need advice on temporary water line

   / need advice on temporary water line #1  

daugen

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Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
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Location
New Hope PA
Tractor
in between now
I need to run about 550-600 feet of water line on top of the ground temporarily to a remote garden.
Up a hill....
I am planning on using 3/4 line, but have been told one inch is a must to have a chance against the head pressure.
I'm guessing at least a fifty foot climb.

Well is going in next year, just need something reasonably inexpensive, and hopefully reusable to get me by this season.
Garden hose is super expensive, 140 for a 100 foot roll of one inch Flexogen. Very little one inch hose around, lots of 3/4.

To get the price down to 30-50 cents per foot instead of over a dollar, what kind of plastic pipe can I use?
Nothing white...it has to blend in, btw. I'm no plumber, and it's been suggested to me I see my irrigation guy to
see what he can buy wholesale. But I'm not sure what to buy...

thoughts? ThanksDrew
 
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   / need advice on temporary water line #2  
I'd go with a water trough. Get it to the spot with your tractor and attach your hose from there. You can reuse it somewhere else later. Probably cheaper than lines and hoses.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line #3  
Stop by your local plumbing supply store. They should have rolls of black plastic pipe for sale in lengths up to at least 300 feet. They will look like this: Shop ADS 3/4-in x 100-ft 160 PSI Plastic Coil Pipe at Lowes.com
I would probbaly go with 1" if you will be hand watering, 3/4 should be fine if you are using drip irrigation.

Aaron Z
 
   / need advice on temporary water line #4  
I'd go with a water trough. Get it to the spot with your tractor and attach your hose from there. You can reuse it somewhere else later. Probably cheaper than lines and hoses.

+1
Those metal caged liquid pallets (or even a used barrel) can be had pretty cheap. Use tractor to move and elevate for watering.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line
  • Thread Starter
#5  
guys, I've looked at every barrel configuration out there, including a used water truck! Didn't have the Kubota/FEL last year, now I see the ease of picking up barrels, but....
I need/want a hose...something simple my wife can use also. I've got two dc water pumps now, all rube Goldberg stuff hooked up to car batteries, and not one of them pumped
water anywhere near strong enough. I even hooked an ac pump up to my gen and that wasn't much better.

Aaron, I think your approach is what I need. Luckily I have a friend with a cabin in the Catskills that uses this kind of water piping for water from a spring box, so
when I'm done, he can use the pipe for something worthwhile.

I simply have no experience with plastic piping. The ends are simple, but is there a type of plastic I should look for? Guess it should be rated for potable water, if there's such
a spec.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line #6  
Our VFD is selling it's 1986 - 1200 gal water truck for $1,500. I've done the black 3/4" hose (600' - elevation 20') and it worked fine.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line
  • Thread Starter
#7  
well, made a trip to Home Depot but had too many flats of flowers the wife had already filled the suburban with, so could only buy the fittings and adapters.
Seems to be real simple Thirty cents a foot in hundred foot rolls for 100psi, and double that for 160psi, and they look like identical hose except the more expensive one was
clearly both physically heavier and after popping the end caps off, saw that the wall thickness was about double the cheaper stuff. But didn't seem to be any reinforcing in there, just more plastic.

Now assuming I won't run over this line with the tractor, which is a bit of a torture test, am I wasting my money buying the heavier wall stuff?
Wondering about kinking and crushing.
My normal inclination is to buy the better stuff and not deal with "I should have bought the better stuff" later on. Particularly if I'm giving the hose to a friend, but
the only thing driving on his hose is a deer hoof/hoove(?).
Just wondering if least expensive is good value or a waste of money. 150 vs 300 bucks.

will ponder that tonight and buy the hose tomorrow.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line #8  
slit trench if your worried about running over it.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line
  • Thread Starter
#9  
good idea...and I have a subsoiler that could do it.
 
   / need advice on temporary water line #10  
I have that same pipe (I think in 3/4) all over our property to run water to various parts of our property. I have it mostly trenched, I have a few more places where I have to dig yet. I have it now for almost 10 years and no problems, except when I threw a pitch fork into the ground tines first and then got soaked.
 
 
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