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What do you guys think about running pipe down from gutters, along or under the ground, and then back up into a catchment? Say from a gutter height of 12', down to ground level, and then back up to 8'.
I calculated that the overall 4 ft drop (1.6psi) through 3" pipe should accomodate up to ~1 inch of rainfall per minute off of my roof, which would be a pretty epic downpour.
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This is exactly what I have on my house: gutters at that 12' height, down along ground and back up into tank at about 8'. Works fine in Volcano.
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That's what I had for 14 years, had a cleanout at ground level, got cleaned out every
6 months, whether it needed it or not, always did.
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What about 1st flush?
I also incorporate a version of Peter’s
http://www.pacificgunite.com/gutter-strainers.html to filter the water before the tank.
David
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"That's what I had for 14 years, had a cleanout at ground level, got cleaned out every
6 months, whether it needed it or not, always did."
Can you describe this for me (assume your audience has difficulty working a basic spigot) ?
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Our gutters are 12 feet or so with a pipe just underground to the tank with a feed into the top of the tank at around 7-8 feet. The first flush system is at the tank (Waterworks will tell you one at each downspout, I assume so they can sell more). We've not had a problem with any of it so far.
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quote:
Originally posted by terracore
"That's what I had for 14 years, had a cleanout at ground level, got cleaned out every
6 months, whether it needed it or not, always did."
Can you describe this for me (assume your audience has difficulty working a basic spigot) ?
It was the basic cleanout at the lowest point of the gravity feed, with the threaded 3 1/2 inch stopper. Always full of leaves, earthworms and wrigglers. Made a 4 foot gusher. Usually in Leilani there was so much water that it gained suction from the catchment until it had cleaned itself pretty well.
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Ground level cleanout right at the tank is a good idea also because it allows for cleaning the roof/gutters while not polluting the tank. I notice a lot of catchments without them.
So, basically the procedure is to cut the (probably 3'' PVC) inlet to the tank, say, 6 to 12 inches above ground level where it's rising into the tank. Glue in a 3'' wye PVE fitting (wye facing up and out). Glue the rest of the inlet to the wye. Glue a female threaded adapter into the wye angled outward. Coat threaded plug with teflon paste and screw into the threaded adapter. Voila, you have a cleanout.
Periodically unscrew it, carefully. It will probably pop off under pressure, since there will be a column of water in it the height of your tank that will force out any crud in the ground level inlet pipe. The best part is that if you're cleaning your roof or gutters, with bleach perhaps, you just unscrew the cleanout, do your cleaning, wait until after the next heavy rain, which flushes your roof and gutters, then put the plug back in and you're back in business, without ever having to detach your downspouts or anything laborious like that.
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Thanks for the reassurance and great ideas!
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Are you referring to this thing (on the left)?
www.e-z-caps.com/images/WTFisTHIS.JPG
If so, I guess I'm supposed to unscrew it, let it drain, and then?
