We developed Flood Box emergency pump kits after flooding hit our own street. Whilst we had our own pump kit, it became clear that the bewildering choice of pumps, pipe sizes and fittings made purchasing a complete home set up far more difficult than it needed to be for the wider community.
The idea of Flood Box was to provide a single container with a ready assembled combination of the best quality components, designed to enable rapid, simple deployment in an emergency, by individuals with no prior knowledge of using pumps. They incorporate learning from using our own pumps in floods:
- Having every item in a single box, to reduce the time taken to deploy in an emergency.
- Using the crate both for storage of the kit and to deploy with the pump inside it. This clever trick provides a useful additional large particle filter, which improves pumping efficiency.
- Professional quick release fittings to enable the hose to be connected to the unit, to avoid the time consuming stress of trying to thread/unthread it each time. Having the fitting at both ends of the hose enables longer lengths to be connected together.
- Decent quality hose. The white fabric hose commonly supplied with pumps kinks too easily and can't be cleaned effectively.
The Flood Box kit has the following key features:
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Premium Hyundai pump:
- 550w unit has an impressive 175 litre per minute (10,500L/hour) pumping rate
- 1100w unit has an incredible 233 litre per minute (14,000L/hour) pumping rate
- Capable of handling dirty water with debris up to 35mm in diameter (with dirty water base extension at max height).
- Submergible up to 7m deep into water.
- Pump water up to 7m (550w unit) or 10m (1100w) above the height of the pump.
- 10m 1.5" (38mm) Diameter heavy duty reinforced Polyester PVC lay flat hose. Additional hose lengths are available here and be connected together.
- Pump and hoses supplied ready fitted with professional polypropylene couplers, to enable rapid, reliable connections.
- 10m mains cable with UK 13A plug.
- Automatic float switch starts and stops the pump according to the water level.
- Strong polypropylene storage/filter crate, external dimensions L400 x W300 x H220mm.
- Total kit weight 550w Xkg, 1100w Xkg
Deployment in an emergency is simple, with just four steps:
- Roll out hose.
- Connect hose to pump.
- Keep pump inside the storage crate (where possible) and place into the water, at the deepest point accessible.
- Plug pump into an electrical socket.