Water line project.

ethompson

5 year old buck +
If you were to run a 1150 ft water line from a 3/4 inch line, what size pipe would you use? Ive heard 2", 1" and 1/2". Using PVC SCHD 40. Elevation change will be downhill 42 ft. It will Y off about half way down and run vertical for about 100 ft. then back down. Also any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks. Eric
 
I'm a bit confused based on what you wrote. I'm going to follow this one though. I am always trying to think of ways to give myself water inside my cabin. I think that's what you're trying to do. I have a similar run and drop from a spring (under a spring house) and use a 3/4 inch black water line to run it. I use a 50 gal plastic barrel outside to hold water in it with a hose spicket screwed in the cap. I don't use mine for drinking. Any drinking water I use, I bring with me.
 
So you're coming off of a 3/4 inch line at the source? How much elevation is the vertical run? A 42 foot drop should allow you to run it through anything. What will be at the end? How much pressure do you need at the end? How much pressure is at the source? You will lose psi due to static pressure from the pipe length but pick up about 17 psi from the 42 ft drop. What sort of flow is at the source and what do you need at the end.
 
What are you planning to use it for, is the main thing. You will lose either pressure or volume with that length. It is just a sliding scale in which is the best trade off for you.
 
You could add a solar pump part way but your main issue is that if you go with anything bigger than 3/4 you will lose pressure while it tries to fill the bigger line.I am running a line 500 ft from a shallow well pump that will feed from a cased well feed is 1 1/4 line and I will feed from two 3/4 inch lines off pump to give me more volume and should have enough pressure to water fruit trees and food plot.I wouldn't normally try to water food plot but have excess water here.I will test on top of ground before laying in trench.So where does your 1 inch line come from?
 
Thanks for all the replies. Really helpful. I will try to answer the question.
The project is so that we will have water available at different areas of the property. First is for watering new trees that I have planted and for future plantings. We do some controlled grass burning every winter and having the water nearby just adds a little safety to the burns. Spigots will be added along the lengths of the line.
I do not know the pressure, but pop had to turn down the pressure in the shower. I am not sure of the size of the main. We have a lot of pressure. Probably too much. We are at the end of a rural water line. I have ran shorter water lines here and there with no lose, but this one will be my biggest. So far after reading some replies, I will run the length in 1/2" schedule 40 pvc. Its going to look like an "Y" with the right side having about a 100' of non-downhill run, then downhill the rest of the way. The bottom of the "Y" is going the be where I connect to the 3/4" already in use. I threw in a clip with my artistic drawing of the proposed water line if it helps.
WEEDY, how did you come up with those numbers? That I would like to write down and keep at the farm.
BUCKDEER1, I have another run that I am planning on doing but I don't believe there is any downhill to run, so I will have to have a pump placed somewhere.
One more thing I would like to know is what fittings are important to thus run? Besides the spigots fittings and the elbows, tee's, couplings etc... do i need traps, backflows or anything similar?
I am going to look this week to see if I can buy something that will show the pressure.
Thanks
 

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If I understand what you mean you are running 1/2 inch from supply to bottom of Y then changing one side to 3/4?If so this is backwards and you will lose pressure going from small to bigger.What I do is I run a regular frost free hydrant without check valve then I always use a butane torch to warm the pipe to slide on a brass hose bard and use 2 hose clamps facing opposite directions.I don't use the nylon hose barb connections.At an end I am discharging from you can use a regular frost free hydrant.i always drive a T post next to hydrant and wire securely to it.It is also a good idea to dump a 5 gal bucket of clean gravel at bottom of hole before putting hydrant in
 
I ran 3800’ of line from the main at the road to my cabin with 1” pex. Not sure if that’s relevant to your situation though.
 
