There are small 12 volt submersible bail pumps for boats. You can do 500 gal. an hour into a barrel no problem Ive done it. As long as pressure is not an issue get a food grade 55 gal. plastic barrel or 2 or 3 and fill them up.roll up your hose and repeat when empty. All you need is a jump off your can battery and a little time. The Amish have a system that uses stream flow to pump water up hill you might look into

Its called a Ram Pump,something else to complicate your life with LOL I want one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plSqyQGuwWc

Thanks for the reply.

I saw a video of a ram pump, but I don't think it's a good idea for the public location of the creek. I don't think the ram pump would work unless it was at the bottom of the hill beside the creek.

I might look into the bail pump though. Do you know how loud they usually run? I need something that is silent or pretty close to it.

After writing this, I realized how suspicious it sounds, but that is not the case.

Is there not a water line close to an exterior wall that you could put a spigot outside. Or even easier if there is a water line exposed in your basement that you could run a spigot out? Unless your looking to get free water.

There is no basement in this place. The only accessible water line inside is the tap behind the washing machine. My last resort would be to put a splitter on that tap and run a hose outside to fill up a couple barrels, and then use the water from the barrels for the next week.

I also lack a proper hose connection.

I have a splitter on my washing machine connection, a 50 ft hose, and a hook above the washer to roll up the hose. but I have an outdoor laundry room.

Could you hook up a rain barrel to catch roof run-off?

Catching rain isn't an option. The roof has no real gutters or ways of channeling water. We also don't get much rain here. It might rain a lot for a day, and then dry up for two weeks.

A couple of the links in the first post were for barrel pumps. It looks like a pipe extends into the barrel, and the piston or rotary handle pumps the water up the pipe. I was wondering if it's possible with one of these to hook up a hose to the pipe instead of dropping it in a barrel, and then pumping to draw water up and over the hill beside my yard.

Short Answer:

Talk to a plumber !

Seysonn

If it were me I would use a traditional deep well hand pump and dig a trench from my yard and hook hoses together and bury the hose in a shallow trench to conceal and pump the water up from the creek, no sound and onlookers/walkers won't see the hose.

You could use a lot of different types of pumps there.I would use a drain field pump.The pump makes no sound and will supply you with plenty of water.The boat pumps work too,but the drain field pump can be plug in. Just get all the stuff to hook it up to a garden hose.Then you can water your garden and fill up some 55 barrels.

"What I'm trying to work with is the fact that there is a large creek only 100 feet from the yard."

Before you start buying pumps ... do you have a legal right to draw water from the creek?

Interesting question.> Water Rights

Seems it would depend on state OP lives in:
CA
WA
MA
TX
FL

I looked at the pumps you posted and can comment on the drill pump, I didn't have good luck with the one I bought. The question I have for the rest is mounting, where & how?

Having little experience on this I did some research on your situation, "15 foot high walkway between my yard and the creek. The walkway is basically a man-made dyke, and it raises up about 15 feet from my yard at 45 degrees, and then drops about 20 feet down to the creek at about 35 degrees.". It would seem you need to figure out your suction & head lift to determine your pump needs.

{{gwi:2143906}}

A more thorough treatise on pumping water here.> Fundentals! Pumps that is

You mention, "any type of electric pump will not work due to the theft and noise potential" so the only solution I see is get a barrel and a 120V pump that fits your situation and use it in the very early AM when you need to fill the barrel hopefully eliminating theft concerns & noise issue. Or figure out your suction head with the pump near your home?

Hope this helps!

This post was edited by northeast_chileman on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 11:25

I'm clear to use small amounts of water from the creek. Regulations only cover very large commercial crops.

I was reading up on calculating head, and I think I get it. Maybe? It seems like the very low depth of the creek (maybe 1-1.5 feet) will negatively affect the pump's rise. I'm guessing that a pump with 25 feet of total head would be able to lift water up a 20 slope and have it drop back down the other side.

The main issue is none of the pumps I see mention the head.

I found one the pumps I was looking at on another website, which has a more detailed explanation.

https://www.waterproductssupply.com/product/guzzler-hand-pump-3-4/

It states, "The practical suction lift is 4 m (13') and the practical discharge height is 4 m (13')." Does practical mean that it could lift higher, but it would require more effort? Or do you think it means that is its limit?

Also, thank you to everyone (especially northeast_chileman) who is trying to help me out.

I found a local juice manufacturer that sells 55 gallon food safe barrels for $20 each, so I'll get at least one of those to fill for quick access too.

It would seem "inexpensive" models (A lot of them are just transfer pumps.) don't provide this information although it's important in your situation.

In looking at the long version of pump selection provided above I found this, Sometimes total head is called Total Dynamic Head (T.D.H.), it has the same meaning. and if you look at this pump, Wayne MODEL # PLS100, you'll notice it reports 0PSI at 20 TDH.