Quote Originally Posted by sniper7 View Post
What about a bicycle powered pump? Some sort of very cheap geared pump that you could throw a bicycle on. Seems like you could out something together yourself for very cheap and it could very reliable
The problem is with depth. You can only "pull" water about 25 feet before the pump will just cavitate, so the pump has to be within that distance of the surface of the water AND be capable of pushing water the remaining distance to the surface. Old school well pumps use a pump mechanism that is submerged in the well and linked to the well head by a pullrod. The mechanism acts like a one way valve, and the lever at the well head allows enough mechanical advantage to allow one to lift the water column all the way to the surface.