Daisy-chaining two water butts

HawkEye244 · 25 May 2021

Hi everyone,
I'm posting this here and not in the garden section as I feel it requires a good understanding of how water behaves. I saw this video about daisy-chaining two water butts and I really like the idea of trying this as it saves having to drill holes in butts.
The question is would it work with copper pipe bent as per diagram? Probably a stupid question in all likelihood but I don't mind looking stupid.

I already have the copper pipe to hand so this would actually work out more economical than buying all the fittings for each butt and worrying about leaks over the winter.
Thanks for any information?
Richard

jj4091 · 25 May 2021

Yes it should work with copper pipe. You would have to seal around the pipes going into & out of the supply butt & have an opening in the receiving one to allow air to escape. You would also have to insulate them against freezing in Winter.

Tigercubrider · 25 May 2021

I guess in ideal circumstances it will work, as it retains the syphon.
But why?
It's not hard to link barrels at the top, meaning that each retains it's integrity, and has a tap.
Or use the tap connection at the bottom to link several

HawkEye244 · 25 May 2021

Thanks. Really appreciate the views.
I want the butts to drain together and joining at the top would only allow one to drain at a time. Only one of the containers I have is a water butt, the other is a former food/liquid storage container and the fear is that bottom linking will lead to a build up of sediment in the connection link which will be hard to monitor due to access. I would also need an isolator for each container. Plans to add another one or even two containers, and it just seems easier to plonk a pipe into each one consecutively and have done with it.

HawkEye244 · 25 May 2021

Would the pipe need to sit all the way to the bottom of the tank as shown in the video ?

Tigercubrider · 25 May 2021

Most traditional butts have the tap a bit further up to allow for sludge
I have a massive polypropylene cylinder that was originally a can recycling bin
It was being chucked out so I acquired it and it sits on three old beer crates.
I drilled a hole for a tap and it's fine. Again, a bit above the base in case of debris.
Originally I planned a pipe between them but in the end just used a submersible pump from Aldi to empty the one connected to the gutters into the larger one.
The distance is 50 feet so easier to run the pump and use the hose compared to digging a 50 foot trench

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Daisy-chaining two water butts

HawkEye244

jj4091

Tigercubrider

HawkEye244

HawkEye244

Tigercubrider

DIYnot Local

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