Increase water butt pressure?

Alkers

Have about 10m of hose connected to a water butt in the garden. Butt is about two foot off the ground, with a tap at the very bottom but water still barely trickles out the end of the hose due to loses.

Has anyone come across a manual pump that can be used to increase pressure just to water plants?

I see a number of submersible pumps are available but I've no easy power at this end of the garden.

Outkast_IRE

Raising the height of the butt or using it to fill a watering can are the only solutions really. The 10m of hose will kill any pressure you do have to be honest without a electric pump.

tDw6u1bj

Raising it won't work - to raise it enough to get decent(not good) water pressure you need to raise it to a minimum of twice the height of your house.

A pump or watering can are the only options - don't see why you would want a submersible one for this? Why not one inline coming from the tap on the waterbutt?

Padre_Pio

Are those pumps run from a battery drill any good?

lordgoat

Increase the size of your water butt? I've seen an oil tank raised about 5ft off the ground used to good effect.

tDw6u1bj

lordgoat wrote: »

Increase the size of your water butt?

This will have no effect on pressure

lordgoat wrote: »

I've seen an oil tank raised about 5ft off the ground used to good effect.

P=ρgh

Jim_Hodge

lordgoat wrote: »

Increase the size of your water butt? I've seen an oil tank raised about 5ft off the ground used to good effect.

Hydrostatic pressure won't change with the volume of the tank. The height is the only improving factor there.

magicbastarder

water pressure in the UK is mandated to be at least 1 bar; which is 14.5psi.

1psi = 2.3 foot; so to get to UK domestic pressure you need a head of 34 feet.

Sparkey84

Padre_Pio wrote: »

Are those pumps run from a battery drill any good?

bought one few years ago and found it poor enough, even connected to very high torque drill. it could work but id use a watering can before id use that set up again.

tDw6u1bj

magicbastarder wrote: »

water pressure in the UK is mandated to be at least 1 bar; which is 14.5psi.

1psi = 2.3 foot; so to get to UK domestic pressure you need a head of 34 feet.

Converting to imperial really makes that a handy calculation...

magicbastarder

funny, i work in psi for pressure; as i suspect most people casually do, because the only time most people have to think about it is in relation to tyre pressure, and most people i know still use imperial there.

tDw6u1bj

magicbastarder wrote: »

funny, i work in psi for pressure; as i suspect most people casually do, because the only time most people have to think about it is in relation to tyre pressure, and most people i know still use imperial there.

Not any more I wouldn't think, but you're right that tyre pressure definitely seems to be dragging a little longer.

I would have thought that in the context (water pressure) pretty-much everyone would use bar as it's the norm now when talking about plumbing/heating pressure/shower pump pressure etc.

tDw6u1bj

Sparkey84 wrote: »

bought one few years ago and found it poor enough, even connected to very high torque drill. it could work but id use a watering can before id use that set up again.

Spot on - the pump isn't the question, the drill is. Speed is the other thing - those pumps are designed to work at 2-3000 rpm but most drills will be about 1200 without load.

Lidl/aldi regularly have these in for €60-ish and I've considered it for my water butt but couldn't quite justify it. I probably would if I were regularly doing the whole garden off it.

cruizer101

There isn't really any manual option as you would have to be constantly manually pumping to maintain pressure.

You could get a bit more pressure by raising it a bit and also if you could use a larger diameter hose to reduce pressure losses.
You don't need to get up to mains pressure. Tank in my attic is about 8ft above bathroom taps and goes through ~6m of pipe and have ok pressure.
That said if water butt source is shed you are limited in how much you could raise it.

A powered pump is best option even if you only run of extension until you could get power ran to it.

I've always thought there was an opening for a product similar to those manual hand pump pressure sprayers that could be use with a water butt so you could build up pressure in a tank then spray your hose for a bit and go back every now and then to pump the pressure up to keep the flow going.

Alkers

tDw6u1bj wrote: »

Raising it won't work - to raise it enough to get decent(not good) water pressure you need to raise it to a minimum of twice the height of your house.

A pump or watering can are the only options - don't see why you would want a submersible one for this? Why not one inline coming from the tap on the waterbutt?

Are you aware of any pumps designed for this that will have hozelock fittings etc?

magicbastarder

cruizer101 wrote: »

You don't need to get up to mains pressure. Tank in my attic is about 8ft above bathroom taps and goes through ~6m of pipe and have ok pressure.

that's OK pressure for coming downwards out of a tap; the OP may have been hoping for adequate pressure to create a horizontal spray from a hose though.

Outkast_IRE

magicbastarder wrote: »

that's OK pressure for coming downwards out of a tap; the OP may have been hoping for adequate pressure to create a horizontal spray from a hose though.

And thats sort of the kicker . The pressure loss through flexible hose is appreciable per metre at any decent flowrate. So the longer the hose you attach the more pressure you lose in the hose anyway and then to create a spray you need a decent pressure at the outlet. For example most pumped water systems are sized to provide a pressure of 1-1.5bar at the outlet.

Hence everything points back to needing to use a watering can or an electric pump.

Supercell

Before mine cracked I just used two watering cans. Have one filling while the other is watering, worked pretty well, got good at timing
The pumps just seemed like to much faffing about.

Padre_Pio

Supercell wrote: »

Before mine cracked I just used two watering cans. Have one filling while the other is watering, worked pretty well, got good at timing
The pumps just seemed like to much faffing about.

I have a 12v submersible pump in the camper, but there's no real pressure out of it. You're not going to get a tap pressure from a water butt without spending a few hundred euro.

fiacha

+1 for a submersible pump (from lidl / aldi) powered via an extension lead (RCD protected). Get a good quality extension lead on a reel.

My large tank is tucked away in an awkward spot, so I wired a weatherproof socket via an external switch. There is a brass tap on the garage wall beside the switch. Pump plugged into the socket and I can turn it on/off via the switch beside the tap. The pump and tap all use the standard push fit hozelock connections so it is quick and easy to setup.

I mostly use it to fill the watering cans from the tap, but I have also connected a 25m hose to water the greenhouse and back garden. Not mains pressure, but perfectly usable with a watering lance. I can't remember the rating on the pump, but I think the Lidl / Aldi ones are all similar.

looksee

Just saw powered pumps specifically for water butts in Lidl this morning.

hirondelle

looksee wrote: »

Just saw powered pumps specifically for water butts in Lidl this morning.

There were five of them in the Clane branch on Friday, but all had the "previously opened and put back in the box" look, so I passed:D

fryup

is there any danger of an electric shock from these pumps or plugging in these pumps?

fiacha

Not if you follow the instructions (read the manual ! ) and connect it to the mains via a dedicated RCD plug ( or an RCD protected circuit). If in doubt, ask a registered electrician.

This kind of plug in rcd are suitable for appliances used outdoors (hedge cutters , lawnmowers , water pumps etc)
https://www.screwfix.ie/p/masterplug-13a-fused-plug-through-active-rcd-adaptor/63731

Anaki r2d2

Karcher make water butt pumps. Sorry can't post links. But Google "Karcher water butt pumps"