.Now thats a long ways I was worried on the one I am getting ready to run and it's only 450ft.On my other farm I have windmill and pump into a cattle tank then use trash pump to fill my tanks.When i am using a chemical tote on a trailer have a generator on front of trailer and use a sump pump to pump water from tank to a drip line so that I can water trees,I just leave the drip line and come hook up sump pump line couple times a week.I can water 25 trees with 10 gals each at same time this way.Not to hijack your post just showing many ways to move water.
 
buckdeer. The whole run is going to be 1/2". I will tap into an existing 3/4" line. I do not know what a regular frost free hydrant without check valve is?
No way in heck your hijacking post. Now you've got me asking questions. Could you post a pic of your watering system? Very similar to what I'm doing now, but I use sump to pump water out of the pond into large tank, then I use (cheap harbor freight pump) hooked to water hose to deliver the water. Both pumps are fed by a large, heavy and very loud generator. The whole process takes 2+ hours. I can handle the work but I'm out of town quite a bit. Dad is getting up there in age and he can't do it. I want him to feel as he is doing something worthwhile. That is the main reasoning behind this project. Plus when he is not available, I can call friends or other family members and the directions are much simpler than the pump, pond, tank, etc... The sump pump weighs around 50-60 lbs maybe more. It has a 2" suction and discharge connections. So pumps really fast and with a lot of pressure. "on loan" from the company I work with. Have to use truck with the tank on trailer to haul it. To much for UTV.
HATD, I have dug into that a little and I am still not convinced.
Thanks
 
Ok as long as you go 3/4 to 1/2 it may equalize out some for distance.You can buy a trash pump from northern tool for around 300 make a float for you suction and they do good out of a pond as long as you don't have too much alge.If deep enough run suction out and drive post then wire to post so it will suck fairly clean water.
A frost free is one of those hydrants you raise the handle on that the faucet is on top of a piece of pipe.It's called frost free because it has a weep hole at the bottom underground{reason for gravel}that drains the water out of pipe above ground so it doesn't freeze.The check valve is used because normally water is supplied to the hydrant and the check valve keeps water from going up the pipe where it could freeze.So because the check valve is one way flow and I will be hooking into a hydrant that will work as a valve to input the water into a line iI need it to flow the other way thats reason can't have check vale on input but still need one on output end.
 
Assuming you are starting with 50 PSI at your hook up location, you're getting at least 10 gallons per minute out of the existing 3/4" line and you do a single line 1150 feet long....
-with a 1/2 inch line, you will drop you to 15-20 PSI at a flow rate of 1-2 Gallons per Minute.
-with a 3/4 inch line, you will drop to 25-30 PSI at a flow rate of 5-6 Gallons per minute
-with a 1 inch line, you will drop to 30 PSI at a flow rate of 10 Gallons per minute
 
I would say you are pretty close,thats why I am going 1 inch.Even though I will have to go to 3/4 it will just be for hydrant so I won't lose just a portion.I am looking at 1 inch pex instead of poly water line.
 
Sorry, I've been out of town. I believe you lose about 1 psi for every 2.3 foot of vertical rise. But depending on the overall beginning and ending elevation you may get a net gain via a siphon action once the line is full. I may be wrong on that, but I believe that is what I was told when establishing my setup. Static pressure loss tables can be googled. Looks like weston has done the math for you.
 
All PSI loss will depend on size of pipe and will be different for each size depending on starting pressure and footage
 
Run a minimum of 1" or bigger. Do not run 1\2" 1000' you will not be happy with the amount of water you get.
 
completed phase 1 of my 2 phase waterline project this past weekend. 3/4" pipe and 5 faucets. It took 2.5 days to complete the task from sun up to sun down. First time using a trencher. It was a beast. IF I have a choice on the next phase it will be to use 20' sections of pipe with couplings already on one end. Had 10 of those and they were much easier and flexible. Lessons learned, trencher does not make turns easily, do not use creosote poles for supports on water lines, buy additional pipe to make up for the trencher not going where I wanted it to go.
I had fun doing this project, but phase 2 will be next spring or after deer season. I did not have a single leak through out the project I was happy that I didn't have to go back and do repairs because I was very worn out. The water pressure at all faucets was = to the pressure we have at the house. I plan on taking advantage of the water line today. I bought 2 Chinese chestnuts that are probably to big for the pots they are in. Normally I wouldn't buy trees this time year to plant, but with this water line my dad will be able to water when I am out of town working. Its going to be a lot less strenuous on me.
 

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Looks good!
 
Looks good,I am doing much the same thing.I was planning on using black roll pipe.I will probably use frost free hydrant for all but the input hydrant by the well I always just fasten hydrants to a T-post
 
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