Pumping Water Without Electricity - The Breurram

The breuram is a type of hydraulic ram pump or water ram made almost completely from off-the-shelf components. It allows you to pump water without using any electricity.
A written building manual of the Breurram can be found here:

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[thomasbarlow]

One day I will need this.... And I'm sure it'll be when the internet is down

[SoLowKaspar]

My grandfather has this on his property and the water lost is collected and then pumped back into the main holding tank he's getting his water from. He told me thats its "basically only 1/4 water loss. If more tanks are added for collection you can go down to 1/8 loss, 1/16 loss and so on with enough tanks and slopes." He uses this pump for his house plumbing. its pumped into a make-shift water tower then gravity fed into his home to maintain water pressure. Pretty awesome

[TheSiriusEnigma]

This is just a different way of making a ram pump. The valves act the same way. The yellow tube act as the air tank. Nice to see alternative designs.

[breesparks]

Wow the cutaway at 1:56 is excellent! Not sure how long it took you to make but it demonstrates ram pump operation beautifully! Best visual learning aid on yt I’ve seen. Thank you!

[HL]

Interesting. This seems to be the water equivalent of the boost converter circuit in electronics, which uses a low voltage high current source to produce a high voltage at lower current.

[kalinystazvoruna]

Back in the early 2000s, I attempted to build one of these to pump water from my spring box into my garden. I spent nearly $500 for parts because I could not get the damned thing to work, until I read a book by Gene Logsdon which told me what my problem was. For the pump to work you need a *minimum* of three feet (1 meter) vertical height from where your input water is *down* to where the ram pump is, otherwise there simply isn't enough potential energy to run the pump for longer than five minutes or so. Since the springbox down to the bottom of the creek was only two feet, the pump wouldn't work. Instead, I ended up with a 30 watt solar panel and a bilge pump which now pumps water into the garden for irrigation.

[KrappiTheClown]

My dad made one of these for his holiday home before I was born, and it's still in use. I used to know enough about how it worked to change gaskets and water proofing tape, and hopefully my brother still does. I think dad had to change one component at some point, but apart from that... gaskets. Edit: Forgot to mention, i'm 55 years old.

[shanel]

This is some really useful and interesting application of water pressure! Going down the YouTube rabbit hole at nearly 3 AM yields its benefits. 10/10

[thorns]

I have seen several descriptions of how this kind of pump works, but you are the first one to show the trick with the air bubble as a buffer. Well done.

[Infinite_Curiosity]

Seems like the loss water could be used for a biological purpose since it is aerated. Possibly a fish/aquaponics farm if dug below the base of the tower?

[joehall]

Like your air cushion idea over other ram pumps. Simplify simplify simplify. Must go build one now and do some test.

[emberklavins]

‘tis a hydraulic self-oscillating boost converter. I love it.

[silkyz]

So it's just two relief valves tuned to be just right?

[robertcammack]

Back in the forties I knew a man who had one of these - quite large and made of cast iron. In those days they used to call it a 'pulsometer'. He lived by a snall hill which had a spring near the top. He used the machine to pump water up to the tank on the roof and the excess water flowed back into the stream. You could hear it clacking a long way off. For a boy of eight it was quite facinating.

[kevinbyrne]

Breurram = a form of ram pump (which is powered by water hammer)

[NickRoman]

You're translating gravitational potential energy from a lot of water flowing down a slope into a little bit of water going straight up. Genius.

[haydenlinder]

Wow that cross-section overlay was really well done. Very educational!

[PseudoEmpathy]

For anyone wondering, the system is using the momentum of the flow to store elastic potential energy in the pipe system, at peak elastic potential, the stored energy is released into the high pressure element and used to move the fluid fractionally within the high pressure system, once the energy is used, the cycle repeats, flow increases, stop engages, energy builds up, is released into high pressure and repeat.

[ericcoon]

Very fancy cutaway graphic. Wasn’t expecting that at all. I’m sure it took a while to render but was well worth it.

[paulosullivan]

Had never heard of this pump before and must admit I came here thinking it was going to be another perpetual motion machine proposed on youtube but instead I found a very cool new pump design I had never heard of, thanks!