Rainwater System / cleaning equipment and garden watering

[brewdog]

I bought this 1100 gallon tank 2 years and finally got around to installing it. The water will be used mainly for watering the garden and cleaning up my equipment. Its a simple system with a Special Pump from Rain Brothers in Ohio. The pumps does not require a pressure tank and pressure switch. The control logic is contained inside the pump. When you open the spigot the pump senses the loss of pressure and starts pumping. When you shut the spigot off the pump senses the increase in pressure and shuts off. I mounted it in the tank with a pit-less adapter like you would use in a deep water well. There was a 1/4” of rain yesterday and the tank filled to about 4” or close to 100 gallons.

 

[doneill127]

Nice set up just curious why you installed it. Remote building not served by well or town water ? Save money on town water, reduce wear and tear on well pump ?

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

What kind of water pressure does it produce? I could see this being an option for my drip irrigation. Gonna look them up. Thanks for the idea.

 

[5030]

I use a HF 110 volt mini water pump with my IBC totes. That provides ample pressure to feed my triplex pump on my pressure washer. The pump is mounted on the pressure washer cart and is plugged into an outlet in the shop with a GFCI connector. Problem with rainwater collection is straining out the junk that collects in the gutters so I use a screen at the gutter terminis and drail the flush the totes regularly. A good rain event will completely fill both of my 350 gallon totes in one shot. I also add a coup,e ounces of H2O2 to each tote to eliminate any 'green' matter in the tanks and the tanks are covered with black film glued on to prevent sunlight from growing algae. At least 4 years now and zero issues. I do drain them in the winter so they don't turn into huge ice cubes.

 

[JasperFrank]

Wish I had done a few things differently. I put in a 1500 gal underground cistern, fed from the garage roof. This is plumbed to a centrifugal pump to all the hose bibs around the house. Its not connected to the domestic well. 1500 wasn't near enough for my climate and all the gardens around the house we created. It rains like heck all winter and then just a little in late spring, and then NOTHING for three months in the summer. If to do, a do over, I'd put in some huge above ground tanks, 4500 gal or so, hidden behind the garage, out of sight and sunlight, and have that metered by temperature in some way, to automatically gravity feed drip lines to the gardens. As it is now, my summers are taken up by me manually watering these gardens every other week mid-summer. And then trying to balance how much water I want in reserve for possible summer fire control.
I never have enough water, aside from the winters, when I have way too much.
I guess the take away here, is even though I've lived here for 35 years, I really didn't understand the climate of the PNW. Its on with rain in the winters, and then its entirely off in the summers. So you need a huge water bank to smooth that out.

 

[brewdog]

Nice set up just curious why you installed it. Remote building not served by well or town water ? Save money on town water, reduce wear and tear on well pump ?

Great question. I do have spring water from my underground tank in the pole barn, but I don’t like using the spring water for washing equipment and watering the garden during the summer months because we use it in our home as the primary water supply. I try to conserve water during the summer months when the spring is running slower. We have no city water where we live.

 

[brewdog]

What kind of water pressure does it produce? I could see this being an option for my drip irrigation. Gonna look them up. Thanks for the idea.

I get about 60psi from the system but they don’t recommend using this type of pump for drip irrigation system. They recommend a system with a pressure tank and pressure switch. I bought mine from Rain Brother in Ohio. Great question good luck.

 

[brewdog]

I use a HF 110 volt mini water pump with my IBC totes. That provides ample pressure to feed my triplex pump on my pressure washer. The pump is mounted on the pressure washer cart and is plugged into an outlet in the shop with a GFCI connector. Problem with rainwater collection is straining out the junk that collects in the gutters so I use a screen at the gutter terminis and drail the flush the totes regularly. A good rain event will completely fill both of my 350 gallon totes in one shot. I also add a coup,e ounces of H2O2 to each tote to eliminate any 'green' matter in the tanks and the tanks are covered with black film glued on to prevent sunlight from growing algae. At least 4 years now and zero issues. I do drain them in the winter so they don't turn into huge ice cubes.

Great information you provided. Thanks I use this device for filter the junk out. It works automatically but I don’t have long term experience with it. One half of my Pole Barn is 22’ x 40’ long with one downspout and it filled by tank to 800 gallons is 3 days of intermittent but heavy rains during the last few days. Thank you for the great information ! I was planning on draining my tank this winter too.

