Customer Reviews

Simer 2305 Geyser II 1/4 HP Submersible Utility Pump

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I needed to pump out a 20'x20'x7' deep pit filled to the top with rain water and with the usual muck (mud and leaves) at the bottom.

I took the pump out of the box, attached the included garden hose adapter (you just manually screw in on); attached a 25' garden hose; connected a long 3-prong extension cord; and lowered the pump to the bottom of the pit. It took a few seconds to "charge" (fill with water), then produced an output like you'd get with a faucet on full-blast. It ran for 20 hours continuously and emptied the pit down to the last few 10s of gallons before I unplugged the extension cord from the garage outlet.

Now I could see that the pump had landed on its side on the mucky bottom, but (luckily?) with the "anti-airlock hole" facing up. I say "luckily?" because the power of the water going through this narrow anti-airlock hole is probably enough to have excavated an adequate hole in the mud if the pump had landed anti-airlock-hole-side down. Next time I'll try to use a bucket with holes punched in it to help shield the pump better from muck and other detritus, but this time it worked fine lying unprotected, on its side, on the muddy bottom.

I also tried it on a ~1/2" deep puddle in my garage. Initially, it just sat there sputtering loudly via the anti-airlock hole but not moving any water through the hose. So, for you newbies (like me): If you're trying to suck up very shallow pools of water, you have to "charge" the pump first by submerging it in deep-enough water (I used a 5 gallon bucket of tap water) to get the water flowing out the top where the hose is connected. Then, as long as you move the working pump fast enough from the bucket to the floor, it will continue to pump water until it gets down to the 1/8th inch depth of water limit. Another reviewer had a great tip for shallow (ie <1/8th inch) water when he recommended using your wet/dry vac as a sump to collect this water, then submerging this pump into the filled-up wet/dry vac to empty.

And finally, a mighty shout out for Amazon's wonderful customer service: My first order was sent Parcel Post (Amazon's free shipping over $25 option) on 12/15, estimated to arrive 12/22. USPS tracking alleged that it was delivered on 12/18, but it definitely was NOT - someone was here all day. (It never did arrive.)

So, I used Amazon's on-line option to request a call-back to my landline phone within 5 minutes. Wonder of wonders, a competent human did, and she offered, without hesitation, to send me a replacement immediately via FREE next-day Fed-Ex. And that's exactly what happened.

I've had an original Simer Geyser pump since 1987 and it is still working good. I use it to pump my pool cover and to pump out my pond. The original Geyser had an all-metal case and has withstood getting frozen solid in ice for weeks at time and getting clogged with muck. It can also run dry for days at a time if someone forgets to shut it off. The Geyser II has a plastic case and so far has not been tested in solid ice. (I'll update this review after the winter.)
Tip: To cut down on leaves and muck clogging the unit, I put the pump in a 5 gal. bucket that I have drilled with many ¼" holes to act as a filter.

The elephants (circus) came to town and flooded my basement. This pump did the work of two men in an 1/8 of the time. Home Depot charges $30.00 more for the same item, plus tax. I ordered on Thursday and received it on Saturday, w/free shipping.

I did a lot of comparison shopping at your typical neighborhood home improvement stores before choosing this pump from Amazon. My only concern was performance at such a reasonable price. I was delighted when I received the product to find that it did perform as advertised, and even better. I have a large swimming pool and I used it to lower the water level so I could add "fresh water". It is very suitable for this application and I would highly recommend it.

Simer 2305 Geyser II 1/6 HP Submersible Utility Pump 1/6 HP (Purchased on 05/01/2009)
by Simer

The Tuesday before I ordered this pump We removed 500 GALLONS of seeping water from the basement.
Do you have any idea what that it like to do with mops, buckets and towels?
I was desperate; so I went out and bought a wet and dry vacuum. The problem with that was the water it picked up had to be put somewhere. So we had to shove this thing to the kitchen and lift it to empty it into the sink....
I realised if we ever intended to get any sleep we had to do better than removing water this way.
I called a friend who installed swimming pools at one point in his life and asked his advice.
He sent me a picture of the Simer pump email and explained that to use it the BEST way it should be dropped into a sump pump hole but it would work just set on the floor in a low spot.
MAN OH MAN! This pump is a wonderful thing! I had two low spots at each end of one wall with another not quite not so low spot(but it did not really drain to the low spots) in the center.
We attached the hose to the pump and ran it to the sink and turned it on in one low spot. In one minute it pulled all that water out and it was GONE! We moved it to the other end and repeated it! LOVELY!
Now we still had water seepage along the two 20 ft. long walls so we turned on the vacuum to get this up. Then we had-you guessed it- a full vacuum to lug to the sink. Or did we?
We took the top of the vacuum off and dropped the pump into it and plugged it in. In seconds we had an empty vacuum!

