Hoses

The water barrels have been full most of the year. There has been a lot of rain and I've hardly needed to use them. However, that is not universally the case. The other day, I wanted to use the water. Turning on the spigot, the water just dribbled.

This same event happened two years ago. At the time, I think my solution to the problem was to try to use water from just two barrels at a time. That would provide maximum flow and have the potential to keep muck from growing in the hoses. However, this year, the flow was so slow that I thought I needed to try a different approach.

The problem as I see it is that algae and other kinds of junk grow in the slow moving water that is in the hoses. What I needed to do was clean that out.

The way I have constructed the hose system, I actually had to put female hose connections on both ends of the hoses coming from the barrels. Essentially, I turned the spliters backwards. They are designed to take one source and split the water into multiple streams. I used them to take multiple streams and combine them into one. But, what that did mean is that the end that the water exits from into the hose that goes to the garden has a female end on it.

My solution was to take our regular hose, which is fed by the well and the pump and therefore has a lot of pressure in it when the water is turned on, and simply attached it to the single outlet. I then turned on the water full force and washed each barrel's hose to clean out whatever might be inside it.

The best part for me is that it worked.

After years of using these barrels, there is probably muck in the bottom. I know there is in the barrel that is fed from the roof because I can put my measuring stick down and feel the sediment. Someday I will need to clean it out. For now, I am just happy to have water flowing freely.