Shop vac???

[Mike Jones NM]

Not really wood working so I'll post it here.
My shop vac has the suction side that the hose goes in and the discharge side that the air comes back out of. On mine you can swap and put the hose on the discharge side and turn it into a blower. Alot of the ones I see for sale allow this.
Now, I am in need of a way to suck water up and discharge it at the same time. So my question is, if I were to plug the discharge side and cut a new hole in the bottom of the vac to attatch a hose to would this allow the intake to suck up water while at the same time force the water out the bottom discharge?
Obviously I have a plumbing problem, a tub that won't drain. A plumber has been no help so I need to do a temporary fix. All the plumbing is below concrete so it is going to be awhile and some big $$ to get it fixed right. What I'm wanting to do is pump the grey water outside but I don't want to have to spend several hundred dollars on a regular water pump.
ANy ideas are appreciated.
Thanks
Mike

[Bob Rufener]

Mike,
Your idea would probably work but, if you have a decent shop vac, I think you would basically ruin it. I would suck it up and keep emptying the shop vac. A little extra time but you save the vac. You might just consider taking a bucket and bailing out the tub and dumping it in your toilet. It will self flush.

If you have a rental shop near you, you should be able to pick up a pump easily. Otherwise, I would suggest the possibility of purchasing an inexpensive paddle pump. You can use sections of garden hose to suck up the water and discharge it outside. Someone may have a better idea.

[Charles Wiggins]

Not really wood working so I'll post it here.
My shop vac has the suction side that the hose goes in and the discharge side that the air comes back out of. On mine you can swap and put the hose on the discharge side and turn it into a blower. Alot of the ones I see for sale allow this.
Now, I am in need of a way to suck water up and discharge it at the same time. So my question is, if I were to plug the discharge side and cut a new hole in the bottom of the vac to attatch a hose to would this allow the intake to suck up water while at the same time force the water out the bottom discharge?
Obviously I have a plumbing problem, a tub that won't drain. A plumber has been no help so I need to do a temporary fix. All the plumbing is below concrete so it is going to be awhile and some big $$ to get it fixed right. What I'm wanting to do is pump the grey water outside but I don't want to have to spend several hundred dollars on a regular water pump.
ANy ideas are appreciated.
Thanks
Mike

Mike,

If I understand what you're describing, I think the vacuum would have to just about fill with water before it would start discharging it out of the "blow hole", which means you'd come dangerously close to drowning the motor (BAD!!!).

My shop vac (Ridgid) has a baffle that floats that would actually prevent it from overfilling with water. Plus it has a drain hole on the front near the bottom where I can attach a garden hose. IF your vacuum has that option and IF you can position the vacuum so that gravity will carry the gray water out of the vacuum's drain and out to another drain or outside, then that's the route to go. Otherwise I would vacuum some water up, roll it outside and dump it. And if it has a paper filter, be sure to remove it first.

[Rick Gifford]

Go to a waterbed store, or even Walmart maybe, and pickup a draining kit. Its just a plastic venturi you hook to a faucet or water hose and use to pump it out. Just need to hook up a hose for the suction.

A kit would be about $6.00 I think.

See a pic of one here, the venturi is on the right side:

http://mywaterbed.com/images/filldrain.jpg

http://mywaterbed.com/images/filldrain.jpg

[David G Baker]

Mike,
The item that Rick posted works very well. I have used similar devices and they are life savers.

[Brian Elfert]

Instead of the shop vac, try an RV water pump instead if you have a 12 volt battery charger. You can get a new pump for about $50 shipped on Ebay or your local RV service place might have a used one.

The only issue would be the pressure switch, but they can be bypassed. There are also other 12 volt pumps for around the same price.

[Jude Tuliszewski]

It may work for a short time, but I think you would burn up the motor because of no air flow across the motor.
Whether using it to vacuum or as a blower the air flows across the motor, doing what you describe would eliminate that a flow.
Harbor Freight sells all kinds of small submersible pumps. I bought the smallest one (on sale for $10) to use for an A/C discharge tub. I hooked up a clear plastic hose to the pump for discharge. It will pump out 20 gallons in about 5 minutes. It has been going strong for about 8 years. Incidentally, during the peek summer months, in my area of Fl., I get about 20 gallons of condensation water on an average day, if we are away for the day it is about 2/3 s that much.

[Mike Jones NM]

Appreciate the info folks. Still fighting with the problem:mad:
Thanks
Mike