Waterbut and a hosepipe

Hello everyone,

I've recently got a water butt in my garden which is working fine. But I'm having an issue connecting a hose pipe to it, when i do it either spills out of the top or doesn't generate enough pressure to get the water to the end of the hose pipe. Can anyone advise me if there is something i should be doing which I'm currently not.

I went into B&Q and they advised me to get this - Hozelock Round tap connecter with a jubilee clip.

Thanks

Darren

 

With out knowing more about your set up it's difficult to say too much. However you need to make sure there is a good seal between the outlet at the bottom of the water butt and the hose pipe. Pushing the hose pipe onto the outlet tap and securing with a Jubilee clip should work. Secondly a water butt cannot push water any higher than the level of water in the butt. So even in a level garden waist height is about the best to be hoped from a fullish standard sized water butt.

 

I've added some pictures so you can see what I'm trying to do. I hope this helps!

The butt is full when I'm trying to use the pipe, but nothing other than a tiny trickle comes out and that's only if I hold the line up and use gravity to help the water along!

 

I haven't any experience of using a water butt for the purpose that you are proposing but I fail to see how a basic "syphon effect" could possibly generate enough pressure to push water out of a hose at anything more than a trickle, and only then if the end of the hose was below the level of the water. Am I missing something or have I completely misunderstood your requirements?

 

I suggest using the butt to fill a watering can , make life so much easier

 

I think these sorts of water butts / taps are a disappointment.

Must admit that I haven't properly understood what you are trying to do with the hose, but I presume attach it to the tap on the water butt and then ... what? Let it flow out of the hose at a level lower than the tap on the water butt? or something else.

The issues, as I see it, are:

1. "Head" is not very much - the height of the water level in the butt. Maybe 3'? That's not enough to provide much pressure.
2. The tap - pathetic diameter, so low-flow. How long does it take to fill a 10L watering can if you put it under the tap - a minute? more perhaps?
3. The hose. 1/2" - given the low flow rate from the tap, and low "Head", the frictional loses on 25M of hose will be considerable. Repeat the watering can filling test, but using the full length of the hose (already primed). Put the watering can in the original position (under the tap) but fill it from the end of the hose instead. Presumably that is even slower than when filled from the tap direct?

Personally I wouldn't even fill a watering can via the tap, whiling away my life waiting for it to fill each time. I have a large galvanised circular tank as a water butt. It has a lid, but slid halfway-off, or removed, I can dunk to watering cans at once and they will within a couple of seconds.

I use the tap to join a hose to the next waterbutt so that they maintain level. I don't care how slow that is, by "tomorrow" they will all have the same level again.

I might try the speed-test from the tap, and tap + hose, if I have time just to illustrate the point.

 

While fully agreeing with Kristen's issues 1 - 3 I cannot agree with.....

I have two water butts at the top of the garden taking water from the roof of a large shed and the greenhouse. The water from these is used to irrigate my greenhouse plants and if it takes a few minutes to fill the watering can so what. I use a hose pipe attached to a couple of sprinklers to water the majority of my garden and although on a water meter it doesn't really affect me, however, there must be thousands of gardeners out there who probably wouldn't be able to water their garden if it wasn't for using "grey water" or water butts of some kind.
I have seen some photographs of your garden Kristen (http://kgarden.wordpress.com/) and you must admit that you are not the average suburban gardener, I have a reasonable sized plot but yours is like the Ponderosa at the side of mine. Not everyone has room for a "large galvanised circular tank" and all that goes with it and the common water butt, while not for you, serves a purpose for many others.

 

As an afterthought, I notice that dazanteney4 who started this thread was a new member, I also notice that he doesn't appear to have come back since we all poo poo'ed his thoughts. Perhaps we should be more understanding with newbies if we want them to become full and useful members of this site, after all, everyone of us had to learn and some of us are still learning, hence my custom title of apprentice gardener.
Just a thought, not a criticism of anyone.

 

I'd prefer to be doing something else with my time, I doubt I am alone in that wish.

My point was that a water butt that you can dunk a can in is far better than one that only has a slow-running tap. You don't have to get a corrugated one like mine, although for anyone who gets the opportunity to buy one at a farm auction they are not expensive, and IME don't split in two when they freeze solid in a harsh winter. Note that mine is not significantly wider than a plastic water butt (assuming your point was that they take up a lot of room), its just the fact that being straight sided - i.e. without an inward facing lip at the top - all of the diameter is available for can-dunking.

The plastic ones I see sold are too narrow in diameter to get a watering can into the top - the watering can will only fit into the top at a 45 degree angle and then most or the water pours back out as you try to remove the can, of course. Alternatively a bigger bore tap would do - like the ones you get on an IBC - I guess they are about 1.5" or 2" diameter. But the makers / sellers don't put that much thought into it, and folk who only see that type available for sale probably don't consider what the alternatives are.

So my advice to anyone thinking of getting a water butt is to consider one with a decent width / opening at the top and/or a bigger bore tap at the bottom. If I expressed that badly in my earlier post I'm sorry.

For anyone wanting to hook up a hose to a water butt for "hand watering", rather than trickle irrigation, and assuming you can get power to it, then a small pump (such as Hozelock sell) would make the irrigation job much easier



http://www.hozelock.com/watering/garden-pumps/water-butt-pump.html

 

This is definitely my last word on water butts as it isn't helping anyone let alone dazanteny4.

I am not going to time it but it cannot take much more than one minute to fill my standard watering can from my standard butt. What could I productively do in that time that would enhance my environment so much?

I didn't assume, you wrote "large galvanised circular tank" which by virtue of the description is large and will therefor take up a lot of room.

 

Indeed, sorry that wasn't how I was considering it in my mind.

Lets assume you need two cans per day (a 2 gallon can, or 10L - 20L a day is probably reasonable?) - 2 minutes a day - that's an hour a month. That's the time that I think you could do something with admittedly you don't it back all in one go, once a month, but the time saved each day does add up.

What I was thinking, but perhaps did not articulate well, in terms of the O/P's original question, was that hooking up a hose to a water butt tap which runs so slowly is going to deliver a very slow flow-rate at the end of the hose, and it is difficult to imagine what that could successfully be used for. A drip irrigation system, designed for low pressure, would be OK, but for anything else I am doubtful - a pump would make the difference though.

Fair enough, sorry for the confusion. I wonder if the blue bulk Orange Juice / Olives etc. containers have a big enough opening to be able to dunk-a-can? They are a similar size to conventional water butts, cheap on eBay, and if there is a source/User locally will probably be free, or very cheap.


210L containers
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/210L-Litr...lants_Bird_Bath_Feeder_CV&hash=item4ad4ac3dd2

 

Pump is a good idea K

I got a submersible one when I was underpinning the house, for when the holes filled up with water. Just attach a normal hosepipe to it and away you go

 

Assumes you have power near the water butt though Zigs - not much good "up the allotment", for example :(

 

Agreed, i've been off grid for over a month now with a combination of 2 x 30 watt solar panels and a plug in inverter that runs off the car battery