Rural Irrigation/Remote Faucets Methods ??

[James Nipper]

I have a vacation property in the mountains, of about six acres, two acres of which are cleared and developed. I have areas away from the house area in which I need water access for watering plants, flowers, etc. Ideally, I would love to have about three faucets in areas that are up to about 400 feet away from the house.

I can purchase 500 to 600 feet of hoses, and with the use of "T's" add several branches (hoses) to allow me to water in several selected areas. But, if I use high quality hoses, this would be pretty expensive, and it all seems so "temporary."

I am wondering if it would be more economical to run a main line of about

500 feet, using some sort of plastic pipe (cannot remember the name of the current most common), and then run my hose branches from that ? (The main line would have to lay on the ground, through the woods). Whatever I use, I need to be able to drain the line during winters, but I suppose I could get fittings for this equipped with a drain screw or valve or something.

Any ideas of what I should look for, or use ? Any general ideas of how to accomplish what I am trying to do ?

thanks !!

James

[RBM]

Poly pipe is great for underground lines. It doesn't lay flat very well so I'm not sure how it would work above ground. Here's a link:

[Nad R]

Fifteen pounds of pressure should do the job. I use a quick release adapter for the compressor and the adapter attached to a short water hose. Just make sure the end of the line is open for drainage. I just use the underground lines just for watering the plants around my home, not in distant areas.

The biggest problem you are going to have is water pressure at the end of

500 feet depending on the pressure you already have. An extra water tank could be used that is under greater pressure than the household pressure could solve that problem if needed, but not a cheap option. Or slowly fill up a cistern at the end of the line and use pump to water the area needed.

Again depending on your home water pressure, those extra methods may not be needed.

[David Hare-Scott]

water, what?

If you are laying pipe then poly pipe is what you need, it will be the cheapest choice for such a distance. All the fittings you would ever want are available. It can be laid underground if the ground isn't too rocky. The quickest method is with a ripper/feeder on a tractor. This is a blade that cuts a slit trench that has a metal tube behind it, you feed the poly down the tube into the slit as the tractor moves at walking pace, then you tred the slit down and it's done.

OTOH it can also be laid along fences on top of the ground. If going to this much trouble don't do it in 12mm (1/2 inch pipe) but somewhere around

32mm (1 1/4 ") to 40mm (1 1/2 "). This solution depends on what is pumping the water and how much rise or fall there is along the length. The joints in polypipe are easily undone to allow draining by gravity, ground slope permitting.

A quite different solution: what about saving water adjacent to the area that you want to water? I am thinking of a tank collecting water from the roof of an outbuilding or a small dam/pond in a gully.

David

[Brooklyn1]

It would help to know what water volume, how often, and what climate. If you'e on a well your system may not be capable of raising water very high so it would help to know your topography. Six acres is not very much area, if essentially square then the distance from center to the perimeter is not very far. If there is a centrally located high point you might consider erecting a tank, either on the ground or on a tower... fill the tank with a pump and let gravity work with hose(s) to reach your various watering points. Personally for watering a few plants here and there I'd fit a wagon with a tank and with a tractor tow the water wagon to whatever needs watering... that is exactly how I water my plants... if you ever tried to drag a couple of hundred feet of hose, especially filled with water you'd soon give that up. And attempting to bury pipe in forested/raw land without heavy excavating equipment is practically impossible.

[Dean Hoffman]

I wonder if you could find some used hand move sprinkler line. The stuff I'm thinking of is 4" aluminum and has a coupler for a sprinkler at each joint. It usually came in 30' or 40' sections. You could just pull it apart to drain it or put a valve at a joint now and then. One drawback might be its temptation to thieves.

[Nad R]

I have done the wagon thing, it is a pain in the... Takes time to fill them up and time to drain it. I however typically use the lengthy hose. I have four one hundred foot lite weight hoses with quick connectors. I mean do not get the heavy duty hoses because they are heavy. I can set up the hoses and take them down in less than thirty minutes. I often use a soaker hose or soaker wand at the receiving end because pressure is diminished for spraying.

One thing about lite weight hoses. Do not leave the hose set up in the hot sun with the pressure on and water not flowing. The water will heat up and bust the hose on a hot day. But lite weight hoses are easy to carry or put in a garden wagon.

One can rent a walk behind "Ditch Witch" for digging trenches. Four hundred feet would take eight hours depending on terrain. Some cheap "Ditch Witches" can beat you up at the end of the day, good models will not.

[FarmI]

I don't know what country you're in but I use polypipe to take water all over the place and since a lot of it has now been in place for up to 20 years, I don't consider it to be temporary.

I use 2 inch, 1 inch and three quarter inch. Very little of this is laid underground except for perhaps 20 ft of the 2 inch stuff that forms a main artery. Some of the 1 inch and three quarters of an inch stuff has become covered over the eyars as drebris drops on top of it. I have a main 2 inch line coming from our big tank (cistern in USian) and then I run one inch and

3/4 inch withint the veg garden and in the orchard and down to the chook pen and also from another 2 inch pipe down at the pond at the bottom of the garden.

