# Drawing water from water butt



## wylie coyote (Jul 15, 2007)

Posted this in another thread but no answers..

Just got a new Karcher K5.800 but the suction hose length means you would need the washer right next to the water butt. So my questions are:
Could you join two suction hoses together, add another section of suction hose, or just use the hose that would normally be connected to the tap (suitably primed)? 
Anyone know if there is a recommended maximum distance for drawing water using a Karcher...distance I'm thinking of is probably 50-60 feet?

Any of you Eco friendly guys able to help or advise?

Thanks:thumb:


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## Lowiepete (Mar 29, 2009)

wylie coyote said:


> Any of you Eco friendly guys able to help or advise?


Well, I guess it would be rude not to reply. Most of us though have moved on
and employ products like ONR and HFE to take the strain out of all the kerfuffle
of setting up things like PWs - oh, and as you'll read fairly frequently, we are
not looking back!

I bought a PW at back end of last year - whenever I take it out to use it, I
take my car _off_ the premises! If your PW has to suck as well as blow, then
I can't imagine the strain that puts on its motor(s), and the heat that it'll
generate, especially if there isn't much header feed from the water store
- is the PW water cooled?

Regards,
Steve


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

If you need a good length pipe to be able to use a waterbutt I would make sure you have some head pressure and ideal prime the pipe before hand and that will take the strain from the powerwasher. I use a Karcher K6.5 with a waterbutt and was using Karchers own Waterbutt pipe which is about 3M long and dropped into the butt and just enough length to run down the side of the butt to the washer and that worked fine but I have just changed this.
I now have a hosepipe connected directly to the waterbutt tap which is about 10' long with a Hozelock quick connector on the end which now allows me to have the powerwasher outside of the garage and avoid the water being pumped up by the powerwasher. I dont need a filter as I filter water from 3 other Waterbutts to my Garage waterbutt which is just for my car cleaning


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## Twistedgti (Apr 17, 2012)

I would have thought 50-60 ft would be too. Far, its probably best to check with karcher directly. The other option if its a down hill to the car or a pretty full butt is to have a hose to a large box/container near the car and let gravity fill the box/container


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

I to think its abit far really, do what I have and buy a barrel/ waterbutt etc and have it close to and transfer the water to that from your other butt. Its abit labour intensive but worth it for the lack of ban, water bills if on a meter ( my reason ) and you can filter it so its clean and reaqdy to go while transfering it


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## wylie coyote (Jul 15, 2007)

Mmmmm, does seem a fair old distance, doesn't it. My Karcher is one of the water cooled ones but even so, perhaps using a water butt pump to give decent pressure is the best answer.....

Cheers:thumb:


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## Aucky (Oct 3, 2008)

I saw a Karcher tv advert today, it claimed that all of their PWs can be fed from a water butt.


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

Karcher make a waterbutt kit to work on all K series machines and this is what I used before I changed to a easier system


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## wylie coyote (Jul 15, 2007)

Aucky said:


> I saw a Karcher tv advert today, it claimed that all of their PWs can be fed from a water butt.


Yeah, but I think they're assuming you're going to use it within a couple of feet of the water butt. How many want or have their water butt as a feature in the middle of their garden........:lol:

Mine's tucked away out of sight.:thumb:


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## -Simon- (Oct 29, 2010)

Keep the pw within 3m of the tank, and buy a longer hose from the washer to the lance.....


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## sunil1234 (Jan 18, 2009)

Aucky said:


> I saw a Karcher tv advert today, it claimed that all of their PWs can be fed from a water butt.


i have the suction hose kit running nicely on my nilfisk. <£15 delivered. Only thing i noticed on the box it said it didnt work with the k2 series karchers, only k3-k7

hth

S


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## magpieV6 (Jul 29, 2008)

sunil1234 said:


> i have the suction hose kit running nicely on my nilfisk. <£15 delivered. Only thing i noticed on the box it said it didnt work with the k2 series karchers, only k3-k7
> 
> hth
> 
> S


where from mate? i have a waterbutt but need a kit for the Nilfisk :thumb:


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## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

sunil1234 said:


> i have the suction hose kit running nicely on my nilfisk. <£15 delivered. Only thing i noticed on the box it said it didnt work with the k2 series karchers, only k3-k7
> 
> hth
> 
> S


I saw that about it being for the K3 upwards 

Does anyone have any experience of using the suction pipe with a K2?


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Is the butt much higher than the point of usage? If not I would not run such a long suction tube. Why not get a butt pump and feed that to your PW......if not site your pw by the butt and buy extra high pressure hose.


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

Very late to this thread but just to say I've used my Karcher K3 series with about 30 feet of hose from the water butt to the PW. The water butt is raised on a stand and has a hozelock tap at the bottom. I don't use the suction hose, just a standard hozelock hose. I've not had any problems.

I also have a water butt pump that I bought from Lidl a few weeks back but I haven't used the two together yet. There's a hosepipe ban here so I'm waiting for one of the neighbours to call Thames Water at which point I'll be happy to show them where the water is coming from.


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