Where do you get the technical Specifics of an E-vac

User manual for an E vac see -

https://waterforpeople.box.com/s/zwit...

Following as some comments from Dave Still, the supplier in SA

*I think it works pretty well, but pit contents here (and I believe is most places) are so variable in consistency and moisture content that I always advise people that the eVac should be considered part of their toolkit but not a silver-bullet.

We are still in the early stages of marketing. In fact I haven’t really marketed them at all, but have sold a few machines (direct sale – no credit or finance arrangements) through word of mouth references. Once we have had feedback from those contractors we might produce an updated prototype and then market it properly, assuming it looks promising. In South Africa I might be able to sell a number of these machines to local government structures to pass on to pit emptying contractors, although that would not really be the ideal mechanism for long term sustainable demand.

Regarding costs, I need to check our figures for the three machines we have just made for WfP but I think our input costs come to about 2 350 USD, excluding our time. Apart from managing the fabrication process, crating the machine up and dealing with shipping agents is quite a lot of admin for us on top of this cost.

If we were making a substantial number of machines every month I am sure we could get the cost down. At the moment we are buying all components at retail prices.*

Nicola, Just commenting on Dave Still's message there - we're looking at getting an eVac shipped to Cambridge for performance benchmarking by an engineering student to compare it with the Gulper I and II, Oxfam manual diaphragm pump and hopefully a few others. This should help map out which different pumps in their "toolkits" can handle various ranges of pit contents, and also link in the economics related to investment decisions by pit emptiers. Jamie

Hi Jamie, Sounds like some promising work. Please keep us all updated!

The EVac should be arriving in Uganda this week, so I will keep you all updated on its progress.

Thanks, George