Large water butts

[The Gauge]

Anyone use or able to recommend a large water butt/rain water harvest tank for watering the garden?

I have a discontinued 700L tank that collects water from my shed, but it's not enough during this dry weather so I want to add another. An IBC tank it too large to get past the side of my house, so something like this 1000L tank below. I'll use an electric pump to decant from these to smaller water butts around the garden and to top up my pond..

Edited by The Gauge on Monday 10th August 13:13

[lufbramatt]

Reconditioned IBC container, the ones with the metal cage around?

Then could use the metal bars to grow plants up to hide it or to attach cladding.

[Evanivitch]

Unfortunately, once you get past a 210 litre, prices tend to increase disproportionately compared to a IBC.

Have you considered a string of food-grade barrels, the blue ones?

[Peterpetrole]

Steel section tanks with a separate liner go down to 2000 litres 2m^3 , 6ft diameter and 2ft 5 inches high. Can specify inlets / outlets etc.

They are in sections so easy to carry down the side of the house.

[LooneyTunes]

The Enduromaxx tanks are good.

We have several, a couple of 500l ones that we use as a supply in barns that have pipes prone to freezing, and a 10,000l that we use for larger scale water storage. The 10k one is four or five years old now and indistinguishable from new.

[Mr Pointy]

How about a 600l IBC which is about 950mm wide? They are not common but this seller will sell you two stacking ones for £250 plus delivery:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/127691826343

There are few other 600l IBCs on ebay but not many.

[OutInTheShed]

At over 300 quid, you will need to fill it and empty it an awful lot of times to save its cost in mains water.
I have a selection of 200ish litre plastic barrels which I've picked up from farmers for a few quid a go.

In previous 'summers', I've found the main thing is to trap as much of the water that hits the roof of house/shed/greenhouse/etc, as you can, mostly we get some little bit of rain in any two week period. This year is different. My guess is, next year will be different from this.

The plastic inner of an IBC is quite light, can be carried over hedges etc!

You might get an old heating oil tank for cheap or free? Some are quite slim, but they are fairly heavy.

[Condi]

OutInTheShed said:

At over 300 quid, you will need to fill it and empty it an awful lot of times to save its cost in mains water.

This is it, mains water is about £3/1000l and then even once you add in their assumed waste charge of £1.50 or so, you need be using hundreds of thousands of litres to make it worthwhile. Easier to use a hosepipe and let the water company worry about it.

[Byker28i]

I guess the other question is how do you stop the smell.

I have 2 200l water butts, a couple of 100l linked to them for overflow, and another blue food barrel in the poly tunnel, running an electric pump and sprinkler system.
I'd left the water in the poly tunnel for use in a hosepipe ban, when the plants needed wateringbut it smells a little like baby sick.

I've been using the others first and they don't have that smell.

[LooneyTunes]

Condi said:

OutInTheShed said:

At over 300 quid, you will need to fill it and empty it an awful lot of times to save its cost in mains water.

This is it, mains water is about £3/1000l and then even once you add in their assumed waste charge of £1.50 or so, you need be using hundreds of thousands of litres to make it worthwhile. Easier to use a hosepipe and let the water company worry about it.

A standard hosepipe can use close to 1000l per hour. 3/4 inch hose could be 2000l/h+. Takes less time than people think to use a decent amount.

Add a demand pump to a tank and you can really get quite a lot of benefit from it, especially if there's a hosepipe ban.

[Condi]

LooneyTunes said:

A standard hosepipe can use close to 1000l per hour. 3/4 inch hose could be 2000l/h+. Takes less time than people think to use a decent amount.

Add a demand pump to a tank and you can really get quite a lot of benefit from it, especially if there's a hosepipe ban.

Yes, but how often are you going to fill up and use the tank?

If you had 1000l of storage when it last rained in June you'd have used it all by now and we've had nowhere near enough rain to fill it up again, not even close. You'd have maybe put 100l or so back in at most.

Similarly, if the tank is full by September because it rains then it probably won't be used until June or July next year. The number of cycles you get from a rainwater tank is very low.

You're much better off buying a 1000l IBC, putting it on a trailer and filling it up with a pump from a local stream. At least that way you can have water when you want it, and not just when it rains. Perfectly legal to take up to 20 IBCs a day from a water source.

[Byker28i]

Condi said:

LooneyTunes said:

A standard hosepipe can use close to 1000l per hour. 3/4 inch hose could be 2000l/h+. Takes less time than people think to use a decent amount.

Add a demand pump to a tank and you can really get quite a lot of benefit from it, especially if there's a hosepipe ban.

Yes, but how often are you going to fill up and use the tank?

If you had 1000l of storage when it last rained in June you'd have used it all by now and we've had nowhere near enough rain to fill it up again, not even close. You'd have maybe put 100l or so back in at most.

Similarly, if the tank is full by September because it rains then it probably won't be used until June or July next year. The number of cycles you get from a rainwater tank is very low.

You're much better off buying a 1000l IBC, putting it on a trailer and filling it up with a pump from a local stream. At least that way you can have water when you want it, and not just when it rains. Perfectly legal to take up to 20 IBCs a day from a water source.

That is a great idea
You can take up to 20,000 litres (20 cubic metres) per day for personal or small-scale use without a licence.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-a-li...

[LooneyTunes]

Condi said:

LooneyTunes said:

A standard hosepipe can use close to 1000l per hour. 3/4 inch hose could be 2000l/h+. Takes less time than people think to use a decent amount.

