Water butt advice

Posts

• wild edges Posts: 10,497

  August 2022

  It would work but you'd need a second pipe from the top of the butt back to the drain as an overflow. Normally you set the inlet at the same height as the top of the butt so when the butt is full it stops more water flowing in but this wouldn't work in your case.
  

  If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  

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• GardenerSuze Posts: 5,692

  August 2022

  @elaine.davidson Sounds obvious but make sure your watering can fits under the waterbutt tap.

  I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.

  2
• McRazz Posts: 440

  August 2022 edited August 2022

  elaine.davidson said:

  I’d like to install a water butt in my back yard as there’s no outside tap. The rainwater downpipe feeds into a hopper with the shower outlet at approx 8 feet high. If I put the water butt connector high up just above the hopper with a long connector to the water butt would that work? Thanks

  Hi Elaine,
  
  I would advise fitting a rainwater diverter to your downpipe, below the hopper and level with your butt 'fill level' - which is usually a couple of inches down from the top of the butt.
  
  You will need to cut a 1inch/2cm'ish fillet out of your downpipe in order to fit. You will also likely need to buy an extra square bracket as the downpipe will be loose around the new fitting.
  
  Square diverter...
  
  https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-square-rainwater-diverter-black-65-68mm/27866?tc=IA1&ds_kid=92700055281954505&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkqe_pYja-QIVJIBQBh2ekgp1EAQYASABEgJZFfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
  
  Square bracket...
  
  https://www.toolstation.com/65mm-square-downpipe-clip/p17777?store=JW&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuLep3Ija-QIVFIBQBh3dDguoEAQYBCABEgJRm_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
  
  Caveat - Check measurements before buying anything. Also, I can't tell if your downpipe is metal or plastic. My assumption is its plastic. If its metal I guess the principles are the same however I wouldn't feel qualified to advise. In that scenario I'd probably swap the whole downpipe for plastic.
  
  Remember you will want your butt to be on a stand so you can get a watering can underneath for filling.
  
  Also, space permitting I would consider more than one water butt as they will fill very quickly but empty even quicker during hot, dry spells. (my 230litre container filled in a couple of hours the other day but would only last 3 or 4 days at the rate my garden needed watering last month).

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• StephenSouthwest Posts: 635

  August 2022 edited August 2022

  A couple of possibilities:
  

  -You could extend the shower outlet and the top downpipe to below the level of the water butt, so that the hopper is lower than the top of the butt - you could then connect the butt above the hopper in the normal fashion as McRazz outlines

  -If you take the top downpipe out of the hopper, and extend it down to go directly into the top of the butt, you could then put an overflow from the top of the butt into the drain.

  -Might be simplest to divert the shower waste to go directly down into the drain, then you can connect the water butt in the normal fashion as McRazz outlines, without changing anything else.
  

  
  

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