How Does a Hydraulic Ram Pump Work?

A quick description and demo of this ingenious pump.

A hydraulic ram is a clever device invented over 200 years ago that can pump water uphill with no other external source of power except for the water flowing into it and there is a way to take advantage of this normally inauspicious effect for a beneficial use. The ram pump is an ingenious way to take advantage of the properties of fluids. We all need water for a variety of reasons, so being able to move it where we need it without any fancy equipment or external sources of power is a pretty nice tool to have in your toolbox.

Other YouTube Videos about Ram Pumps:

Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse
Director: Wesley Crump

Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

This video is sponsored by NordVPN.

[Timsturbs]

in electronics its called boost converter

[clockguy]

When I was in Boy Scouts, our local scout camp was established back in 1946. The original water system to the mess hall was supplied from a spring via a ram pump to a water tower some 150 feet away. They later replaced it with a well pump when their water needs had outgrown the relative small amount of output, but they never took the ram pump away.
Well, The joke of the day was to ask the new campers "Had they seen the Ram?". Thinking they were going to see real live goats, a pack of scouts would follow you on a long goose chase culminating in the let down of seeing a rusty old water pump by a spring and then getting a lesson in hydraulics and water hammer.
Boy, those were the days!

[hgbugalou]

I feel like you and the "clear plastic pipe" guy are good friends at this point.

[BblazeFilms]

I am a recent graduate in Mechanical engineering and a ram pump was my senior project. Your original video on the topic of water hammer was a resource I used to understand the theory of these pumps, so thank you. I love your explanation in this video and hope other students can use the knowledge you provide in their academic endeavors.

[brendanoleary]

My grandfather used to talk about the ram pump that sent water up to the big house back in the 1800’s. It had a lift of about 100 feet and at night you could hear it clicking. Amazing the “off the grid” people have not made this technology more popular.

[whynotdean]

It's things like this that convince me that engineering is black magic.
If you came to me, and asked me build a system that pumped water 10 feet into the air, without electricity or fuel, I would have told you to bugger off. It's not possible.

[AliHSyed]

That is actually so clever. Never seen this before

[TheKajunkat]

Your videos make it into our safety meetings in our engineering and inspection department on a pretty regular basis. You're a natural teacher your demonstrations are effective. Thanks for all you do.

[nheather]

One of my favourite real life anecdotes. Back in the early 90s I worked on a computer system for a factory that was being built in Armenia. We had a document summarising how the factory was going to work. In places, the document referred to ‘water goats’ and it made no sense whatsoever. Turned out the document had started out in English, being translated in Russian some years back and then been translated back into English so we could read it. The multiple translations had turned ‘hydraulic rams’ into ‘water goats’.

[MarcTompkins]

When I was in high school in the 80s, we moved to a remote piece of land with a small creek at the bottom of the property. When we first moved there, we were living in a trailer about 80 feet uphill. We built a ram pump to fill a 150-gallon tank we got from a friend.
Our ram pump used a Rainbird sprinkler as the waste valve (so it was noisy as hell) and we didn't think to add an air chamber to buffer the vibration; it had a tendency to rattle itself to bits over time. I had to repair it, or the uphill pipe, every couple of months. Eventually we got a more reliable, higher-volume water source going - but I still remember it fondly, because it saved me from carrying 5-gallon buckets of water up the hill every day!

[PrinceAlhorian]

Water, Steam and Vacuum hammering is a fascinating "problem" but each have some unique uses as well. Hydraulic ram pumps are one of them, industrial steam hammers are another. A problem is just an solution in disguise for another challenge (or so my professor in university once told me).

[TrikesterHal]

My family moved to an isolated farm in NW Arkansas in 1962. There was no electricity but we had a strong spring in a valley next to the house we were building. Included with the property was a ram pump (very old because it was made of caste iron!). The first winter we lived in a small travel trailer which was parked beside a tall pine tree. Dad hung an old water heater tank in the tree. The hydraulic ram was used to fill the tank so we had water into the trailer. I was small then but I vividly remember that old pump.


Many years (like 50) I went to an exhibition of old tractors and farm equipment. As I toured the exhibit I noticed an old ram pump sitting on the floor. I asked the guide what it was and she said, "I have no idea." It was my turn to be her guide. This video taught me exactly it works. I understood intuitively and now I understand the science/engineering behind it. Wonderful! I'm subscribed now... I want to learn more and more.

[JonathanLaRiviere]

“We live at the bottom of an ocean of air”. Wow. Engineering poetry!

[chrisogilvie]

The function of the air dome is to provide somewhere for the sudden rush of water to go when the waste valve shuts, without having to accelerate the water in the "lift" pipe, ie the pipe going up to the tank. When the air dome is big enough the output has a steady flow, with little pulsing. One of the rampumps that I made used a 2" by 70 foot alkathene drive pipe with about a 2 foot fall. The home made waste valve was bolted on to a 12 gallon drum, which functioned as a dome. (They can handle quite a high pressure!) The gasket was made to also function as the output valve. It cycled away very lazily, with the waste valve staying shut for about 1/2 second every cycle, while the drive pipe water flowed into the drum. The water flowed steadily from the 3/4" lift pipe about 20 feet above. Until a big flood came and took it all away! Which is one of the problems to be thought about when installing a rampump! They are lots of fun and very satisfying to make and play with.

[LandtoHouse]

Thank you for the shout out! Great video. By using a ridged drive pipe your setup could pump twice the water. ... but the increase in pressure might cause those light pvc valves to stay closed. Brass or steel valves work very well. (But dont show what's going on of course)

[Odqvist]

Engineering: The act of transforming a problem into an opportunity.

[federicomaisch]

Maybe, another point that could be further clarified is the by converting kinetic energy into potential energy, the water could be stored at a higher elevation for future use. I do enjoy your videos.

[russmbiz]

Thats genius. Theres a lot of inventions ive seen where i thought "yeah, i could have invented this". But i dont think i would have ever figured out the ram pump on my own.


I also love the spiral type pumps. They use a coiled pipe in flowing water. The flow of the water rotates the coiled pipe and allows the water to move from the outer windongs to the center, which is where the output is. Beautiful and genius.

[spencerwhite]

Your water-related civil engineering videos are genuinely one of my favorite types of videos ever!

[videogalore]

These things fascinate me! There's a ram pump at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, UK, that has been running continuously for 15+ years to aerate their pond by discharging a jet of water 2+ metres above the ground at quite a high velocity. Quite a sight even on a small scale!