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My house came with 3 rain barrels in a tiered setup but didn't leave the pump. I'm trying to find out what kind of pump I would need to drive a sprinkler for the lawn.
But Renfrow's Hardware in Matthews can help you, they are big on rain barrels and organic gardening etc. There is another nursery on Johnston near Ballantyne village and HWY 51 (right near the 485 Johnston exit) behind Sticky Fingers can also help, I just can't remember the name, something with a P?
But Renfrow's Hardware in Matthews can help you, they are big on rain barrels and organic gardening etc. There is another nursery on Johnston near Ballantyne village and HWY 51 (right near the 485 Johnston exit) behind Sticky Fingers can also help, I just can't remember the name, something with a P?
Renfrow is really helpful. One of their guys spent ten minutes with me explaining every little feature of a $15 sprinkler. He actually connected it to a hose and showed me every adjustment on it.
One thing to keep in mind is the capacity of your rain barrels vs. how much water will be used by a sprinkler.
I'm pretty sure most sprinklers that attach to hoses can go through a couple hundred gallons in an hour. If your barrels are 50 gallons each, even when full they may not be enough to water for even 30 minutes.
Not trying to discourage the use of rain barrels, I think they are great, but 3 of them may not be enough to keep your lawn as watered as you would like (or may not warrant the hassle/expense of a pump). I think most people use them more for watering shrubs/plants and only for their lawns occasionally.
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Originally Posted by JanuaryGirl
One thing to keep in mind is the capacity of your rain barrels vs. how much water will be used by a sprinkler.
I'm pretty sure most sprinklers that attach to hoses can go through a couple hundred gallons in an hour. If your barrels are 50 gallons each, even when full they may not be enough to water for even 30 minutes.
Not trying to discourage the use of rain barrels, I think they are great, but 3 of them may not be enough to keep your lawn as watered as you would like (or may not warrant the hassle/expense of a pump). I think most people use them more for watering shrubs/plants and only for their lawns occasionally.
I agree. I'd get enough hose to get to a flowerbed &/or shrubs & use the rainwater to trickle water in those areas in the evening, occasionally, to deep water those areas.
I catch rainwater, & the only time that you get enough to consider using it on the lawn is when you don't really need it. I used it in areas that were seeded to get the water down deeper when the rain was more plentiful. Now I just use it for flowers & shrubs.
There is a rail barrel manufacturer located in Waxhaw. Maybe they can answer your questions. Also Northern Tool sells a large number of different kinds of water pumps.
Thanks. I'll check into those suggestions. My neighbor from across the street came over today and said that the previous owner bought his pump at Lowe's.
It all depends on how much volumn you are trying to water. I have three rain barrells tied together that work in conjunction with my irrigation system. You just need something that meets your own gpm requirements. My pump is mounted outside the barrels and then I have routed a 1.5" line with a backflow preventor and pickup over the top of the barrel and down to the bottom. The backflow preventor keeps the pump primed at all times.
I use a submersible RIGID 1/6th HP submersible pump [looks exactly like this http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-RUP160-6.../dp/B0009X8O2E ]from Home Depot in my 2 barrel system, just drop it in with a garden hose attached. It sounds impressive 3000GPH, ya whatever, it produces about 20psi so not regular water pressure but it works and takes an hour to drain 110 gallons at 20psi though a sprinkler.
I was using it to power the back and forth fan sprinkler, but the screen or jets would get plugged with small debris, and it just wasn't powerful enough for the tis, tis, tis, pulse sprinkler.
I did however find a solution at a recent home show. Rainforest Sprinklers - Lawn Sprinklers and Garden Sprinklers
They were selling it to people with poor water pressure in the country, and who use pumps from a well and that sort of thing. It seemed perfect, so I bought the Rainforest 24" Riser Sprinkler for $20 bucks or so. Works really nicely covering a 20ft circle with 20psi. It's impressive with the regular water supply it was probably spinning 3 times faster, with a bit of mist created and a 35ft circle, but at 20psi it was a gentle rainfall and ran for 1 hour on the 2x 55 gallon drums full of water didn't get plugged once, has a fairly large hole for the water, and it was always tiny debris already ground up by the pump that came down the hose and plugged the fan sprinkler anyways, I just don't use one of those rubber o ring mesh screens with the rain barrel anymore. I'm happy with the 24" riser, and might even go with the 36" if you have a big yard, but I think the ground level one would be just too small of a water pattern with such low pressure.
Anyways I was so impressed to finally be able to water my lawn without stopping to clean out the sprinkler.... I wrote the sprinkler company this was their reply "Thanks for letting me know how well our sprinklers worked with your system and the rain barrels, we have been experimenting ourselves with them and managed to get a 15 ft diameter by just running connected to a rain barrel that was approx 12 ft higher than the sprinkler with no pump. We get many emails from people in places like Texas that couldn't run a sprinkler at all on their pressure and ours worked great for them and saved them hours of hand watering."
I would add to really shop around if your looking for a pump, most places want to sell you a pond pump that has no pressure, or tiny hoses, or a HUGE expensive jet pump that can produce 80psi and clean out your wallet, it's hard to find something in the middle cheap that takes garden hose. If I did it again maybe I would buy a bit higher HP pump, or a sump pump with a float if I could find one cheap. I think the higher HP would drain the barrels faster, but also give more PSI to run a regular sprinkler.
Last edited by Sunyjim; 06-04-2011 at 09:58 PM..
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