Although drums with their lids removed are frequently used in industrial environments for storing dry goods and for simple disposal of inert liquid waste, there are safety concerns about storing other chemicals and liquids in this manner, and under many circumstances, getting the contents out of the drum can be a problem. Fifty five gallon drums are too heavy to lift or pour from, and so, having the right kit to get the liquid out when the drum is vertical and stable is essential. There are a number of different manual hand drum pumps available on the market that are perfect for the job.

One of the main concerns that needs to be addressed when selecting the right manual hand drum pump for your requirements is to consider the kind of liquid that you are using. While lightweight oils and other thin liquids can be pumped easily with a standard pumping system, you will need a much more powerful version to lift thicker oils and liquids such as paint, which have more weight to them.

There are many different styles of manual hand drum pump available to meet your needs, and various different mechanisms are used to actually do the pumping. The most common style of pump is the piston pump, which works in a manner similar to a bicycle pump to draw the liquid out of the drum. While this is not the most efficient system in terms of its capacity, or the smoothness of a the flow of liquid that it generates, these piston pumps are still very useful, and offer excellent value for money along with bullet proof reliability thanks to their simple construction.

Moving forward from the simplest vertical manual hand drum pumps, you can get more power and a more efficient flow by using a lever pump to get the liquid out of the drum. You will find that thanks to the levering system, you are able to manage to pull liquid from the drum at a much greater rate, while the effort required in order to get the liquid out is reduced significantly. Although these pumps are slightly more complex than the standard piston pumps, they do work in fundamentally the same way, and as such are highly reliable, although they still provide a relatively uneven flow of liquid.