Can a sludge pipe be connected straight to the down pipe with a t junction feeding the water tank?

[SNOWYZ50]

 hello the photo shows the sludge pipe connected to the gutter down pipe with the “T” junction to feed the water tank. Is this feasible? If not, your help will be much appreciated. Disregard the pipe in the foreground. Andrew Snowden 

[Jason]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community Andrew (@SNOWYZ50). We're pleased to have you join us. 

Apologies that our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. experts aren't with us at the moment due to unforeseen circumstances. Let me tag some other members with plumbing experience who might be able to share their thoughts: @JDE, @tom_builds, @JacobZ95.

Jason

[JacobZ95]

Hi @SNOWYZ50,

It probably wouldn’t work particularly well because the pipe coming off your gutter is nearly perfectly vertical. 

Swapping the 3 way junction to something like this 100mm PVC Y Junction might help, but it still wouldn’t get as much of the water as possible. 

I’m no expert in this sort of thing though, just my thoughts. 

Jacob

[EricL]

Hello @SNOWYZ50 

Thanks for sharing your question about your down pipe being redirected to your water tank. Unfortunately, water needs to be manually redirected in order for it flow in the direction that you want. The good news is that there is device you can use to turn the water towards your tank.

I suggest having a look at the Rain Harvesting 90mm 3-Way Water Diverter, it has a two-way diverting switch, one to go straight down and one to redirect to the side. It's made of PVC and is compatible with standard 90mm down pipes.

However, the only issue I see is how to turn the switch from up there. You would need to have a ladder close by whenever you need to divert the water. 

If the tank has an inbuilt overflow, I suggest permanently redirecting the downpipe to the water tank. Unless the water coming down has purpose then it would be better to direct it to the water tank to keep your water supply fresh.

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

Eric