Can I connect a constant pressure pump to garden hose tap?

[fcjoseph]

Hi Team,

I have recently installed a pop up sprinkler system for my lawn. Below are the specifications of the the installation 

Total no of Sprinklers: 9

Sprinkler : K Rain 100MM PRO-S ADJ SPRAY

Pipes and connections :19mm polypipes and fittings

Aprox Length: 35m

But now the trouble I am having is I am not getting enough pressure on the sprinklers to pop up when I am running it on the hose tap. But works fine when rain water tank pump is working. But at the moment rain water tank is empty and pump is not working. 
Advise I am looking for is whether I can fit a constant pressure pump(I/N: 4819827) in between hose tap and my sprinklers pipe? So that I can get a better pressure, all the videos and installations shows connecting the inlet to a tank, but will it work with a inlet of a hose pipe?

[EricL · Accepted solution]

Hello @fcjoseph 

Thanks for sharing your question about connecting a constant pressure pump to your garden hose tap. Please do not connect the pump to your garden tap. If you wish to increase the pressure of the water coming out of your tap, I suggest engaging the services of Licensed plumber. The typical constant pressure pump must be attached to a water tank only as it pumps out a tremendous amount of water. 

Instead of a constant pressure pump, I suggest installing an Apex RainAid Retention Tank Valve. This will keep your water tank topped up and does not require a pump. In order for you to use the pump you currently have; I suggest filling your water tank with water from your garden tap. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[AaroninMelb]

Hi

I have the exact same issue as fcjoseph above, except I do not have a rainwater tank and need to somehow improve the water pressure from the garden tap by the side of the house.  The house was built in 1993 and only recently had a pressure reduction valve installed to the main at the water meter last year.  This has reduced overall water pressure to the house which is fine, but there is now insufficient pressure to run the popup sprinkler system.  The old system was not used for some time and once we bought the house we located the sprinklers and replaced them with K-rain Pro's.  There is no water blockage in the system.  Is there any kind of pump that would be appropriate to connect between the tap and the sprinkler line to improve the water pressure?

Thanks

Aaron

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @AaroninMelb. It's a pleasure to have you join us and many thanks for your question on water pumps.

Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any pump that can simply take the water from your garden tap and boost the pressure enough just for your pop-up sprinkler system at the rear. Pumps generally need a good source pressure to work effectively, and household taps, especially with a pressure-limiting valve, usually won’t provide enough to significantly boost the system on their own.

It might be worth discussing with a licensed plumber whether a high-pressure line can be run directly from the mains to the rear of your property, bypassing the pressure-limiting valve. That could allow your sprinkler system to operate as intended.

Otherwise, it sounds like your system was designed for higher water pressure than you now have, so you’ll probably need to redesign the system to work in sections. For example, if you have eight pop-ups, you could run four at a time rather than all eight simultaneously. You could bisect the irrigation line midway, block off one section, and run a separate pipe back to the tap for the other four pop-ups. Using a dual-outlet tap timer, you could then schedule the two sections to run separately, effectively halving the pressure demand for each run.

To get this right, you’d need to do a litres-per-minute test on your tap to see exactly how much flow is available. That will tell you how many pop-ups can run simultaneously and allow you to plan the sections accordingly. Essentially, the solution is to adjust your irrigation system to suit the new, lower water pressure rather than trying to force all pop-ups to run off it at once.

The only other option I can think of would be to install a tank, as Eric mentioned above. The mains would fill the tank and then the pump would take that water, pressurise it and run your irrigation system.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[AaroninMelb]

Thanks Mitchell.  Looks like I may need to take the hard road!  There's pressure in the tap, it's just not quite enough to get the sprinklers fully popping up.  Thanks anyway.

Aaron