vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 A very basic question, please. I need to get an outdoor tap/standpipe fitted, to be teed off our mains water pipe. The mains pipe already has a stop tap on it, so I need to get a tee fitting, then the rest of the pipe and tap paraphenalia. Is there a particular brand or standard that I should be looking at for the underground fittings? The pipe is 20mm (or maybe 22mm as all the kit seems to be). Ta! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 If it is blue MPDE then it is likely to be 25mm, it could be 20mm but surprising if it is as it tends to be used less for mains supplies. Pipestock hold all you need - is this an external standpipe as it will need insulating and preferably have its own isolator. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Thanks, Peter. Yes, it's for the kitchen garden area, so very external. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 I believe you are on raised beds. Have you considered an auto-watering system? Not expensive - I have one linked up to a waterbutt in my front garden - surprisingly effective and I have a birdbath on the circuit so that I have a flag as to when X amount of water has come out. F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 +1 for an auto-watering setup. Easy to use and needs no attention, other than a periodic check to see if the drippers are still dripping. I used a system with a programmable timer that came on twice a day (early morning and evening) and it works extremely well. The pipes are easy to hide, too, as they are fairly small and being black tend to blend in with the soil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Worth thinking about, thanks chaps. There's no power supply up there, but we do have a manual drip hose system that we used successfully at our old place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 42 minutes ago, vivienz said: Worth thinking about, thanks chaps. There's no power supply up there, but we do have a manual drip hose system that we used successfully at our old place. most of the systems are battery now - even saw a solar one at one of the shows which was very clever. Guy down at the allotmentS has one on a car battery and a small solar panel on his shed roof, it pumps the water out of his water butt into the greenhouse mist and watering system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Funnily enough, OH and I were discussing some sort of solar arrangement for the kitchen garden area. Given that the time when the beds need watering most is when there is plenty of sunshine, it does make sense. If the light levels are low due to poor weather, nature will do the watering for me. We need to decide on the final arrangement for all the beds and fruit cages first; about half the raised beds are up and filled now and we will clad the second greenhouse once the wind drops at the end of the week. A watering system in those would certainly be useful over the summer, assuming that my straw bale growing experiment works out, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 1 hour ago, vivienz said: Worth thinking about, thanks chaps. There's no power supply up there, but we do have a manual drip hose system that we used successfully at our old place. The timer I have runs on four AA cells for about a year, and just fits to an outside tap. It has a digital timer, under a sealed cover, and a clever internal valve that only uses a short pulse of power to turn on or off. IIRC it wasn't very expensive, maybe £15 or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 3 minutes ago, Jeremy Harris said: The timer I have runs on four AA cells for about a year, and just fits to an outside tap. It has a digital timer, under a sealed cover, and a clever internal valve that only uses a short pulse of power to turn on or off. IIRC it wasn't very expensive, maybe £15 or so. Blimey, I had no idea it was so low powered. I will definitely look it into this further as it would save a good deal of effort on a summer evening when I could be busy drinking a G&T on the patio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, vivienz said: Worth thinking about, thanks chaps. There's no power supply up there, but we do have a manual drip hose system that we used successfully at our old place. Mine is driven by the water butt being a couple of feet above the garden soil, plus the water level in the butt. I leave it on for the morning then turn it off, when the birdbath is empty. Plants get watered simultaneously. The birdbath is a biggish plantpot saucer at ground level. Edited April 20, 2020 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 3 minutes ago, Ferdinand said: Mine is driven by the water butt being a couple of feet above the garden soil. The birdbath is a biggish plantpot saucwr At ground level. Gravity fed is a lovely simple idea but I don't think it would work for us as our water butts are only 100l capacity each. If we went away for a week in good weather I think the water butts would run dry quite early on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 7 minutes ago, vivienz said: Blimey, I had no idea it was so low powered. I will definitely look it into this further as it would save a good deal of effort on a summer evening when I could be busy drinking a G&T on the patio. The one we have looks like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Automatic-Electronic-Water-Garden-Hose-Watering-Timer-Irrigation-System-Tap-UK/392333041185?hash=item5b58df1e21%3Ag%3A048AAOSwcoFdJGws&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=1000 Looks like I was wrong about the batteries, it uses two AA cells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 If you want to lose an hour or two .... try this site.. Everything from a simple dripper to Wifi enabled smart controllers ..!! https://www.waterirrigation.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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