Attaching hose to water butt

mchua · February 2023

Ok so you live and learn.

I wanted to do this for various jobs like washing the car, as I’ve attached the water butt via a rain diverter on the down pipe. but it doesn’t work when attaching a hose.

I got a connector with a jubilee clip so it doesn’t leak. It must be something to do with pressure, as it doesn’t reach the nozzle end of the hose. Obviously it’s fine with the outside tap as it’s a different kind of pressure.

Has anyone found a way round this or used this method before?

Fairygirl · February 2023

I think you'll just need to use a bucket for the car @mchua

I'd expect it's the pressure right enough.

@wild edges might have an idea or three....

mchua · February 2023

That is still the original plan, I just wanted to use the hose to rinse the car at the end

and water the front border during summer.

But apparently this works with those karcher pressure washers.

Fairygirl · February 2023

It might be due to the [karcher] pressure washer itself though - the water will have something happening to it during the process.
Do you like my very technical description?

rossdriscoll13 · February 2023

@mchua to use a hose with your water butt you need a water butt pump.

JennyJ · February 2023

There won't be enough pressure if you're holding the hose higher than the level of the water in the butt. Lower than that, water should run out of the end of a hose but it most likely won't go through a spray gun or nozzle.

Pressure washers are powered, so I suppose they'll pump the water but I don't think I'd use water-butt water for one. Mine tends to have bits of muck and sludge in it. Also, rainwater (as opposed to hard tap water) is saved for plants here. Hose pipe ban, car stays mucky

(or gets taken to the car wash guys down the road).

Pete.8 · February 2023

As said above you'd need a pump for it to work from the water butt, and quite a powerful one if you're expecting it to go though a spray gun.
If you're in a hard water area - as I am - I do find it helps just to chuck a couple of buckets of rain water over the car before drying it, it stops any hard water streaks appearing.

mchua · February 2023

Haha yes it probably sounds counterintuitive using it for the car but I have 6 butts scattered around the garden (it’s a big garden!).

The main reason is that I have an issue with a down pipe that drains out onto the path almost flush with the wall of the bungalow, (not good for the foundations over time).

So I’ve tried to remedy it by attaching a diverter and placing a butt there, which will take priority over the others to keep the water low as possible (so the diverter will keep diverting instead of draining out onto the path if the butt gets full).

Sounds like a pump is the solution.

Yes, I did notice that the water trickled out when the nozzle was at ground level, but didn’t really understand why that happens.

JennyJ · February 2023

It's just physics, nothing mysterious

. Water will find its own level, so if all of the hose is lower than the height of the water in the butt, the water will flow or trickle out if it isn't restricted. If any part of the hose goes higher than the water level, it won't flow through unless you set up a syphon, ie suck water through to get it "over the hump" (like syphoning out your bathwater to water the garden).

nick615 · February 2023

As JennyJ says, water finds its own level. We have a couple of 200 litre butts by the garage which, when full, would overflow and saturate the areas around them. We then got into the habit of running a hose from the tap to drain them off but that left us with empty butts when it stopped raining. I solved the problem by buying a couple of outlet fixings that I inserted about 4inches below (full) water level and attached the hose to those. It works, but still only when the water inside the butts completely covers the outlets, even though at that point the outlet is at least three feet above the end of the hose.

Attaching hose to water butt

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