# water butt install



## black_largo (Feb 5, 2011)

hi chaps,just thought i`d share this...

i was getting fed up with water spots/marks on my van,searching every where for a solution,i thougt of the aquagleam but seemed a waste of money for how long it lasts and there not refillable..
i built my self a 10x6 pent shed a couple of weeks ago and lined with pond liner for the roof,cheap guttering from wickes,and a blue 205ltr drum and water butt tap,filled up nicely over night and added water from my other water butt.
i was just going to use it for the bucket and rinsing,then read some pressure washers draw water,so hooked up a 12" lenght of hose pipe and put a hozelock adapter on,hooked up PW,held gun open to purge air,then hey presto,it works!! like a eager beaver i had to try it on the van,rinsed,foamed,washed and rinsed again,and prob used 15-20 ltrs out the water butt!
i left to air dry,and dryed WITHOUT marks,so chuffed!! :thumb:



my tap water tds is 400!! 
i tested water butt- 10 tds!!

i put some tights over my down pipe to collect any grit leaves etc :thumb: 

:detailer:


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

Top job and now you have given me a idea to do one as the benifit of Waterbutts are as you have found for car washing and to water the Garden and avoid Water Meter wizzing round making big bills


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## Horatio (Oct 30, 2011)

O-natural is the way to go! :thumb:


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## Shane. (May 18, 2011)

Been waiting for this, so no problems with pressure? And as long as you purge before you switch it on I spose you have no problems with the motor messing up. What washer do you have mate?

Thanks
Shane


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## black_largo (Feb 5, 2011)

Hey there,I have a new nilfisk c110,as soon as you switch it on it'll pressurize its self and away you go,also get the height of the tap higher than the inlet and you shouldn't have any problems  happy days


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2012)

i plug my karcher into the the outside tap to bleed it,then connect it to the soft water tank


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

Funny this thread should come up today as I've been looking into it and reading bigpickles thread on it. It all sounds good bar having to use cold water for the wash buckets lol.

GlAd some has tested the quality of collected rainwater vs 'clean' tap water too


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## joshuaar (Jun 18, 2011)

great idea  i might give this a go myself


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

I have mine all setup and in operation now but its a bit of a choir to make sure there is no crud in the water. I get mine from 3 Waterbutts around the house and from them I fill 25L Plastic drums but I have to filter first, so I use a pump and a Garage type funnel with a built in filter and a large peice of cotton cloth and that catches the first of the crud. I then filter the water into a Waterbutt in my garage and use Lintfree cloth and a Coffee Filter to catch the final bits but I do still have a bit of colour to the water which is algai and when Summer is here that will get worse so I am now thinking of getting a Pond Filter that has a UV Light inside to kill the Algai and from that the water would be stored in the garage waterbutt. As this is also killing my back collecting the water I have decided to use the rainwater to pre rinse with the Powerwasher and clean the wheels but the final rinse is by the hosepipe connected to a Waterfilter and then poured into watering cans so I can control how much I am using. My main aim of this excercise is to save money on my Water Bill as I am on a Water Meter.


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

Interesting to hear that ^^^^^

Have you got 3 of the 200l butts connected in a chain with the connection pipe around 3/4s of the way up? I thought that the crud would sink to the bottom of the first butt, then flow into the 2nd, any remainding mess would sink and again overflow into the 3rd final and clean butt?


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

Very interested in all this. Anyone know how long a length of hose you can use attached to the PW? Our water butts are at the back of the house, cars are the front. Say 20-30ft hose.

If that won't work do the water butt pumps have a flow switch so they toggle on off on demand? I guess if they didn't and you left them feeding the PW they'd wear out??


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## NoobWash (Apr 18, 2011)

You want the hozelock waterbutt pump  They can run for a while feeding a closed pressure washer.

Lou


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

So I managed to get out there and have a go at drawing water from the water butt. I have a Karcher K3.97. It worked best with a short length of hose from the water butt to the PW. It did work with a longer hose length but the hose seemed to be collapsing in on itself a bit (it's a Hozelock one). The other real pain was the water butt tap was leaking like mad even though it has a Hozelock connector on it. My take on this is that it's missing the little rubber seal you see on all the Hozelock connectors. I've been looking around online but they all seem to be like this i.e. missing the rubber seal. Has anyone has this issue / found a better tap?


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

Plastic Waterbutt taps are rubbish and you are better off getting a proper brass tap with a nut and washers and fit one of them but watch the hole size. I just use a Karcher Waterbutt feed pipe which has a filter at one end and a nut at the other which screws on to the Powerwasher once the Hozelock connector has been removed. I Locktied the pipe to a brush handle which keeps the pipe in the water and then it just comes out over the top and down to the washer and it works fine. I have thought about removing the nut end in favour of a Hozelock female connector for ease and speed but thats all that is needed really. My waterbutt install is in my garage and holds my pre-filterd water from Waterbutts around the garden.