Add a demand pump to a tank and you can really get quite a lot of benefit from it, especially if there's a hosepipe ban.

Yes, but how often are you going to fill up and use the tank?

If you had 1000l of storage when it last rained in June you'd have used it all by now and we've had nowhere near enough rain to fill it up again, not even close. You'd have maybe put 100l or so back in at most.

Similarly, if the tank is full by September because it rains then it probably won't be used until June or July next year. The number of cycles you get from a rainwater tank is very low.

You're much better off buying a 1000l IBC, putting it on a trailer and filling it up with a pump from a local stream. At least that way you can have water when you want it, and not just when it rains. Perfectly legal to take up to 20 IBCs a day from a water source.

Of our large tanks, the 20,000l one fills from the roof of an outbuilding 100m2 collecting area, so it fills quickly even with modest rainfall. The 10,000l tank fills constantly from a natural source, so is used mainly for buffering (our sprinkler pump uses around 200 litres per minute). We can easily cycle most of that tank every day or two in summer, leaving it to top itself up overnight.

When you get to filling IBCs the main issue tends to be weight and access. We have a dedicated IBC trailer for livestock use, but it isn't road legal. Of course you could put an IBC on a regular trailer but you're then dealing with a metric ton of weight that in most cases people are going to struggle to offload. Filling an IBC, even with access to a decent flow, takes a reasonable amount of time.

[z4RRSchris]

If i had a garden big enough to need one, i would just tell the water company to get fked and use the hosepipe.

A) How will they ever know B) they are about to go bust C) they pollute rivers D) they siphon profits off for shareholders whilst holding 20bn of debt E) they pay their FD a mill joining bonus ..

give a fk about thames water, use your hosepipe

[The Gauge]

I guess it depends how happy you are with running a hosepipe down to the bottom of the garden during a hosepipe ban. Yes, nobody would know but having enough rain water stored where it’s needed for watering greenhouse tomatoes etc is appealing.

[Condi]

LooneyTunes said:

Of our large tanks, the 20,000l one fills from the roof of an outbuilding 100m2 collecting area, so it fills quickly even with modest rainfall. The 10,000l tank fills constantly from a natural source, so is used mainly for buffering (our sprinkler pump uses around 200 litres per minute). We can easily cycle most of that tank every day or two in summer, leaving it to top itself up overnight.

That's fine, but I suspect the OP doesn't have a natural water source he can leave overnight to fill up his water tank, else he probably wouldn't be asking the question!

For your 20,000l tank, that needs 200mm of rain to refill, but in the Midlands we've had 10mm of rain in 2 months and so it's not going to be much use at the moment.

The value from having a tank is how often you can cycle it, and with how things are then spending a lot of money on a tank you can only fill up once per dry period isn't good value vs just using the hosepipe. The OP is looking to spend £450 on a 1000l tank, which would cost £4.50 from the water company.

[OutInTheShed]

z4RRSchris said:

If i had a garden big enough to need one, i would just tell the water company to get fked and use the hosepipe.

A) How will they ever know B) they are about to go bust C) they pollute rivers D) they siphon profits off for shareholders whilst holding 20bn of debt E) they pay their FD a mill joining bonus ..

give a fk about thames water, use your hosepipe

'The internet' seems to say that nobody has ever had any consequences from using a hose during a ban.

OTOH, our local rumour mill says that the plonker up the road from my mate Kev was spitting feathers a couple of years ago when he got dobbed in my a neighbour for washing his car.

The truth may be in the middle somewhere?

Personally, we have a bunch of cheap water butts, we avoid using mains water on plants whenever possible.
It's more about principles and obsession than cash, I think we use about 25 to 50 litres a day for watering in summer typically, 1000 litres last quite few days even this weather.
But if we wanted to water the lawn and hedges, we could use a whole lot more.

[Rob.]

z4RRSchris said:

If i had a garden big enough to need one, i would just tell the water company to get fked and use the hosepipe.

A) How will they ever know B) they are about to go bust C) they pollute rivers D) they siphon profits off for shareholders whilst holding 20bn of debt E) they pay their FD a mill joining bonus ..

give a fk about thames water, use your hosepipe

I agree with all those points. But ultimately, if enough people behave like this and the town/county has no water when the reservoir dries up, then what?

[Quattromaster]

A guy I know set this company up last year, hands up, i never in a million year thought folk would pay this kind of money.

But they do, he simply can't ship them out the door quick enough.

Fair play.

https://www.thedippingtankcompany.co.uk/

[Tymb]

Try googling secondhand orange juice tanks. They are about 1500 litres each, helped a friend set up a system with a couple of them recently. Sound, but a little tatty, but fine at the bottom of his garden. They replaced an IBC and were a fair bit cheaper. Have a nice big lid to get the pump in, previously we had to modify the IBC to get the pump in. He'd got a white IBC and even though it was covered he was getting some algae in there. Got the juice tanks from Smiths of the Forest of Dean, looks like they must be out of stock at the moment, look like this :

https://vigoltd.com/products/1520-litre-ex-fruit-j...

Generally if you can go for a cylindrical tank you will get more volume for your money.

If you want new something like this :
https://tanks-direct.co.uk/products/enduramaxx-125...

Used to use quite a few of I think these D shaped tanks, because of the flat side they fit back to walls a bit better than round ones, in black.
https://www.directwatertanks.co.uk/900-litre-d-sha...