Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead

   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #1  

ultrarunner

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Looking for suggestions on the best material to replace 1500' of galvanized water line dating from 1940.

The old water line is on borrowed time and requires patching yearly.

The ground is expansive adobe and in earth quake country. It is in California and freezing is not an issue.

The line supplies drinking water from a spring several hundred feet above to a 2,000 gallon water tank which is about 60' higher than the homestead.

Years ago, I helped someone run a "Rubber" type line about a 1000 feet long in snow country... it was one continuous run and the coupling on each end was a slip fit over the ends of the rubber hose held in place by the water pressure expanding the hose against a ring of what looked like nail points to lock the coupling to the hose.
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #2  
Black poly pipe. Comes in a roll, easy to deploy, flexible to account for expansive clay and the San Andreas fault. Get it big enough so you don't loose flow to friction loss.
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #3  
Black poly pipe and double clamp the couplers, one facing one way, the other facing the opposite way.
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #4  
Black poly pipe and double clamp the couplers, one facing one way, the other facing the opposite way.

Yep, just be sure not to "kink" the hose when stringing it out and making fittings. Very easy to kink it.

Harry K
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #5  
Like the other posters said use black poly.
For that long a run i would use a minimum of 1 1/4" dia.(2" would be better but that gets pretty pricy)
Use brass or stainless steel hose barbs and double clamp them with all stainless hose clamps( including the screw)
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Are there different grades of poly pipe... I've never bought any.

One place had a black poly irrigation (Residential) and I took it all out and went PVC Schedule 80.

The poly was always getting damaged.
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #7  
What would the pressure be? From a deep well with a submersible pump, around here we use 160# poly like the others mentioned.
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #8  
If the ground is a concern, have a thermal fused joint, rather than a barbed coupling and hose clamps. This is what we use on geothermal loops since the clamps can corrode and the joint could come apart. The tool is expensive, so seek a plumber that can help out with the joint. It will last forever.

paul
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #9  
If the ground is a concern, have a thermal fused joint, rather than a barbed coupling and hose clamps. This is what we use on geothermal loops since the clamps can corrode and the joint could come apart. The tool is expensive, so seek a plumber that can help out with the joint. It will last forever.

paul
SDR11 poly and a Ritmo iron :thumbsup:
 
   / Water Line Help for 1500' run from Spring to Homestead #10  
Are there different grades of poly pipe... I've never bought any.

One place had a black poly irrigation (Residential) and I took it all out and went PVC Schedule 80.

The poly was always getting damaged.
Yes. SDR numbers. the lower number the heavier the wall. As was suggested earlier SDR 11 is a good heavy wall pipe that will last a lifetime. You must have had some of the really thin wall pipe to have had problems.
 

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