Features of barrels with a tap for irrigation

Owning a summer cottage or a country house implies that the owners have a certain set of equipment, which also includes means for irrigation. These include buckets, watering cans, hoses, all kinds of sprayers and sprinklers, and often such a multifunctional item as a barrel. It can be used for storing tools and preparing compost, as a pool, flower bed or garden bed, barbecue or table, but most often it is used as a main or reserve container for irrigation. It is desirable that the barrel be equipped with a convenient and reliable tap for this purpose.

The classic shape of a barrel is a cylindrical vessel with flat bottoms, which can be rolled on its side or placed on the end in the desired place. Not so long ago, 20-25 years ago, the choice of barrels from summer residents was limited to a standard metal capacity with a capacity of 200 liters. A great success was the opportunity to acquire a welded barrel from a pipe with a diameter of 80-120 cm at the dacha.

Today, summer residents have a much more varied choice of reservoir in volume, shape and design, material and equipment, which also applies to the subject of consideration - a barrel with a tap for irrigation.

Considering in order the above criteria for the selection of a garden or garden barrel, let's start with its capacity. Today on the market you can find a barrel or container with a capacity of 20 liters to 1-2 cubic meters. For irrigation, volumes of 50-200 liters are more in demand, which can be set independently without additional devices.

In shape and design, in addition to round ones, you can use cubic or rectangular containers, the so-called eurocubes. They are widely used in food or industrial production, utilities. It is not difficult to purchase them, but they are convenient because they have a fitting at the bottom for installing a crane.

The material of the barrel can be steel: ordinary carbon, more durable galvanized, almost eternal, but at the same time quite expensive stainless steel. A plastic barrel is becoming more popular with summer residents, the material of which is strong enough, lightweight and invulnerable to corrosion. The choice of types of plastic is quite wide, the disadvantage can be considered a low resistance to high temperatures, and in some types - to direct sunlight. This material, in comparison with steel, is easy to process, which allows, if desired, to make a collapsible structure from several containers, save space and get a larger volume.

The equipment of the drums can include a lid, an already installed nipple, or a nipple with a tap.

The easiest way for summer cottage irrigation is to use a standard 200-liter barrel, install a tap on it yourself with a diameter of 0.5 to 1.5 inches, thereby saving yourself from unnecessary worries for the whole season. The main work in this operation is to make a hole in the wall or bottom of the barrel for a choke of the desired diameter. In both metal and plastic drums, this hole can be easily made with a drill and file. The wall thickness for metal barrels is usually 2-3 mm, for plastic it can reach up to 10 mm, in both cases it is easy to modify a drilled hole with a file, even with a diameter of 10-12 mm.The same hole can be modified with a jigsaw, and possible errors can be compensated by selecting a washer for a locknut.

The next step is to install a threaded nipple with two locknuts into the wall. For sealing, a standard set of materials for plumbing work is used - linen roll or FUM tape, red lead paint or silicone sealant. These materials provide the necessary tightness in water supply systems with a pressure of up to 10 m of water. post, therefore the unpressurized fitting is sealed unambiguously. When installing the valve in a flat bottom, the fitting can be securely sealed with a rubber gasket.

You can learn how to embed a tap into a plastic barrel for watering with your own hands from the video below.