Water Butt Connection

[Kroma]

Hi,

I have just bought a 'Rainsava' rain diverter

and will be fitting it to my Sankey Space Saver water butt. The Water Butt has some flat indents intended for incoming hose connection around 3 inches from the top lip.

However, if I fit the RainSava as directed

the connection will need to be made about 2 inches lower where the wall of the water butt is ribbed making connection difficult.

I have sketched a couple of diagrams showing the method in the instructions (A) and my preferred method (B)

I correct to assume that fitting the RainSava a little higher than specified so that the connector is level with the 'flat indent' will cause an overflow? I would have thought that the water would level out where the connection is made and then not fill the butt any further with more rainfall (thus creating an automatic 'overflow' system)?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Kroma

[The Medway Handyman]

I can't see much wrong with your preffered method. Water finds its own level after all.

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:03:51 +0100 someone who may be "Kroma" wrote this:-

The water will try to level out at the level of the overflow part of the water diverter inside the diverter. In other words the level where water runs back down the drain pipe if the butt is full. Precisely where this is depends on the design.

Get this overflow too high and no water will overflow down the drain pipe when the butt is full. Instead water will overflow from the top of the butt.

[Geoff Berrow]

Message-ID: from The Medway Handyman contained the following:

On a related note, is it possible to use the water from a water butt to feed a pressure washer? I suppose it would need to be filtered.

[The Medway Handyman]

Most DIY pressure washers will work OK on suction as long as they aren't required to 'lift' the water much, so water butts are usually OK. Would need a filter.

[dennis]

Looking at the RainSava makes me think it has a built in overflow so that when the butt is full the rain goes down the drain. (Its probably a couple of concentric pipes to make a chamber about five inches deep with the pipe extending from the bottom to the butt.)

If you don't mind the water overflowing the butt just cut the drain and divert it into the butt. If overflow is a problem then fit it as per instructions.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:43:34 +0100, "The Medway Handyman" mused:

Do you mean most as in even ones that don't specifically say so?

[Roger Mills]

Very strange. I have a diverter of a different make which maintains the water level in the butt at the same level as the joining pipe. If I had drilled the hole as far down as your instructions are suggesting, I would lose a lot of my butt capacity.

Maybe the internals of yours are different? You need to study yours to work out what the level in the diverter needs to be for the water to go down the pipe rather than into the butt. Then mount it such that *that* level corresponds to the required level in the butt. This, in turn, will determine where the hole in the butt needs to be drilled.

[Kroma]

Yes, that's what I thought too.

I think you must be correct - I'll try some experiments with the diverter and post back.

Thanks,

Kroma

[The Medway Handyman]

Yup. Nearly all machines will suck water from the same level. If it mentions it specifically it will probably lift 500mm - 1000mm.

Induction motor machines are better as they run slower. Commercial machines can lift 5 metres.

Machine connected to the tap on a water butt would always work, but you need a fliter. Best bet is a hose going over the lip of the butt, run machine without pressure hose to get system full, then catrry on as normal.

[Roger]

The message from "Roger Mills" contains these words:

How does it do that?

The general principle with these diverters is that the overflow into the original continuation of the down pipe will function when the water level in the butt rises above the level of the overflow so provided the diverter is set to the correct height the water butt will fill (but not itself overflow) provided the connecting hose nowhere rises above the level of the overflow. The connection itself does not need to be at the top of the water butt.

[Roger Mills]

OK, I should have said that it maintains the water in the butt at the same level as the diverter's overflow. That happens to be at pipe level, because the pipe outlet is at overflow level, and the pipe is horizontal - but it would still work if the pipe sloped down to the butt.

The point I was making that - unless the overflow is considerably higher than the pipe outlet in the OP's case, following the instructions will result in the butt being nothing like full.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:56:55 +0100, "The Medway Handyman" mused:

Right, handy to know. I just need to find a butt now.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Lurch saying something like:

Drivel?