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[brewdog]

Wish I had done a few things differently. I put in a 1500 gal underground cistern, fed from the garage roof. This is plumbed to a centrifugal pump to all the hose bibs around the house. Its not connected to the domestic well. 1500 wasn't near enough for my climate and all the gardens around the house we created. It rains like heck all winter and then just a little in late spring, and then NOTHING for three months in the summer. If to do, a do over, I'd put in some huge above ground tanks, 4500 gal or so, hidden behind the garage, out of sight and sunlight, and have that metered by temperature in some way, to automatically gravity feed drip lines to the gardens. As it is now, my summers are taken up by me manually watering these gardens every other week mid-summer. And then trying to balance how much water I want in reserve for possible summer fire control.
I never have enough water, aside from the winters, when I have way too much.
I guess the take away here, is even though I've lived here for 35 years, I really didn't understand the climate of the PNW. Its on with rain in the winters, and then its entirely off in the summers. So you need a huge water bank to smooth that out.

Really interesting how much different things are in the PNW. We have had dry periods but those seem rare in this area. Hopefully you can add another large tank to your property. Good luck and thanks for the interesting post.

 

[doneill127]

I’ve considered doing something similar. I have a 400 ft well super hard water and slow recovery that I’m nervous to use for any type of irrigation or heavy usage. There are 2 other hand dug wells from late 1700s that pretty much dry up every summer. So something like yours with a pressure tank might be the best solution.

 

[brewdog]

I’ve considered doing something similar. I have a 400 ft well super hard water and slow recovery that I’m nervous to use for any type of irrigation or heavy usage. There are 2 other hand dug wells from late 1700s that pretty much dry up every summer. So something like yours with a pressure tank might be the best solution.

I don’t think you will be sorry. Having an extra 1000 gallons of clean water is helpful if you have gardens. The initial investment is high, but having fresh rainwater makes you quickly forget.

My old well has hard water too. I feel your pain. I don’t use the well anymore except for extremely low flow conditions our spring. My neighbor had a problem like yours and he had a well guy come in with a new rig/system that spun chains down inside the well deep clear to the bottom and that really got it flowing again.

 

[brewdog]

I use a HF 110 volt mini water pump with my IBC totes. That provides ample pressure to feed my triplex pump on my pressure washer. The pump is mounted on the pressure washer cart and is plugged into an outlet in the shop with a GFCI connector. Problem with rainwater collection is straining out the junk that collects in the gutters so I use a screen at the gutter terminis and drail the flush the totes regularly. A good rain event will completely fill both of my 350 gallon totes in one shot. I also add a coup,e ounces of H2O2 to each tote to eliminate any 'green' matter in the tanks and the tanks are covered with black film glued on to prevent sunlight from growing algae. At least 4 years now and zero issues. I do drain them in the winter so they don't turn into huge ice cubes.

Great info. Couple ounces per tote makes sense. Thanks for the tip!

 

[5030]

Great info. Couple ounces per tote makes sense. Thanks for the tip!

No problem. I covered the outside of the totes with black plastic weed barrier film and I used spray contact cement to adhere it to the totes. I still get a bit of green water in the totes but the H2O2 eliminates that. The shop and attached garage is 40 x 80 and the roof provides more than enough rainwater to keep them filled constantly. I could probably add another 4 totes for rainwater, but 2-350 gallon totes is plenty enough enough for my needs. My HW pressure washer don't care if the water has a green tint to it. One thing I did do is I added an inline stainless strainer to the PW input line, beterrn the HF water pump and the PW inlet. That catches any crud that might be in the totes that got past the downspout strainers. You can buy the inline downspout strainers at any home improvement store. Got mine at Lowes. The seperator screens are angled so the leaves and debris slide off the screens as the water flows through them. Have had that setup for at least 10 years now. Just be sure to get IBC totes that held food grade product that will wash out easily.

 

[HarvestHorizons]

What kind of water pressure does it produce? I could see this being an option for my drip irrigation. Gonna look them up. Thanks for the idea.

I’ve been using a Rain Brothers pump setup pretty similar to this for a couple seasons now also pulling from a tank, mostly for garden irrigation and some light equipment wash-down. I’ve got mine tied into a drip irrigation system that feeds a mix of row crops and raised beds, and it’s worked surprisingly well.

The pressure output is around 40–50 PSI, which is more than enough for most standard drip tape or emitter systems. I run a basic filter and a pressure regulator downstream just to be safe most of my drip line is rated for 10–15 PSI, so you definitely want to step it down.

Biggest advantage with this type of pump is the simplicity no need to wire in a pressure switch or deal with a separate tank. It’s basically “plug and play,” and as long as you’ve got a reliable way to keep the tank fed (rain catchment, fill from a hydrant, etc.), it’s a solid little system. Sounds like yours is off to a great start with that 100 gallons off just a 1/4” rain.

If you're thinking about using it for drip, I’d say go for it just add a regulator and watch your emitter pressure rating. Should save you a lot of watering hassle.

 

[brewdog]

Having the rainwater tank has made a huge difference in our garden this year. We’ve been watering for the past 4 weeks and the Zucchini and tomatoes have gone wild! It seems we’ve had more rain this summer than previous years, but using the rain water system helped tremendously.