How do I get water from a butt to the far end of the garden?

Everyone who fits a water butt discovers within a week that a butt tap has almost no pressure, and that a hose on the end of it produces a trickle that stops entirely if the hose runs uphill. The physics is simple and so is the fix.

Safety

Step by step

1. Understand why the tap dribbles.A butt has no pressure of its own. The only push is the weight of water above the outlet, which is at most the height of the butt. A mains tap is at many times that pressure, which is why a hose behaves completely differently on each.
2. Raise the butt before buying anything.Every extra bit of height adds pressure. Use a purpose-made stand or a properly built block base — a full butt weighs a great deal and a collapsing stand is dangerous. Check it is level.
3. Fit the shortest, widest hose you can.At low pressure, friction in the hose is the dominant loss. A short length of ordinary hose flows far better than a long coiled one, and a wider bore better than a narrow one.
4. Try a siphon if the target is downhill.Fill the hose completely with water, keep both ends closed, put one end well below the surface in the butt and open the other at the lower end. It will run on its own and keeps running until the level reaches the inlet.
5. Choose a pump if the ground is level or uphill.A small submersible or a clamp-on battery pump. Match it to the job — you need enough flow to be worth the trouble and enough head to reach the far end.
6. Wire it safely or do not wire it at all.Any mains pump outdoors needs an RCD-protected outdoor supply installed by an electrician, not an extension lead through a window. A battery pump avoids the question entirely and is the right answer for most gardens.
7. Consider collecting at the far end instead.If there is a shed, greenhouse or garage roof down there, a butt on it solves the distribution problem permanently and costs less than a pump.

Tips

• Link butts side by side at the base and they equalise, so you effectively have one large reservoir with the same head — which does not improve pressure but does improve capacity.
• A dripline run from a raised butt is the one distribution method that works well at butt pressure, because it is designed for low flow.
• Keep a filter or a stocking over a pump inlet. Debris in a butt blocks pumps and drippers quickly.
• Empty and clean the butt at least once a year, and keep the lid on — silt and algae are what stop every low-pressure system.
• In freezing weather, drain pumps and hoses. Water left in either splits them.

Common mistakes

• Putting a butt on a stack of loose blocks or an old pallet — A full butt is far heavier than people expect and a failure at height is dangerous. Use a proper stand or a solid, level, built base.
• Running a mains pump off an extension lead out of a window — It is a genuine electrocution risk outdoors and in the wet. Outdoor mains needs a proper RCD-protected installation, and a battery pump is available if you do not have one.
• Expecting a hose on a butt tap to behave like a mains hose — It cannot. The pressure is a fraction of mains and any rise in the hose stops the flow entirely. Match the method to the pressure available.

Alternatives

• Raise the butt: The cheapest and most effective change. All the pressure comes from the height of the water surface above the outlet, so putting the butt on a taller, genuinely solid stand transforms the flow. A full butt is extremely heavy, so the stand must be substantial and level.
• Siphon: A hose full of water, one end in the butt below the surface and the other end lower than the butt, will run on its own until the level drops to the inlet. No power, no cost, and it works well for a border downhill of the butt. It stops the moment the outlet rises above the water level.
• Submersible pump: A small pump dropped into the butt gives usable pressure and will run a hose or a dripline anywhere in an ordinary garden. Needs a proper outdoor mains supply with RCD protection, or a battery model.
• Battery or rechargeable butt pump: Purpose-made pumps that clamp into a butt and run a hose from a rechargeable battery. Modest flow, no mains wiring, and by far the simplest safe answer for most gardens.
• Gravity-fed dripline: A low-pressure drip or soaker line laid on the beds and fed from a raised butt. Works with the small head a butt provides, delivers water slowly at soil level, and can be left running while you do something else.
• Carrying cans: Two full cans is a lot of water and a short walk. For small volumes and targeted watering it beats every system on this list for control and for getting water exactly where it is needed.
• A second butt at the far end: Rather than moving water down the garden, collect it there. A shed or greenhouse roof at the bottom of the plot is usually the answer to the whole problem.

Questions people ask