My version of a water can electric pump. Edit...Now V2 | 4WDTalk - Overlanding and offroad Forum
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My version of a water can electric pump. Edit...Now V2

smritte

smritte

Well-known member
know this is a common DYI project but I wanted a water filter in mine. Yes that means one more step when you assemble it but the taste of plastic water........sigh

Parts are simple but to make this work I cut up one of my spare Scepter water can lids. Because they use a weird thread I had to sacrifice the screw on cover for this. Most people are happy just setting theirs on the opening and poking the hose into the tank. I tried this first. and didn't like how it sat. Even though I wont drive with it on (on purpose) it will stay put without issue. I learned that from seeing one fall off. He got about half a mile. Fortunately it wasn't damaged.

1. Pump
2. Filter
3. 5 ft of 1/4 inch poly tubing
4. Scepter can lid. Just the screw on cap. Your going to drill it out to fit under the water pump
5. 1/2 plastic, threaded sprinkler fitting (optional)


First two pictures you have it mounted to the can and the other is it laid out on the ground. The pump is screwed onto the cap then the filter is installed from underneath.

assembled.jpg

assembled 2.jpg


Next is a close up of the Scepter cap, drilled and fitted. Second picture shows the ground sprinkler fitting. I did that because it fits snug on the inside of the Scepter fitting and the ID fits snug to the pump when its screwed on. My thought was to be able to leave the filter in place and just install the pump without having to remove and reinstall the filter. So far it holds well. I need some more testing to see if it will stay or if I need to come up with another solution.

underside.jpg

assembled 3.jpg


The flow rate didn't change with and without the filter and the water doesn't have that plastic water can taste.


On another note, I also filter my water through a garden hose filter when filling my water cans. This removes most all of the chemicals and debris. All it leaves me with is a plastic taste from the can.

Here's my garden hose filter.
garden hose filter.jpg
 
Seems you always have something going on! Another great post from you, thanks for putting this out there! I'm curious though, could you get away with lake or river water in that and would it filter out harmfuls?
 
For living viruses that would be in water, you would drop one of those pills (can't think of the name) into your jug right?
 
If I have to pull water like that I add in chlorine, which is pretty much that tablet. If I pull water thats real suspect, I have a ceramic filter I can run after the carbon. For the most part, the filters I use will take out anything I encounter with the exception of some of the toxic chemicals found in ground water in some places. The one on my water can is .05 micron which covers most things. My ceramic is .01 micron but very restrictive.

Water purification is something I kind of obsessed on a while back. Every now and then something new pops up. End result is chlorine seems to be the easiest cure for most things. Its found found in your tap water and my filters pull it out easily so I don't have to taste it.
 
One of my buddies came up with a better version of this. He just shared it with me the other day.
Going to have to try to improve on the design now.
 
My wife tells me all the time "Why don't you just leave it alone and stop trying to modify everything?" Sigh. Welcome to my world.

So

I modified a perfectly good pump into what I hope is better. What I did was, made the feed into the pump come out from the back instead of the bottom. I'm waiting on amazon to deliver my magnets. When they get here I will install them into the base creating a table top pump that will stick to my rear carrier or sit on my table. My filter will be inline near my pump, not in the tank.
Now all I do is open the small cap on the lid and drop the hose in.

Here's the mod.
New parts
1. 1/4 inch nylon 90 elbow
2. 1/4 nylon tube (optional)
3. Poly tube to fit elbow or nylon tube if you went that way.
4. Drill bit to match elbow (forgot what size but the barbs are real snug)
5. 3/8 drill for hole through back
6. Heat gun or BBQ lighter



First pull the screws and remove pump. I had two in base and two holding pump battery assembly. I drilled up most of the way from the bottom, stopping short so I didn't enlarge the hole in the top side. If I did the pump wont seal. If this happens, just epoxy the pump in.
Next I drilled from the back with the 3/8 and notched the inside lip so the elbow will push in. I had to trim most of the barbs off the elbow because it was too long.
Here's the trick to all this, Heat the barb end some to soften it. The barbs will form to the hole and seal real well. If not, a small bit of epoxy will do it.
Next I heated a piece of plastic tube and slid it over the other end. I wanted a short stub sticking out the back. I have a small box all this fits in. My soft ply hose fits tight on it. I will remove the hose to pack in the box. If you dont want this feature, push the soft tube through the hole and secure it with a zip tie.