Lay it out on a hot summers day when the sun helps it to lie out better and carry some hot water to do all the connections and it's an easy job. One hint would be that if you manage to find little sprinkler heads that you like, buy a truck load. I am reduced to 2 heads of my favourites.

[FarmI]

Good Lord. That stuff would now have antique value wouldn't it Dean?

[Steve Barker]

you could use PEX or PVC, but both are weakened by long term exposure to UV (sun) So you'd have to paint them with some light colored exterior latex after laying them out. I'd suspect they'd give you 5 or 6 years service without paint. (my experience) then they start to get brittle.

[Chet]

Agree with the above. For what he wants to do, 1" poly pipe should work. It's readily available at HD, Lowes, plumbing supply, online, etc. and reasonably priced.

[Brooklyn1]

Why not? Hose length has no bearing on water volume, only diameter matters.

[Brooklyn1]

That's what I do during dry spells, hitch my Agra-Fab cart to a tractor and haul water in a poly tank or in a couple dozen 5 gallon contractor buckets filled about 3/4s... only takes about a minute to fill each bucket if I remove the nozzle from my 5/8" garden hose. I rarely use the poly tank, the buckets are easier as I can more easily guage how much water each plant gets (1 bucket is usually sufficient). I water newly planted saplings and shrubs during dry spells, maybe 2-3 times a season as most years there's plenty of rain. I think it's actually mentally retarded to build an irrigation system as the OP, etal indicate unless it's a fairly arid clime or for a plant nursery business or someone has more dollars than brain cells. Plastic buckets are cheap, usually free... just got three more buckets today taht's be ready to go once I empty the cat litter... I have more than I can count and they nest so take very little room. If you drill a

3/16" hole on the side near the bottom of the bucket it will drip water for a plant for several hours.

[Colbyt]

I agree that poly pipe is the least expensive course of action. 500 foot of

3/4" is only about $65 at this site: would cost a lot more. Your local prices might vary a bit but should still be well under a hundred.

I don't have a clue as to the UV effect on poly pipe. Buried it lasts for a very long time. A water line I installed in 1969 is still in use today.

[David Hare-Scott]

A warning to all, Brooklyn1 has a habit of making confident pronouncements that are wrong.

The friction and hence head loss depends on both the length and diameter (and the number of fittings and joins and the change in level). Particularly in a thin pipe a long run (say 500ft) will have greater head loss than a short one (say 50ft) using the same source. The difference is less noticeable on large diameter pipe.

If you want to do the sums yourself see here:

[Brooklyn1]

Prove it.

You obviously weren't paying attention in class... so long as pressure and diameter remains constant volume remains constant... it's when there is pressure loss and diameter decreases that volume decreases... fire hose diameter reduces even when moved around corners... every sailer learns this from shipboard fire control tutorials. And were you truly in fire service you'd know that fire hose lays flat when unpressurized and it's diameter changes with changes in pressure... all you did at the firehouse is polish the firemen's poles.

[Brooklyn1]

You had better put down that sudz.. you don't know the difference between pressure and volume.

[Dean Hoffman]

I've never heard of anyone collecting it. Old tractors and farm equipment , old cars and barb wire, yes. A former co worker told me people collect the insulators used on the old overhead phone lines. The scrap value of used aluminum pipe might be pretty high. Many farmers in my area went to pivot irrigation so scrapped their irrigation pipe. No one much cared for hand move sprinkler line. It was just too labor intensive. My Dad had some. He also had "volunteers" to help move it.

[David Hare-Scott]

Try the equation for pressure drop in lines here:

the graph here:

When somebody challenges what you say instead of reaching for the personal insults you would look less foolish and juvenile if you did some research to see if just maybe you have made a mistake. It's not like this was the first time. You could also try an apology now and then if you have made an honest mistake - I won't be holding my breath waiting.

David

[Nad R]

The volume is not constant. The longer the hose, the greater the volume of water is in the hose. More water in the hose the greater the weight of the water and the pressure will decrease.

Water pressure that comes from the city municipals have Huge pumps that can "increase" the amount of energy to keep the pressure constant. Fire trucks and Ship pumps will "increase" the energy to keep that pressure constant and the length of hose will not matter as long as the length is within the pumps limitations. Auto variable pumps are very expensive.

My home well system pump has a "constant" power output and does not increase power to the home water system and most urban homes have limits on the max pressure, my well system is set at a max of 50 psi, therefore pressure will decrease as the hose gets longer or every toilet get flushed at the same time, because my home well pump does not have the power to maintain that pressure for really long runs.

One can prove this by getting a hose of different lengths at find out for yourself.