Adding a garden tap to a garden some way from the house...

[robinbanks]

Found a 25m 25mm ID hose on eBay for 70 quid (not the cheapest, just the first); all in and for what you'd pay for some fancy hozelock retracting reel thing it's in the ball park. I'm so gash I'd just screw an old car wheel rim to the wall and hang big loops over it to wrap it up

 

[martygturner]

We just drain out the water to two holiday rentals on our property over winter by using a wet vac on a union, crack the furthest tap and lower the pressure soon pumps it self .. remember that from physics, disparate air pressure and momentum ? But why are you bothering... drain the water you can from an end, water only expands by 10% and will expand along the path of least resistance ie along the pipe not through it. That's why hose pipe reels don't exploded even when frozen, air compresses to 1/1000 and water at 1/3000 hence the air gets compressed by the freezing water... you just need a bit of air in the system.

 

[foxhole]

Hi all

Thanks again for the suggestions.

1. Yes we already collect from the garage into 2 large water butts with a pump to spray the flower beds etc but it often runs out and whilst yes we could top it up it's just a pain to run a hose so far every time. Also, we want the extra tap by the garage for car washing etc anyway and can't use rainwater for that.

2. The moling company looks very clever but would be out of budget for what we need.

Harry, your system sounds great - very similar situation to here. Our house is above so it all slopes away, with the exception of the bit under the driveway which is my concern. It's been a while since I did any hydrology in physics at school so I don't know how well everything would drain out with that low point halfway along the run. Foxhole, I expect you're right, but what about the bits of pipe either side of the driveway - would they not also remain full of water above ground and therefore be at risk of freezing and the pipes bursting? I thought of insulating the pipework, but surely that slows the heat transfer rather than prevents it, so if it's below freezing for a week then the insulated pipes will still freeze, no???

Plastic pipe doesn’t burst when frozen , easily accommodates freeze expansion .

 

[martygturner]

Plastic pipe doesn’t burst when frozen , easily accommodates freeze expansion .

You have to be a bit careful with that understanding, pvc based pipes begin loose their ductile properties at 0 c and then degrade with each degree of temperature drop, whilst they themselves will rarely fail the associated couplers can fairly easily deform and leak that's why we drain ours.. three failures during a prolonged cold snap some 8 years ago, it was the expense of clearing the drive heave that was the issue and the issue of contaminated water... cleaning out after a fail was a right pain, had to fit filters at each of the properties... which I of course forget to change....

 

[foxhole]

You have to be a bit careful with that understanding, pvc based pipes begin loose their ductile properties at 0 c and then degrade with each degree of temperature drop, whilst they themselves will rarely fail the associated couplers can fairly easily deform and leak that's why we drain ours.. three failures during a prolonged cold snap some 8 years ago, it was the expense of clearing the drive heave that was the issue and the issue of contaminated water... cleaning out after a fail was a right pain, had to fit filters at each of the properties... which I of course forget to change....

Had garage feed above ground for over 10years without issue .

 

[CountryFan]

Plastic pipe doesn’t burst when frozen

Yes they do actually

 

[robinbanks]

Plastic pipe doesn’t burst when frozen , easily accommodates freeze expansion .

I'd perhaps qualify which plastic you're talking about (I assume it's PVC reinforced hose pipe)

I do have somewhere a piece of smashed MDPE that i ran over with the forklift last winter. In summer it deforms. While I expect that freezing water would likely only happen at one end and creep backwards so pressure issues would end up being resolved by leaving the other end open , if both ends were blocked solid and the centre froze, i expect it would risk causing some damage

Very interesting seeing the results of copper pipes freezing and the little burst blister that the expansion causes