Water Butt Installation

[Tricky Dicky]

I am installing a number of water butts, 2 linked ones near the back of the garage near the downspout. A third one is to be installed in the front garden feeding off the other downspout off the garage roof. However, there is not enough room to stand even a slimline butt near that downspout so it will require a 10m long pipe from the diverter which to avoid entanglement accessing that part of the garden will require the pipe to run along a wall 400mm below the inlet in the water butt. Now with water finding it’s own level my thinking is as long as I have the diverter at the same height as the inlet once the connecting pipe is full, water should fill the butt. Does that sound OK or will there be issues due to the water in the downspout not being under pressure?

Richard

[Clive Arthur]

I would say that without a drop you stand a greater chance of something accumulating in the horizontal run and causing a blockage, and freezing might cause problems.

[Mark Carver]

Yes, in our last house I used a 10m run of 25mm black plastic conduit from the front down-pipe to the water butt that was at the back of the house. Very shallow fall, it worked fine, but every autumn I'd give a blast of water from a hose pipe because it would get silted up with roof tile grit.

[Brian Gaff]

Well in a downpour, OK, but think of the situation of little amounts of rain. It can stink as silt builds up in the long, almost horizontal bit and puddles of stagnant water form cooked by the sun. I know cos I did this with my dads garage. Yuk. Is steep a slope as possible seemed to be the order of the day in the end. Brian

[Roger Mills]

That should work ok. After all, gravity hot water systems fill the cylinder from the bottom.

It obviously means that, where the feed transfer pipe enters the butt, it must be properly sealed with no leaks.