have. To uncoil a warm day helps, I think that we held the ends in place with weights while it sat in the sun for a while.

We now run the pipe along the main dock next to the breakwater with the pipe draped over the end of the dock in about 8’ of water. The length is cut so that the foot valve is about 18” up from the bottom.

On another thread I mentioned how to prime the system with a small pump down at the lake.
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/...ad.php?t=15604

If you make it down on a Thursday, you can have the red dot.

Here's some reading material. Maybe you could contact the Mfg (or the vendor) if you have further questions. :look: NB

http://www.jmeagle.com/pdfs/2008%20I...G_May%2008.pdf

I quasi re-did the water system that feeds my place, not so much that it didn't work, but more so just wasn't up to my standards.

First off all my tubing is 1" which is pretty standard size for that application and I use a combination of a pressure tank and jet pump to feed the house.

The intake line that is in the lake is about 60 feet long and the end is suspended above the bottom by being fed through and tied to the handles of a milk crate. The crate has a few rocks placed in it to keep it on the bottom. I have a long rope tied to the crate so it can be lowered or fetched without the need to get in the water. (Hint Hint) Once the system is charged with water the pipe tends to remain below the surface but I have seen where some folks will run the pipe through the holes of cinder blocks to keep it on the bottom. I would say the application may or may not require that.

Far as the pipe re-coiling, let it sit in the sun on a warm day and it'll start to behave better. Yes it can be testy after being coiled up for a long period of time.

For my pump, I built a cement pad for it to sit on then built a "dog house" for it so it remains out of the weather. The pressure tank I was less concerned about but it is on a wood deck under a couple cinder blocks just so it's off the ground. I re-wired the pump as well, being 120 I put in a GFI protected outlet in a weather tight box and put a plug on the end of the pump's wire feed. So to hook it up in the spring, I just have to plug it in. Back at the house I put it on a standard switch on the porch so when I leave I flip the switch off and my water system is off. Next to that is the switch to my new electric hot water heater I just installed a couple weeks ago.

Finally I put in three sets of camlocks so I have three quick disconnect break points strategically placed in line so no more messing with screwing fittings in the spring or fall. These things are well worth putting in and are not expensive.

My final modification to this system is to pipe in an air fitting so I can blow my plumbing out with an air compressor in the fall. Crawling under the building and messing with bleed drains is for the birds!

I put my intake in very deep water so I get it cold. I have an eight foot piece of old iron pipe with an X attached to one end. The X is large enough to keep the pipe at least two feet off of the lake bottom. I use 1" black pipe tied to the iron pipe so that the intake is in the center of the X.

Doing it this way you can drop the pipe off of a boat knowing that the intake will always be 2' off the bottom. And there is no way for it to fall over like a milk crate or cement block can.

I used aluminum angle iron bolted to the pipe to make the X but you could use wood or scrap metal pipe.

Getting that pipe to lay flat is a matter of heat. As suggested a warm summer day will help.

As far as how far off the bottom, well, this depends on a few things here..... How sandy is the bottom, and how turned up does it get... I have found that about 6" to 12" works just fine... I have a wooden X and the foot valve goes through the middle and it works fantastic... accept the wood has finally started to rot.. so along with reviving my lake water system this year, I will be creating a new X once the water is warm enough to go play in...

What did you get for a water treatment system, I am very interested in putting a similar system in...

For many years I had the input end tied to the top of an X made from 2x4s were joined at the bottom by a third piece of 2x4 that passed thru the center hole of a concrete block. Worked well but it was heavy to move around and not always stable. This year I fashioned a new solution by passing the hose through the hand holds on a plastic milk crate and then adding a few small rocks to make it sink.