Dan
It will not work. Not enough pressure to work. You have to use a pump to send it through a filter. You can buy one of those drill pumps for cheep
Thanks John. I was thinking of doing what I asked about. So now youâve saved me the trouble of failure!
My thought was if you need it moved from your home holding tank to your vehicle tank to just use an inexpensive sump pump for fast flow(1000+gph) and low pressure/ or gravity feed =free . Then in your vehicle get one of these Spray Guns Valves Teejet Sprayer Tank Centrifugal Banjo Pump Tractor GPS Also availible at your local farm supply store⌠At 60psi and 3gpm you could easily fill a backpack sprayer quickly and/or run a waterfed pole set-up completely mobile from your vehicle(with a flow restrictor of course). It does require 12 volt dc power though, so you have to figure that into the equation as well, but a little wiring or deep cycle battery would be easy. I am a novice though⌠keep us updated!
Nice first post, mrpaultrey
Okay so I read this thread from start to finish and unless I missed it, no one mentioned harvesting snow. Think about it, after a fresh snowfall your entire yard is full of it. Just get a large scoop and go to town. hey if itâs a snow day youâre not working anyway right. Iâm sure you could fill a few barrels in an hour then let it melt.
Btw, we are supposed to get a sow storm tomorrow here. 
Well, I made the jump!
I picked up 2 325 Gal poly tanks like the ones posted and I will put 1 in my trailer and the other will be for storage. I have 1 55gal drum at a downspout and since our last rain it is now sitting full! I will see how it pumps through the DI filter but I am thinking of just using a carbon whole house filter first to see how it turns out. AS-IS right off the gutter the rain water registers 22TDS and at my tap its at 200 so its a big improvement!
I am a little worried about how murky the water is in the 55 gal drum, even though it is only 22tds it is not âclearâ clean water so I am hopful the whole house filter will clean it up or âpolishâ it.
My other worry is alge or other type of bactira that may contaminate the water. my barrels are all White so some sun may get at the water?
Any thoughts?
Get some paint or a heavy cover over the drum to avoid the sun from getting in there.
Thanks to everyone that has contributed to this thread, i now have all the information i need to get started. I know its an old thread but iâll post some pictures once iâm done.
Thanks again.
Karl
you want the sunlight to get in and slow down the growth of algae, dont cover it
If you let sunlight in youâll get tiny shrimp-like bacteria.
hmm, I didnt know that? Maybe a few drops of chlorine or bleach is best
I have no trouble keeping a ton of .001 water in a warehouse in a dark container in temperatures in the +100âs for 6/7 months of the year. I wouldnât really want to raise the tds by adding a chemical. Iâve heard Milton Sterilising Fluid doesnât raise the tds too much, but pre-test first in a smaller canister in increments.
I am following this thread because I thinks its a great way to extend the life of my DI resin. I plan on setting up a rain barrel in a few months.
Ok itâs been 6 months since i last posted about setting up rainwater harvesting for my business and now i have done it. Most of the delay has been with the weather as itâs been a very dry long summer in Perth. After seeing we were due for some decent rain i hastily rigged this set up.
It is my first attempt and wanting to keep costs low i have taken a trial and error approach.
I have:
2 x 1000l tanks connected at about 100mm from base
Down pipe feed with fine flyscreen mesh over inlet in gutter then at base of downpipe stocking filtering the last fine debris.
This relatively clean water will then be pumped through a sediment filter then through my dual resin vessels.
The water in Perth has a TDS of between 200-400 and i have just taken a sample from the tank in the first rain at 10 TDS. Iâm already counting the savings in resin cost.
Wow what a result, after 6 hours a bit of furious debris clearing of filters in pouring rain i have over 1800 litres (nearly 500 gallons) of water. This is from one down pipe and a leaky gutter on my carport. I did the calculations on roof area and catchment but this has been an epic result. Tomorrow i will be off to buy another one or two 1000 litre tanks.
There was a rather hairy moment when the rain was falling at such a rate the gutter was nearly overflowing due to a small build up in the downpipe filter so i will pop another down pipe on tomorrow to ensure i donât flood my house.
So I set up my rain barrel about 1 month ago and we have had < .05 inches of rain since. I think I cursed it. I have <5 gallons harvest in a month. My di tank showed up today and I had a bright idea. I crawled under the house with my tds meter and measured the water coming out of my air conditioner. 35 tds. Not bad, certainly better than the 220 i get on tap. I put a bucket under it and I think I might be able to harvest a couple gallons a day if the AC runs about as much as it did today (temp in the upper 80âs, so not unusually hot). Anybody else harvest water from their air conditioner?
I ve tested the rain on Long Island at a 3 ppm level. What a great idea ! Need storage for hundreds of gallons. I was at my sister in laws in Conneticut and they had a plastic barrel 6 feet tall full of rainwater from the gutters. It had a cover and a valve to prevent evaporation. If I had a shred of imagination left, I d have connected it to WFP. But saw it here Josh
What county are you n Nassau 39 at my house . Our levels are so low here I havnt even exhausted my di tank yet.
What county are you in Nassau . Our levels are so low here 39 at my house.I havnt even exhausted my di tank yet.
Here are a couple of linksâŚ
The first-is a DIY rain barrel first flush keeps all the crap out of your rain water collection system
This is JUST one link but do a search for ârain barrel first flushâ for more ideasâŚ
Rain Barrel and First Flush SHTF - YouTube
And here is a DIY idea for blocking out sunlight to your barrels:
Rainwater Collection System Part 3: Covering The Totes - YouTube
These are both youtube videios so if links donât work search for them on you tube.
We had our first major rain event in months last night and i tested the first water off roof.
It was brown and yucky but had a 37 tds.
After the first hour of rain⌠(YES it actually rained for more than 10 mins FINALLY!!!)
i collected some more roof run off from the same spout, and the water was clear with a tds of 14.
Yep⌠Rain Collection is another project for this comeing winterâŚ
pax
