Getting water out of my rain barrel

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Z3Dreamer

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Rain barrel is about 50 gallons. Spigot is on the bottom. So, I fill one container at a time, then carry to plants. Looking for a better way. If I had a better way, I might use it for more things. Don't want great pressure, just flow. Here are the options I see:

* Electric submersible pump. $50 to $100. Apparently the grime makes it so you have to clean frequently. I would also have to plug in at the nearest plug which is 15 feet away. What do I do with the cord between uses?

* Hand pump that is on top of the barrel with a pipe going into the barrel. Because I would torque when pumping, I would need to secure the lower end of the pipe. This would be a problem.

* External hand pump that connects at the lower spigot. It would possibly look like a bicycle pump that has two foot pads that you use to keep the pump stationary when you pump. Did not see this.

* Plug-in electric pump that connects to the lower spigot. This would then connect to a hose. Did not see much.

What recommendations do you have? BTW, I am on a shared well so I don't want to drain my neighbors' water.
 
What is the elevation difference between the bottom of your barrel and the garden? You may not need a pump at all, just a hose with a separate valve at the business end.
 
Gumby said:
What is the elevation difference between the bottom of your barrel and the garden? You may not need a pump at all, just a hose with a separate valve at the business end.
Click to expand...
Tried that. Didn't work. They are about equal elevation. Good idea, though.
 
Can you close the rain barrel up when emptying? Then you could put a little pressure on it, maybe with just a bike tire pump. If it's on the same elevation, it shouldn't take much pressure, say < 5 psig. Sounds like you have tried it and have the garden hose already.

This precludes collecting rain water while emptying though.

If this sounds doable, you need to find out what pressure the rain barrel can take. Might need a stronger rain barrel.
 
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Can you raise the rain barrel on concrete blocks as it seems your garden is higher than the rain barrel spigot (or you are holding the end of the hose high up).

Then you wouldn't have to fuss with a pump at all.

<cross post>
 
I would raise the rain barrel if possible and use a water feature (fountain) pump.

The water feature pumps are cheap, but they pump up only a few feet of head. So it’s better if you can get the barrel higher to help the pump, although a more powerful pump will be able to work with the barrel at ground level.

And maybe bury the pump electrical cord over to your outside receptacle.
 
Thanks for all the ideas. I should have said that my rain barrel is level or slightly downhill from my garden. I have tried the easy things already, such as making sure I am not holding the hose up.

We would need to raise the barrel up more than a few feet, which would cause other issues. Have looked at fountain pumps but I need more pressure than they supply. Have looked at moving the barrel so that it is at another downspout which is uphill from the garden. I may do this but would need to move my 2 cords of wood out of the way. So, it will be after the upcoming winter.

Keep the ideas coming.
 
What fills the rain barrel? If it's spouting, just run a hose from roof level to where you really want the barrel to be and move the barrel there. I can't imagine the preferred location is higher than your roof. If the barrel just fills with rain with no spouting, just move the barrel.
 
How about an old time hydraulic ram pump? DIY plans are all over the internet. A ram pump can lift up to 7 times the head pressure. So bury the pump 4 ft below the tank. (post hole digger?) and it can lift up to 28 ft, 24 ft above the barrel. the lower the lift required, the more volume it will pump. Once done, no power is required. Simply turn on the faucet. In a frost prone area it must be drained so it doesn't freeze. Or simply disconnect it from the barrel and add RV antifreeze. It does waste water and needs someplace to drain the waste water to.

Edit: Never mind. The finding a place to drain the waste water would be an issue without a dry well or something similar. And the water transfer efficiency might be an issue too
 
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You might consider a 12 volt pump. I have one on a garden sprayer, but I imagine they are available. Then a 12 volt sealed battery, maybe 9 amps or so to provide the power. Store battery on a trickle charger when not in use. Here's a 12V pump that is submersible and can provide almost 10' of lift for under $15:
https://www.amazon.com/Winkeyes-Sub...&keywords=12+volt+pump&qid=1593199148&sr=8-15


A sealed battery could also be submerged and wire to a battery with a solar panel to keep charged?
 
Thanks for all the great ideas. I will check them out and let you know. The rain barrel is attached to a downspout at the southwest corner of the house. The vegetable garden is 50 feet away from the rain barrel and maybe 5 feet uphill from the barrel. Garden is at the northwest corner of the house and 20 feet away from the house.

Non-high-tech solution is to move the rain barrel to the northeast corner of the house and attach to that downspout. There is no downspout at the northwest corner of the house. Once the rain barrel is moved to the northeast corner of the house, I could run a garden hose along the house and water the garden without any pump. Biggest problem with this approach is 2 cords of wood in the way.

Thanks, again.
 
I always wanted a setup with a rain barrel under the deck and an antique hand pump to water the planters on the deck. It’s a pain to lug water up there. We actually have a water conservation rebate on rain barrels.
One of these would be a novel conversation piece and should work for your application. I see free recycled plastic barrels on Craigslist frequently.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324210972355
 
If you need more water than the 50 gallons one barrel holds, you can connect multiple barrels together. It only takes one inch of rain to fill a 50 gallon barrel, so I used to have 3 barrels hooked together. I bought a kit to install my barrel at Home Depot and it had enough spare tubing to connect all 3.

I had mine on cinder blocks and used gravity to water my garden. It was a slow stream, carrying trugs of water was much quicker when I was filling two or three at a time.
 
Ronstar said:
I would raise the rain barrel if possible and use a water feature (fountain) pump.

The water feature pumps are cheap, but they pump up only a few feet of head. So it’s better if you can get the barrel higher to help the pump, although a more powerful pump will be able to work with the barrel at ground level.

And maybe bury the pump electrical cord over to your outside receptacle.
Click to expand...

This is what I would do also. In fact I irrigate my trees at the ranch with a raised 325 gallon tote. The tote is about 4 feet higher then tree nursery and I water with a hose attached to the bottom outlet.
 
Electric submersible pump suspended an inch or so off the bottom. It'll run through a water hose to wherever you need it to go to.

A simple extension cord can be hooked up when the pump's needed.

Mine pushes 2000 gallons per hour. So you won't be standing long waiting for a 50 gallon drum to empty.
 
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