This pump is fantastic! Hopefully we will get the problem fixed as soon as the basement is dry enough, but now I do know that there is a way to pump the water out that saves time labor and a whole lot of money. This was an affordable way to handle the problem AND get some sleep at the same time!
At nine pounds it is portable and the speed of removal of water is a life saver!

I purchased this pump for use in my home construction area that is prone to flooding.

Description:
I won't rewrite the manufacturers description, but would like to note the very durable impact resistant case, and the highly stable, upright position of the pump due to the wide base and low center of gravity.

Put to the Test:
I've used this pump outdoors on more than twenty occasions, twice having continuous pumping for over 36 hours. My home expansion construction site floods during heavy rain from soil and roof runoff, and every time I have successfully removed about 99% the water with the Geyser II. Sometimes the water was quite full of silt and plant debris, but the pump never stopped working. (I took another reviewer's suggestion to drill holes in a plastic 5 gallon bucket. This worked nicely to limit leaf debris from clogging the pump base.)

Specification:
Curious about the 1260 GPH spec, and also interested in calculating how much water I had pumped, I performed a calibration of the pump under typical conditions at my site. I placed the pump in the aforementioned hole riddled bucket with the pump base submerged approximately 16 inches. I had 2 x 50' lengths of 3/4 hose connected to the outlet with approximately 3 1/2 feet of rise from the pump base to the hose outlet. The pump was connected to power with a 12 gauge 25' outdoor extension cord. I also did a quick calibration of the bucket to confirm 5 gallons to be very near the top of the bucket. I timed 5 gallons fill 3 times, with an average of 46 seconds. This calculates to 9.6 secs/gallon or 375 GPH. This is substantially less than the advertised pump rate, so keep in mind 2 factors that will affect your results: water head height and pipe back pressure. So to improve your pump performance, if possible, decrease the height the water is pumped and decrease the pipe back pressure by shortening the length of effluent hose or by increasing its diameter. By my calibration, I can roughly calculate the Geyser II pumped 13,500 gallons in the 36 hour stretch. Quite impressive I think.

Important note:
I've read other reviewers describe running the pump dry for extended period. When I did this, perhaps for an hour or so after the pump evacuated all the water from the site, I noticed the cord and plug got quite hot. I'm not sure if the cord is underrated for the amount of current when pumping dry, but I suggest users pay attention to this if they pump dry.

Conclusion:
I am very pleased with this pump's performance, despite my conditions not resulting in the advertised pump rate. I think the manufacture must have used the most ideal conditions to arrive at the 1260 GPH rate; perhaps measured with NO effluent hose, and pump submerged to the level of outlet. But, in my opinion, that is not really a realistic operating condition.
Cheers!

I live in the Atlanta area which is flooding as I write this review. I ordered this and got it 2 days later. Didn't read the instructions as it was very intuitive. Was able to hook a garden hose and divert water out of my car port. Also planning on using it in my crawl space. It's muddy (clay) here in Georgia and it didn't get clogged. Great product and would recommend.

I bought this pump to drain water out of an in ground pool and it worked flawlessly. Ran for quite a long time with no overheating. I would recommend this product.

The pump works perfect for what I purchased it for HOWEVER it was recommended that you purchase the 1 1/2" hose to go with it but the Simer pump doesn't come with an adapter to adapt to that diameter. After going to Home Depot to find an adapter I found it easier to just buy from them a 24ft, 1 1/4" hose kit that comes with an adapter to fit the pump. I wasted $$ purchasing the 1 1/2" hose to go with the pump. What I did do was buy a 1 1/4 to 1 1/2" hose adapter so I can hook the 2 hoses together if I want to pump the water 48 ft instead of the shorter 24 ft just using one section of hose. DON'T BUY THE "RECOMMENDED" 1 1/2" HOSE THAT THEY SUGGEST WITH THE PUMP.

This sump pump works very well and quickly too. I would highly recommend it...good product and a very good price too.