Water butt syphon

clarke.brunt

I'm lucky to have the space for 6 water butts. Just though I'd relate how easy it us to rig up a system to syphon water from one to another so all remain at the same water level, and it doesn't matter which one you draw water from, or which the collected water goes into, since it will be replenished from the others.

Rather than connecting them with pipes at the bottom (imagine what happens if one of the pipes falls off...), or the 'overflow kits' where a pipe connects holes near the top (only works as an 'overflow' - doesn't syphon back the other way), I use lengths of hosepipe as syphons from one butt to another (I'm definitely not the first to do this, but it works so much better than I'd hoped).

Get all the water butts at the same level (the water will eventually overflow from the lowest one). It's very helpful if you raise them off the ground, so you can get e.g. a watering can underneath the tap, and it lets you use the water right to the bottom. I've found that the plastic 'stands' available tend to collapse after a year or two - I use old breeze-blocks and bricks to get the correct level. Now get lengths of hosepipe, long enough to reach from the bottom of one butt, over the top, and down to the bottom of another butt. To 'prime' the syphon (i.e. get the length of pipe full of water, with no air) it's easier if at least one of the butts is already full. You can suck on the end of the pipe (risk of mouthful of water, as I got yesterday), or use a mains-water hose to fill the pipe, or just dunk it all below water level in a single butt. Then place your finger over the end, and release it near ground level - ensure water is flowing and any air comes out. Re-apply the finger, and lower pipe into destination butt - only taking your finger off when lower than water level in source butt. Repeat as needed to connect other butts.

Sounds a faff, and I thought I'd be having to get the syphons going again every few weeks, but no - it's very rare. Maybe once a year, one gets blocked by debris or gets air in and I have to sort it out. But otherwise it just works. 3 of my 6 butts actually collect water (2 sides of greenhouse, plus another building); only 4 of 6 have taps on them; and I don't need to worry which one to take water from, since it's automatically refilled from the others.

All this lot is primarily for a load or carnivorous plants, which demand rainwater. If enough spare after that, then used in the greenhouse and on other plants as well, or even to top up the pond. I find that 6 butts is about right for me - usually lasts over summer dry spells, and all 6 fill up very quickly when there's a rain-storm.

wild edges

The hardest part is getting the hoses to stay right at the bottom of the butt. They always want to curl up. On one butt I ended up using proper plumbing waste pipe with solvent welded bends but if you can find a plastic or stainless steel rod of some kind you can tie the hose to that to keep it straight.

clarke.brunt

Agreed - not been a problem so far in a few years, but the lower you take the water level, the more chance of exposing the end of the hose and breaking the syphon. The only reason I thought to write now was that yesterday I finally located some scrap breeze-blocks to sort out one of the six butts which had been on the ground (unconnected to the others) since its plastic stand collapsed about a year ago. As you can imagine, at this time of year, it's difficult to persuade cold hosepipe to do anything other than what it wants to!

steephill

A favorite technique of Bob Flowerdew, he covered this in one of his books "The no work garden".  The butts don't need to be next to each other, a great way to always have water available around the garden but you do need a fairly flat garden for it to work.

clarke.brunt

I came across Bob's article somewhere online today - while wondering if anyone had written sensibly about it (he had), rather than suggesting half-baked techniques. As a scientist, I knew it was going to work in principle, but as I said, it surprised me how well it worked in practice - blockages or air-locks very rare. Just don't forget and leave it e.g. topping up the pond when you've got a 'clever' system which can empty all your water-butts in one go!

steephill

Ye canny beat the laws o' physics

StephenSouthwest

wild edges said:

The hardest part is getting the hoses to stay right at the bottom of the butt. They always want to curl up. On one butt I ended up using proper plumbing waste pipe with solvent welded bends but if you can find a plastic or stainless steel rod of some kind you can tie the hose to that to keep it straight.

...would it work to tie the end of the hose to a half brick, I wonder?

StephenSouthwest

Thanks for posting this - I wish I'd come across it before I connected the bottom of a couple of tanks in an awkward corner, and I'll try it next time I'm adding new tanks.

Biblu

Never thought of doing this, great idea! Thanks for sharing 

Allotment Boy

It's an interesting idea,  however my butts at home are on a slope.  It's not much but I would have to find a way of leveling them up  I assume. 

clarke.brunt

Yes - that's the nature of syphoning - the water will come to the same level in all the butts (of course, that's "level" according to e.g. a spirit level) so if the tops of all the butts aren't at the same level, then when they fill, water will eventually overflow from the lowest one, and the higher-up ones will never fill to the top. You have to judge whether the loss of capacity from not having them level matters or not - a few inches either way is neither here nor there