I install a 1200 gallon (4550 liter) rainwater harvesting tank to collect water for our garden when our irrigation well runs low in the summer. This is four part mini-series.
Jump to:
Part 1 – Pour a Rainwater Tank Foundation
Part 2 – Rainwater Tank Plumbing and Fittings
Part 3 – Rainwater Tank Pump and Irrigation
Part 4 – First Run of Tank Drip Irrigation System
Install a Rainwater Tank – PART 2: the Plumbing and Tank Fittings
(this is a transcript from the video)
This is part two of my series on installing this 1200 gallon rainwater harvesting tank. It the first episode, I excavated a level spot beside this shed and poured a curb to hold the gravel that supports the weight of the tank AND allows water to drain from around the tank without causing erosion.
In this episode I’ll show how I connected this tank to the gutters.
Link Gutters on Two Buildings
To get the most water I can in our dry summers, I connected the gutters from the larger workshop to this shed and that gave me about 1400 square feet of roof.
A few years ago I installed a steel roof on these buildings and added new gutters that have a leaf guard.
Because of that I won’t need to add a leaf screen to the downspouts. And that’s good because I don’t have a lot of distance from the bottom of the gutters to the top of the tank.
I have just enough space for pipe slope so I can connect BOTH sides into one. In the winter when we get heavy rains I can remove the pipes that connect the gutters between buildings and reinstall the aluminum downspouts.
Downspout Plumbing
I replace the downspout on the shed here with 3″ PVC drainpipe. I added a gate valve for water collection in the summer. I close the valve and water backs up and fills the first flush diverter then runs around the building to the other side.
On the opposite side of this smaller workshop I’ll put together another pipe and fitting assembly as the first one.
Plumbing and Fittings
The gate valve and the “T” at the top of the first flush diverter are designed to fit a Schedule 40 PVC pipe. That’s a thicker walled version of the 3″ drain pipe I’m using for everything else. So I need to first glue in these sleeves to allow me to connect everything together.
I could only find the black ABS sleeves but they will work fine for this. I just need the right glue that works on PVC and ABS together. And you have very little time, a few seconds really, to get the parts in the right position once you glue them and slide them together. And there’s no going back for a second try.
So planning is key to making this work. I dry fit everything first and use a sharpie to mark what goes where. Except, the morning I was working on this assembly.
I work as a Paramedic and my schedule is erratic and not always consistent. I worked a night shift and didn’t get enough sleep in the morning, then tried to do some plumbing. Not a good combo.
I glued the sleeves into the “T” at the top of the first flush diverter and that was okay. But, right there is the problem.
For some reason I was thinking that the “T” that sits above the gate went in the same orientation as the first flush T. And I went ahead and glued them together.
And that’s the moment right there that I realized what I did. And then some choice words came out of my mouth.