# More water butts and pumps



## dabhand (Jun 16, 2013)

My garage and drive are at the bottom of my garden and with living in an upstairs masionette means running a hose isn't always a quick option, it can be done but takes a while to sort out. I've been using water butts to collect water for a few years now and use a Hozelock butt pump to run a hose for washing the cars and watering the garden.

After reading Steelghosts thread :
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=369407 
I decided to do the same sort of thing, but as my pump is a submersable one, I could leave it in the butt full time and connect a hose as and when needed.
All parts came from Ebay, mainly for ease of ordering rather than cost, the filter is a 100 micron one, the hose is 19mm internal and all fittings are either 19mm or 3/4" BSP, a standard Hozelock type connector was used to as a connection to either a hose or pressure washer.
I found I needed a tap fitted to the top of the butt otherwise the water syphoned out with the pump switched off.

The first thing to do was make a new lid for a water butt, for this I used decking, painted it with fence paint and cut it to size. A hole was drilled through the middle to allow the hose through,










All the fittings needed.










Filter mounted on a board










and mounted insitu under the tree by the drive, out of sight.










top of water butt with tap and 90° bends fitted, tap is a twist type 90° for on/off.










Pump attached on camlock fittings so it can be removed incase of water freezing in winter. It just hangs in the bottom of butt about 4 inches from the base so as not to collect too much debris










3 butts are fed from the garage roof, the pump sits in the last butt and is fed from an outside electric socket throught the wall of garage.










Well, that works :










Apart from the pump, I think all the fittings cost about £50, they could probably be sourced cheaper by a few pence if you shopped about. The most expensive bits were the cam lock fittings.
I've been thinking about the filters and have a Karcher filter in the garage not used, I'm thinking of moving the filter I already have to between butts 2 and 3 and mounting the Karcher on the board, this has better filtration, maybe a job for next year now.
So far this has worked great and having 'free' water is very satisfying. In use it's so easy to connect a hose or the pressure washer, flick a switch and have running water as the pump is already primed, as long as it rains ocassionally to fill the butts I'm ok.


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## steelghost (Aug 20, 2015)

Very nice setup mate :thumb: As time goes on I am particularly appreciating the lack of water spotting when you rinse you car with it.


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## Tabbs (Aug 3, 2009)

This looks great &#55357;&#56834;


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## funkydunk (Aug 16, 2016)

Will you move the pump between the water butts if one runs dry? Good work can't say no to free water.


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## dabhand (Jun 16, 2013)

funkydunk said:


> Will you move the pump between the water butts if one runs dry? Good work can't say no to free water.


Thats the plan, there's enough spare hose to move between 2 and 3.


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## uggski (Jun 29, 2016)

dabhand said:


> Thats the plan, there's enough spare hose to move between 2 and 3.


I think I saw something similar on here where the three butts were linked and that helped keep the water in the last butt really clean. I think they over flowed in a sort of daisy chain. Can't find the thread though.


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

uggski said:


> I think I saw something similar on here where the three butts were linked and that helped keep the water in the last butt really clean. I think they over flowed in a sort of daisy chain. Can't find the thread though.


Yeh - I remember reading that too. The three butts were linked with 1" polypipe at the top of each one. The collected water would run into the first, when it filled, it would overflow into the second, with any silt remaining at the bottom of the first. Process repeated for #2 into #3. Will see if I can find it too.

Cooks

Edit - here's one for starters.http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=356595

And a very detailed version - loads of info in here http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=101974

Sent from my D6603


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## A&J (Mar 4, 2015)

@Dabhand

Very interesting...nice writeup.

Same goes for steelghost in his thread :thumb:


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## CoachPJ (Oct 30, 2013)

Great set up.

Letting 1 water butt flow into another would help filter the water even more - as mentioned above.

However......
I've previously used a pair of tights over the down pipe prior to flowing into the water butt and this helped catch any larger partials of dirt again making the water 'cleaner'.


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## Michael81 (Jan 2, 2017)

Wow, it looks great. You had a very nice idea and the set up looks great and the cost was not that big. I think I will try to build something similar.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

Great to see more people taking advantage of rain water for washing! 

Rain water is very soft and doesnt leave spotting even in hot sun, makes shampoos work better at weaker ratios and is free!

Having done this for many many years now I've realised that most of us, myself included, are far too paranoid about the risk of dirt or contaminants affecting the water. Much of the time these days I just fill a bucket from a single water butt with no filtering of any kind, and there is NOTHING in the bucket, and of course with a grit guard anything that does arrive just stays in the bottom. Dont get hung up on it but simple ideas like a pair of tights as a filter is a great idea but just make sure you dont restrict the water flow to your PW as that will quickly end badly!

Go for it and take advantage - its so easy.


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## bense556 (Mar 14, 2017)

I have a quick question if you don't min - I'm new to taking up detailing, and also being on a water meter has forced me to look into this kind of setup. my question is, the small water filter that you have installed onto the wooden board just before the exit - where exactly did you get this from? I have been looking for a while now, and have been unable to find one similar to yours - it is driving me mad!


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## Forsh (Jun 13, 2014)

Great set up!

Butt (pardon the pun!) won't you only have use of one full butt and the first two only used as a cascade type filter?
Wouldn't the link pipes be better closer to the bottom or half way at least to give greater usable capacity for the pump?

Unless you have plans to use the taps on the bottom?


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## Forsh (Jun 13, 2014)

Filter:
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p68822?table=no

I use one of these on my pumped single butt to feed the Karcher

I emailed Karcher at the time and they said 400 microns would be fine


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## dabhand (Jun 16, 2013)

bense556 said:


> I have a quick question if you don't min - I'm new to taking up detailing, and also being on a water meter has forced me to look into this kind of setup. my question is, the small water filter that you have installed onto the wooden board just before the exit - where exactly did you get this from? I have been looking for a while now, and have been unable to find one similar to yours - it is driving me mad!


I got it off of Ebay : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pressure-...-Clear-Bowl-/271450608803?hash=item3f33b794a3


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## dabhand (Jun 16, 2013)

Forsh said:


> Great set up!
> 
> Butt (pardon the pun!) won't you only have use of one full butt and the first two only used as a cascade type filter?
> Wouldn't the link pipes be better closer to the bottom or half way at least to give greater usable capacity for the pump?
> ...


The other two butts I use for watering the garden. Being on a water meter and living in an upstairs masionette mean running a hose is not an option. Having a 100' by 40' garden doesn't help either.


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## Forsh (Jun 13, 2014)

Just the job then :thumb:


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