Tuesday, October 7, 2025

testing the hand drill unbalanced vane pump! very impressive! Milicraft brand

 OK I just primed a 25 foot garden hose that has a foot valve on it - with two full tea pots of water - so maybe half a gallon? And then tried to lift again about a 15 foot rise with some run to it - NOTHING. So that proved to me this "unbalanced vane" drill pump is not able to do the job I wanted it to. Still a cool little transfer pump! 

 vid of how the pump works

So I got a $15 pump and based on the reviews, I opened it up - sure enough not much grease. I put in tons of silicone grease. Tested it out but I was using it wrong! So good thing I had it well-greased. Really visualized and saw the little arrows - and attached the drill correctly - pump worked!!

 self priming up to 12'

That's what is advertised but it is misleading - it's not "vertical lift" 


I used the angle grinder metal blade to notch the drill bit on the pump since people said otherwise the drill just spins on the bit.

What else? So then I tested its vertical "suction lift" capability. The pump advertises a 12 foot "lift" but I realized that is HEAD lift or total lift. I already had pumped through the hose about 20 feet.... so that kind of lift was not the same. Pushing with a pump is a lot easier that sucking out the air against atmospheric pressure.

I got the pump to have suction lift of about six feet! Pretty awesome. But not good enough. I lowered the water down the hill in the bucket and nope! Stopped working. I ran the pump until the drill stopped from overheating.

Still a very impressive little transfer pump if you grease it enough and use it correctly.

 

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