Water line trench

[ace10]

Texas - 2 feet deep is ok.
Pa - 2 ft deep is not ok.

Exactly.

Right.

Location, location, location.

 

[ace10]

...
I have several hundred foot hoses. I regularly hook them up together to get more length with the result of a 200 foot run. I have never measured my water pressure at the end of the hose, but know that my house water pressure is set for 60 pounds. I cannot tell the difference between the water pressure coming out from the 200 feet of hose to what it's like coming out of the water spicket at the house.

Eddie

Don't know about you, but around my place we use 5/8" and 3/4" garden hose. The OP is talking about using 1/2" PEX. There's a massive difference between flow rates of 5/8" (0.625) and 3/4" (0.75) ID hose and the nominal ~0.475" ID for the PEX (and even smaller at the fittings).

1/2" PEX is normally used for drops in a residential setting, not even mains. I don't see why anyone would use them for a long buried run.


$0.02

 

[dieselscout80]

Flow Chart

I grew up in Montana and we buried lines deep like 6'.

I would NOT do less if you get below zero fahrenheit.

Pex may not break, but the fittings for pex do.

 

[MoMower]

About half way done, will finish tomorrow, used 1/2 line, the flow when running through the 300' coil was acceptable.

I sheathed it in a combination of 1" black pipe and old garden hose I had around to help with penetration issues. The roll of 1/2 was $62, and the hydrant was $50. My little Massy did good.

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[MoMower]

Depth was between 30" and 36", had to stay above septic lines near the house.

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[Gary Fowler]

Much depends upon the starting pressure available as to acceptable flow rates. My BIL's meter is by my water meter but his house is 500 feet away and fed by a 1" PVC line that will run his sprinkler system and still provide plenty of flow to the house. The pressure at the meter is 100 PSI. I have a 3/4" line ran from the meter to my shop (over 100 feet) then from there 200 more feet to a hose to water my garden when mother nature doesn't feel up to it. It has plenty of flow from a 5/8" hose at the far end. I don't know that I would even consider running 1/2" but with 3/4" there is plenty of flow to run sprinkler or whatever I need.
Starting with 60 PSI might make a big difference in flow rather than 100 PSI that I have courtesy of my local water company.

 

[Alan L.]

I will add to the suggestion that you should use bigger pipe. I had some long runs on my property and I knew I would be watering at 2 or 3 faucets at any given time. I went with 1.5" bell end PVC and don't regret it as I have tremendous pressure at those faucets. By contrast my house has all 1/2" PEX and the hose faucets tied into that don't have good pressure at all. Wish I had gone bigger on the inside of the house.

 

[ultrarunner]

We are all 1/2" copper in house and for yard hydrant at Mom's place on city water... 180 psi +/- 5 lbs

 

[crazyal]

It's pointless to argue over pipe size when the project is half done and the OP said the water flow through a full roll (300 feet) was acceptable. Hopefully MoMower can answer a few questions once it's done as to how much water flow 1/2" PEX gives him.

 

[GPintheMitten]

It's pointless to argue over pipe size when the project is half done and the OP said the water flow through a full roll (300 feet) was acceptable. Hopefully MoMower can answer a few questions once it's done as to how much water flow 1/2" PEX gives him.

I agree.

MoMower, what county are you in?If you aren't completely done and haven't back-filled yet, can you go deeper at all? I realize you have an issue of depth crossing the septic line but could you trench on one side or the other of the pipe coming from the basement to the septic tank?

I'm concerned that your line will freeze -- maybe not every winter but if you get an exceptionally cold winter.

If you can't go deeper and haven't back-filled yet, maybe you could put some foam insulation over the pipe.

If you're all done, never mind. And best wishes on it.

 

[MoMower]

Finished and back filled last night. I will do a GPM test tomorrow for shi$& and giggles. It flows well, it was 30-36" deep, in line foe my area, Northampton county.

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[MoMower]

5 gallon bucket took approx 1 min 45 to fill to over flow

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[Ken45101]

5 gallon bucket took approx 1 min 45 to fill to over flow

Which means that a 300 gallon stock tank would take almost 2 hours to fill. I have to fill ours every other day. It takes about 40 minutes here.

Of course, if you don't have any volume water requirements now and will never have them in the future, it doesn't matter.

 

[BeezFun]

5 gallon bucket took approx 1 min 45 to fill to over flow

Thanks, if it's not too much trouble would you mind doing the same test at the faucet up by your house? I'm curious how close the calculated flow loss is to the real case.

 

[MoMower]

Which means that a 300 gallon stock tank would take almost 2 hours to fill. I have to fill ours every other day. It takes about 40 minutes here.

Of course, if you don't have any volume water requirements now and will never have them in the future, it doesn't matter.

no real volume demands, we have a 100 gallon tank for the horses we fill aproxomately once a week.

 

[MoMower]

Thanks, if it's not too much trouble would you mind doing the same test at the faucet up by your house? I'm curious how close the calculated flow loss is to the real case.

I kind of think I'm seeing things, but I'm not,1 gallon milk container at the kitchen faucet took approximately 1 minute. The kitchen faucet is as close to the valve board as anything else. No games here either, same phone timer used at the hydrant.

 

[MoMower]

Ok, with out the wife in the shower, or any other running water in the house, 1 gallon milk jug at the kitchen was 48 seconds.

 

[byronlj]

For an idea of how much flow you have, 2.85 gpm is just above the minimum to run a single rotor sprinkler head. Most irrigation systems run 4 or 5 full rotors per station.
Dave

 

[GPintheMitten]

Ok, with out the wife in the shower, or any other running water in the house, 1 gallon milk jug at the kitchen was 48 seconds.

Most kitchen faucets have aerators. I think that slows the flow. It matters not to me but it might be a better experiment to use an outside faucet. But then again, you might be tiring of this.

 

[oldpilgrim]

also most inside faucets have about 1/4" flexible copper pipe connected to the 1/2 inch copper line. This really slows down the flow.