Picture time.

90.jpgbase 1.jpgbase 2.jpgbase 3.jpg


In order. Elbow. I ended up cutting it down to one barb. Drilled and cut base. Elbow inserted after heating. Nylon tube heated and pushed onto elbow.



flow.jpgfinish.jpg


Flow test holding it up to put maximum strain on the pump. The camera froze the water flow. Its actually a solid stream. Finished and reassembled.
I managed to somehow plug my filter. I need to flush it out but the amount of restriction is minimal so I don't see any issues there.

I will update this when my magnets come in.
 
OH ...Forgot.
This last mod was inspired by one of my friends sending me a picture of the Dometic table top pump.

He bought a similar one from Amazon and wanted to modify it to draw from the rear like the Dometic. I just beat him on the mod.
HA

Amazon link.
1662832753683.png

1662832615659.png
 
Man that is clean! OK next I want to see you rig this up to filter salt from ocean water. OMG you come up with that, you're going to be a tycoon in 12 months!
 
Brad Clark said:
Man that is clean! OK next I want to see you rig this up to filter salt from ocean water. OMG you come up with that, you're going to be a tycoon in 12 months!
Click to expand...

They already make one. A bit expensive too.
 
Last edited:
Got magnet installed

I cut a piece of 1/2" plywood and fitted it into the bottom. The wood is held in with two small screws incase I need to take it apart. Into the wood I set one of the neo...something magnets (Gawd those are strong) and covered the bottom with a piece of ballistic cloth (because you never know).

Here's some pictures.

From right to left.
The covered base. you can sort of see one of the screws. Setup on my work table next to its box. In box and box closed. I was going to get some pics of it stuck to my carrier but it was raining. Next weekend I'm heading out (hopefully) and will give it a good run.

base.jpg display.jpg open.jpg boxed.jpg
 
Question, when you get to location are you mounting that on something or is it hand held?
 
The bottom has a magnet. I can stick it on my can rack, tailgate or just set it on a table.
Here's a picture from last weekend. I stuck I to my tailgate while I made coffee.
On another note. One of the guys I was camping with then, had the same pump (unmodified) he would set on his water can. It kept falling over.

IMG_3531.JPG
 
The garden hose filter, I get several years out of. The filter on the pump, you can back flush and clean it. I'm looking for another filter design for the pump. The one I have works but.....want something diffrent.
 
Finally finished this. There ended up being a few parts that needed tweaking but I can now say, it's done.
Over all it works great except for the pickup hose. Because I kept it coiled in the storage box, it would keep its shape in the water can and coil out of the water. The fix was a ridged piece of tubing with a port to attach my hose on the outside and a cap to keep it clean.

Here's some pictures.

water 1.jpg

This is the pickup tube. I drilled a hole in the cap and used a 3/8 bulkhead water fitting. The tube is 3/8 tubing.

water 2.jpg
Heres what it looks like from the outside. I found a rubber cap in my junk pile and as a bonus, it has a tether.

water 3.jpg
Here it is hooked up. The magnet on the bottom of the pump sticks very well.

As you can see I don't have the filter . One of my friends found a better one then I used. That will be added in later. I've used this setup with the final mod on a couple of camp outs and it works well.
 
The coldest its gotten on my trips so far is about 29. The water didn't freeze in the container, the pump worked and the hose didn't stiffen enough to be an issue. I don't normally go out if its much colder then that.
 
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