I’ve mentioned it a time or two but never really expounded on my opinion on the Milwaukee Transfer Pump that I’ve been using lately to move water around the Beta Site. The TL;DR version: buy it.
My primary uses of it to date have been to a) move water from the creek, uphill, to a larger water tank and b) transferring water from a smaller tank to a larger one. In both cases, this thing did an outstanding job. It’s pretty quick at 8 gpm, and creates enough pressure that when I feed the output to a garden hose with a spray nozzle on the end I get a good 20-30′ of range.
The pump runs off the Milwaukee batteries and accepts all of the M18 series of batteries. I usually use the 6.0 battery although if you remove the spacer in the battery compartment it will accommodate the larger 12.0 batt. I ran the 6.0 battery today and moved 200 gallons of water before the battery called it quits..that was a 50-gallon fillup, transfer to the main tank, another 50-gallon fillup, transfer that to the main tank. Thats a total of 200 gallons of throughput.
The pump is fairly quiet…from about 30′ away all you hear is a quiet whine. I has two hose faucet male threaded ports..one for input and one for output. I just cut some how, got an assortment of connectors, and make my own specific connections as needed. Sometimes I need female threaded end of the hose, sometimes I need male threaded end…having an assortment of fittings and hose clamps really opens up a bunch of possibilities.
There are, of course, larger pumps out there that will pump higher and further, but for my needs thus far this thing has performed quite well. It ran water uphill to the tank in the back of my truck with no problems, and it’s light weight makes it easy to haul around the fairly primitive (for now) environs of the Beta Site. You dont have to be a genius to see how something like this can have quite a few applications for we of the survival mindset. Pumping water from your bathtub to your toilet tank, filling jerry cans from a creek or other water source, impromptu showering, keeping handy for firefighting when doing a slash or barrel burn, watering a garden from a water storage tank, etc, etc. It has been the key to having high water pressure for my portable tankless water heater…it makes a strong hot stream of shower water possible. Don’t undersell that.
When I originally bought this I only had a vague idea of how useful it would be. Now that I’ve had it for a while and used if for several different tasks ‘out in the field’ I cannot say enough good things about it.
Good advice, I need to look into it.
I’ve seen more than a few online reviews stating that this pump has problems with broken impellers and seal leakage. Some report that the pump just stopped working for no apparent reason. Most of these reports are dated a few years back. Maybe Milwaukee fixed these issues. Thoughts?
My thoughts are that this is a case of reverse survivorship bias. A person may read, say, 10 negative reviews about a product and conclude that the product isn’t as great as it seems. And if thats 10 negative reviews across a production rate of 20 products, then theres some merit to that. But across thousands of units, it dilutes the negative reviews a bit. Any product is going to have people that found a problem. Maybe a few escaped the factory with a problem..maybe not. But I think its reasonable to think that most people who have a good experience dont post about it, while those that haver a negative experience post about it ceaselessly. Its like the old joke about how newspapers only print bad news. You don’t hear about the dog that didnt bark. In this case you dont read about the thousands of these things that didnt have a problem. Anyway, I only post about my experience, and my sample size is one. But, that one has been very good to me and on the strength of that one I recommend it.
You make perfect sense! This pump sounds like it would suit my situation perfectly. But I’m going to buy from home depot to ensure I get a real Milwaukee tool and not a scamazon knockoff. Thanks.
what I’m seeing is an absolutely great COVERT water scavenging tool – post serious SHTF you’ll be needing to get out there and load up on water – more water on a single mission is alllllll the better >>>>
200 > 400 gallons on a single battery and quiet as hell is the advantage you’d be needing – no need to be running an engine for a transfer pump or generator – no weight or wasted haul space – no risk of losing a valuable piece of gear – pump & battery is small enough to grab & scoot ;;;;;;;;;
I have the Ryobi version and have the same good things to say about it as well. Went down the Ryobi road in the mid ’90’s and never looked back. For those Ryobi enthusiasts out there.
Thanks Rich. I’m on the Ryobi 18vOne+ road and was wondering how good theirs is. Do you have the submersible version or the other one?
I have the non-submersible model, don’t have the PN at hand. Have had a few occasions to use it and it has worked flawlessly. No dig on any other brands. I bought a Ryobi kit in the mid ’90’s because it was on sale. I still have all those tools and they all still work and accept the new lithium batteries.
Thank you sir!
Zero, I read this post yesterday and had a busy day so I didn’t really dig in, but it kept rolling around in the back of my head so I circled back to it this morning. Hey! That dude is heavy duty! For anyone else that is interested here is the Milwaukee 2771-21 ($279.99) on Amazon (https://a.co/d/0gAo8u5d) and then looky here: Storage Case for Milwaukee 2771-20 M18 Transfer Pump, Hard Case with Custom Foam Insert, Fits M18 Transfer Pump, Battery & Charger – Durable Protective Box for Milwaukee Tools (CASE ONLY) ($59.99) (https://a.co/d/0eq68d2G), also on Amazon. It’s admittedly not Milwaukee branded, and the listing says “battery” singularly and the picture clearly shows it with two; but I’m thinking the combination of all those pieces in that fitted case RTG; awesome! And the price on that combination pump, battery and charger; it beats other prices that I see for the pump alone. Before anyone asks, the Milwaukee 2771-20 and 2771-21 are the same M18 Transfer Pump. The difference is what comes in the box: 2771-20 — tool only; no battery or charger. 2771-21 — kit; includes the 2771-20 transfer pump, one M18 battery and a charger. The pump itself has the same performance: up to 480 gallons/hour, 18 ft of lift and 75 ft of head height. So, I may scoop both up and just build me an entire kit. Swap the batteries out with my other batteries periodically to keep them hot and you have a turnkey solution to your pumping water needs, albeit with understandable limitations. – Phillip
Good info ! Are you running a screened intake pick up or is one included in the pump?
I use a screened intake and I’ll have a post about the, in my opinion, brilliant bit of McGyverism I came up with to create a very efficient filter system.
You convinced me!
So, I head over to Amazon and discovered that there is absolute enshitification going on – there are so many non-Milwaukee knockoffs for the pumps and batteries and chargers, I’m just gobsmacked.
Caveat Emptor!
Yeah…I’ll pay the extra for the real deal with its associated warranty and customer service.
One of our guys bought some knockoff M18 batteries a couple years ago.
Surprisingly, they still work and work well. I wouldn’t buy any, but…
Looking forward to your post about water filtration. I’m sure you know that untreated water + sunlight = algae farm. Chlorine is the most common disinfectant but hydrogen peroxide is what I use because there are no (carcinogenic) chlorination byproducts. I use a 35% solution; the stuff they have in stores is only 3%.