re: Has anyone ever used a ram pump?

quote:

---

They reprime on their own? I thought they had to be started manually. Also, all the demos I’ve seen waste water horribly if it’s not being consumed at the end of the line.

---

The type that I'm talking about doesn't have anything to be started. It works on gravity.
It pushes water into a capped riser pipe and builds pressure up. The check valve prevents backflow so the pressure can only push water in 1 direction.
I think a good rule of thumb is, it can pump water uphill to 50% elevation of your source.
In the right situation you can increase this.

I forgot to say, it does lose a lot of water from the waste valve, but if you are getting the water from a natural source, that water is going to continue on to where it would naturally flow anyway. I'm not sure I would consider that actually wasted.

I found this simple video that demonstrates how one works.