[chopkins1313]

Hi all.

I have an irrigation conundrum I'm hoping you might be able to suggest some low budget solutions to.

I have dug a ditch on my allotment where the water tends to collect. It is one metre deep, about 3 metres in length and about 30 cm in width. At the bottom of the ditch I laid some drain pipe which I had drilled with small holes along the length. On top of this I then filled in the ditch with rubble. This acts as an excellent interceptor to the water coursing across part of my allotment and regularly fills up after a downpour.

Now, as shown by the diagram, I also inserted a vertical pipe, allowing me access to this underground water (see where this is heading yet?!). I also have a water butt next to this.

So the question is, how can I get the water out of the ditch, into the butt, without the use of electricity, and as cheaply as possible? The water needs to rise about 2 metres to get into the butt.

Any thoughts/suggestions welcomed, I see this as a potentially excellent way to fill a few water butts during winter/spring for use in the summer, without the need for 100's of trips to the tap (some 200 metres away!)

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Ice]

Why don't you pop into the welcome forum and introduce yourself.

[Yorkie]

2m sounds a very high rise without some sort of power.

Perhaps a solar powered pump?

[mumofstig]

How about a simple hand pump....quite a few show if you google 'hand pump'...depends what kind of thing you are after

[Fisherman]

I know its using electricity but I would use a medium sized battery drill with a pump attachement which can be bought from Amazon for less than £10. You may need a couple of charged batteries for the drill.

[arugula]

Siphon pump?

[mumofstig]

If I remember my physics...doesn't the receptical have to be lower for the siphon to work?

I mean that you can syphon from the sink to a bucket on the floor...but not the other way around

[arugula]

If I remember my physics...doesn't the receptical have to be lower for the siphon to work?

I mean that you can syphon from the sink to a bucket on the floor...but not the other way around

Yes MoS, my bad  . Hand pump it probably should be then, but some of those can be dear (I'm thinking the type you would use in a wooden barrel), so if that was the option chosen, some shopping around would be a good idea.

[ciderman]

  hi chris i had the same problem on my allotment   iv now got a small petrol presher washer pumps 10 liters per min  fills a barrel in mins   also verry good 4 washing down the green house hope this helps     ok bob                                                                                     ps i got mine from car boot   £30   

[power_of_p3]

Hand powered bilge pump would do the trick can be quite cheap  sort of thing they have for small riverboats or barges

[chopkins1313]

Thanks for all the ideas guys, I think I'm going to give the bilge pump idea a go, seems to get the best flow rate for the least £'s! Seen one on e-bay for about £10 so about my sort of budget! 

Thanks for helping a newbie out. I'm hopefully going to get my hands on a few containers this year and site them around my plot and hopefully syphon between them all to keep them all full, and, fingers crossed, all I have to do is pop down after the plentiful downpours and using the bilge pump top up the first one in the loop! 

Thanks again,

Chris

[chopkins1313]

Just been thinking about my syphoning idea and wondered if anyone had got the theory to work in practice and any hints and tips?

My diagram (see below) simplifies what I believe, acording to theory at least, is possible! As long as each barrel/butt is slightly lower than the last, they should all auto syphon to fill to the same level?

Also, when setting up, is there an easy way of making sure one barrel is lower than the next or is this simply trial and error?

Thanks,

Chris

[ex-cavator]

Doesn't matter if containers are the same level or different - if they're linked by siphons, the top water level will be common to all - just closer to the top in the lowest one, simply because the top is lower, not the water higher Take water out of any of them, and it will siphon neighbouring containers to equalise the levels, & then from successive ones in the chain & so on, until all are once again the same level.
But I think you'll have trouble with siphons - siphons will break, either because of dissolved gases coming out of the water particularly in hot weather, causing airlocks in the siphon tubes, or if the water level in any containers goes too low. Unless you've got an easy means of 'pumping up' the siphon (you can get pumps for the purpose) it'll all get a bit fiddly. Instead, link successive containers by pipes at low level, connected through the wall of the containers. That way you just keep filling the first container, it'll flow through the pipes & equalise the levels without the need to maintain a siphon. You could also tee into the interconnecting pipe at various points with hose connections, & use the hose to water wherever you want - providing the containers are quite full there will be sufficient head of water to make t work 

[chopkins1313]

many thanks for all that ex-cavator, I hadn't considered linking the barrels at the bottom, I assume the theory here works the same, fill up the first one in the chain and the pressure will equalise through them all giving them the same level? Physics isn't half clever! Whilst I will have a hand pump, I feel the bottom-fed idea would be much easier to manage.

Now, the only remaining question I have, how to seal a pipe (probably be using MDPE or basic hose pipe, whichever I can lay my hands on for cheapest!) into the hole in the barrel? Would basic builders caulk or silicon sealant do the trick?

thanks,

Chris

[JayG]

I agree 100% with ex-cavator about siphons, but would suggest you connect your barrels near the top rather than the bottom. By doing this, if you have a lot of rain all the barrels will fill in sequence, in dryer periods you should still have at least one barrel full of water rather than several nearly empty ones.

The advantage of this is that you will have a greater head of water which means the flow rate will be much quicker when you draw it off via the taps. If you don't have taps, then it will still be easier to reach the water if you are bailing it out. Also, you avoid the risk of the interconnecting pipes getting blocked with debris, which would be a pain to clear out.

There is some information here about connecting butts together, hope it helps.