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## MirfieldMat (Mar 13, 2011)

scotty76 said:


> So I managed to get out there and have a go at drawing water from the water butt. I have a Karcher K3.97. It worked best with a short length of hose from the water butt to the PW. It did work with a longer hose length but the hose seemed to be collapsing in on itself a bit (it's a Hozelock one). The other real pain was the water butt tap was leaking like mad even though it has a Hozelock connector on it. My take on this is that it's missing the little rubber seal you see on all the Hozelock connectors. I've been looking around online but they all seem to be like this i.e. missing the rubber seal. Has anyone has this issue / found a better tap?


i replaced mine with one from wickes - i went to get a brass replacement tap as i couldnt find a normal tap that would connect to a hose, but when i got there they had replacemnt taps in bags but you couldnt see what they were like. so i opened the bag and hey presto it was a hose connecting tap. about £3.50. doesnt leak at all.

it is the same tap as this but from wickes water butt tap with hose connection


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

I think I will have to go to Wickes as my Ebay version is pants and leaks with just looking at it. I went to get some more water yesturday form my main Waterbutt and the tap had been leaking around the seal and dripping aswell so the tank which is a green Wheelie Bin that I converted, was empty instead of being full which was a pain in the butt so to speak


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

MirfieldMat said:


> hey presto it was a hose connecting tap.


Sadly this is what I already have albeit I got mine from EBay. It looks identical to the one you linked to. The tap itself doesn't leak in normal use but when I attached it to the hose it clicked in OK but then water leaked out the top of the Hozelock connector as if it hadn't sealed properly.

Ah this is the one I have. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250447750746

Wonder if this would be any better?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250458807542


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## MirfieldMat (Mar 13, 2011)

i would get another one - if it doesnt have the seal it will leak. mine works a treat.

you could always just silicone it on if you arent bothered about taking it off again.


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

scotty76 said:


> Sadly this is what I already have albeit I got mine from EBay. It looks identical to the one you linked to. The tap itself doesn't leak in normal use but when I attached it to the hose it clicked in OK but then water leaked out the top of the Hozelock connector as if it hadn't sealed properly.
> 
> Ah this is the one I have. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250447750746
> 
> ...


The Brass tap is the same as the one I got and its the same seller but watch the hole size as some plastic waterbutt taps need a larger hole than a brass tap needs but if the original waterbutt tap is like a Hozelock one the brass tap should fit, the taperd plastic taps have a larger hole


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

MirfieldMat said:


> i would get another one - if it doesnt have the seal it will leak. mine works a treat.
> 
> you could always just silicone it on if you arent bothered about taking it off again.


Sealent isnt that strong and it can soon break its seal with the motion of turning the tap on and off and fitting a hosepipe etc as I found out


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

MirfieldMat said:


> i would get another one - if it doesnt have the seal it will leak. mine works a treat.


This set me thinking about it. I can see the ring on the water butt tap where the seal should be but there isn't one. However, I recently replaced a Hozelock tap connector so I prised the rubber seal off the old one. And yes, you've guessed it, it works fine now. No leaks at all.

So thanks for the top tip, the water butt tap shouldn't leak. :thumb:


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## -Simon- (Oct 29, 2010)

scotty76 said:


> Very interested in all this. Anyone know how long a length of hose you can use attached to the PW? Our water butts are at the back of the house, cars are the front. Say 20-30ft hose.
> 
> If that won't work do the water butt pumps have a flow switch so they toggle on off on demand? I guess if they didn't and you left them feeding the PW they'd wear out??


Kranzle say 3m....


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## howie parks (Jun 5, 2006)

black_largo said:


> Hey there,I have a new nilfisk c110,as soon as you switch it on it'll pressurize its self and away you go,also get the height of the tap higher than the inlet and you shouldn't have any problems  happy days


Can the Nilfisk c110 draw water from a water butt or is an additional pump needed?


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## Winston (Oct 23, 2011)

howie parks said:


> Can the Nilfisk c110 draw water from a water butt or is an additional pump needed?


Would like to know an answer to this also please :thumb:


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

dont know if anyone reading this has seen my recent idea...

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=258649

:thumb:


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## NoobWash (Apr 18, 2011)

Winston said:


> Would like to know an answer to this also please :thumb:


Not really :/ It can but it becomes very weak almost unusable.

Great built machine though for £40ish.


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## Ratchet (Dec 30, 2011)

MirfieldMat said:


> i would get another one - if it doesnt have the seal it will leak. mine works a treat.
> 
> you could always just silicone it on if you arent bothered about taking it off again.


Have you thought about using Tiger Seal?


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