Water Butt to Butt help!

Hi everyone, I have two water butts in my garden one at the top and one at the bottom, with the garden slightly sloping down. The old man who lived in the house before us had connected the two so that when the top one was full it would flow down to the bottom one. Sadly the top water butt collapsed so we replaced it but can't get the water to go down, even when it's over the hole.

We know it works and there are no leaks in the connecting hoses as we have run water down the pipe directly but we can't seem to find a way to make the water just naturally flow down when full. The hose is connected by the usual kind of hose connector and we don't think it has a water lock on it. My partner also put a breather in to see if that would help but I went out this morning and it's completely full. Can anyone suggest a way to just get the water to run down as it used to please? The hole is quite near the top but that's where they always are on water butts.

 

A quick check would be to disconnect the connecting pipe.
Then holding the pipe up as your partner fills the top butt, you could slowly lower it until you find what height water starts to flow.
Then you can decide to either drill a new 'lower' hole or lower the whole base of the bottom water butt.

 

Everything you say sounds right, if the Butt is as tall as the old one, or on a stand to make it taller then the water should naturally flow down.
I can only think there is a blockage in the pipe or the lower butt - If you por water in the pipe at the new butt does it actually appear in the lower butt or does it just run down the pipe?

Or maybe there is a raised section of hose/pipe causing an air lock midway down.

If you disconnected the pipe at the old butt would you see the excess rain water flowing out?

 

Thanks JR. I do think it may be a height thing however the old hole was in the same area and worked fine. Might be worth lowering it a bit though to see.

 

Yes it's pretty much the same as the old one. When we disconnect it and aim the hose down the pipe it comes out in the bottom butt very well so we know it's not blocked at all. Unfortunately the pipe is long buried and it's a long garden so no chance of finding it! It must be something to do with the connector being wrong or the height of the hole

 

If the hose water goes down the pipe just fine, then it is definitely the outlet placement on the upper water butt. Can you put a fitting in the upper butt, something like this one that I have for mine,

And attach your pipe to the bottom of it?

If you put a fitting there first, at least you'll see if if it is low enough to actually drain the overflow of water?

 

If it just flows from top butt to bottom butt via gravity, and the pipe is not blocked it can only be a problem of levels.
The only way it could not run down hill would be if the centre of the pipe run is higher than the outlet of of the top butt.