Since designing & installing the electrical system in my ambulance to RV conversion this past Summer, I’ve gained the confidence to take on smaller electrical projects in order to create ease or increase efficiency. In the case of designing a portable, rechargeable water pump, both ease & efficiency would be addressed.

I make my own organic liquid fertilizers & quickly realized I needed a way to better serve the healthy brews to my plants, because dumping buckets of diluted fertilizer on them isn’t ideal. What I needed was a pump that I could drop into a bucket of whatever liquid I want to dispel. This pump needed to be 12V & have a rechargeable battery. I wanted the pump to have an inline filter so I wouldn’t be bothered by chunks of organic matter from the bucket of liquid fertilizer lodging inside my pump. I also wanted a spray nozzle with adjustable spray settings; with the ability to spray continuously without having to maintain squeeze on the trigger (to decrease hand fatigue).

Turns out finding all of these features in a single product is a tall order😕

If I can’t find the product I need, that means I have to build it👊🏾

Because I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, sourcing the parts didn’t take long. I purchased a 12V diesel pump with an inline filter; a large caliber hose to accommodate the pump; a garden hose adapter & a small, rechargeable battery bank. Fortunately, I already had a garden sprayer that came with a previously purchased hose & the few hand tools necessary to complete the job were easily found in my toolbox.

The first thing I addressed was powering the system. The diesel pump came with clamps (like car battery jumper cables) to attach to battery terminals. Since I had no intention of carrying a bulky box battery around, this wouldn’t work for my application.

I snipped off the battery clamps & saved them for possible use on a future project. I then wired a plug that would insert into my rechargeable battery pack.

With the wiring out of the way, the rest of the system came together swiftly. I used hose clamps to attach the hose to the pump & to attach the sprayer to the hose via a stainless steel adapter.

In less than 20 minutes I had the portable pump of my dreams!

It works great & has made dispensing my various liquid fertilizers a breeze.

On to the next project💪🏾!