Some basic plumbing help
 

Last year, I went to great lengths to ease the burden of having to manually fill my EarthTainers, hauling water in 5-gallon buckets from my bathtub as I did not have an outdoor water source. (A large reservoir connected to the boxes via drip tubing turned this from a daily procedure to a bi-weekly one.) I have since moved, and this year, it appears that I will be in an even worse situation, with no outdoor water source and a bathtub even farther from the patio.

I am wondering if there is a solution involving my kitchen sink. If there is a way to easily make a T-connection underneath the sink and run a hose of some sort behind the couch in my living room and out the patio door. Since I have no way of keeping the hose outdoors permanently without leaving the patio door open, I'd still have to manually fill a reservoir, but certainly this would be easier than carrying the water.

So... can any plumbers/handymen tell me if there is a simple way to do this? Rather than start researching the options, I figured I might as well just ask to see if anyone knows first-hand. Thanks!

Does your kitchen sink have a sprayer hose?

Does any faucet in your house already have external threads on it that look like something to which you could screw a hose?

The kitchen sink does not have a separate sprayer hose, but does have one built in as part of the main faucet. It pulls out from the main assembly and has a button to toggle between normal faucet operation and sprayer function. Let me know if a picture would be more useful.


Neither the kitchen nor bathroom faucets (which are too far away to realistically use anyhow) are threaded.

It sounds like you are going to have to learn how to be a plumber if you want a hose connection. It's not that hard; a lot of people do their own plumbing. Make sure you know where your whole-house shutoff valve is located before you go poking around. Everyone should know that, anyway. Look under the sink and see what material your supply line is made of. It might be flexible plastic tubing, pvc pipe, or copper pipe. I think copper is the hardest to work with, but it's not impossible.

Alternatively, you could just strap a container to a dolly and roll your water out to the plants after you fill it with the sink sprayer.

I live in a big apartment complex, which makes things a bit more difficult, as cutting pipes is not an option. Both the hot and cold lines have a shut-off, with flexible metal hose (which appears to have compression connections) connecting to the faucet.

The dolly idea is a good one. Last year, I used a large Rubbermaid garbage can as my water reservoir. It fed four SWCs via 1/4" drip tubing. In order to make this work, I would have to figure out a way to disconnect the garbage can from the system without all of the water spilling out. It's easy enough to pull the tubing out of the rubber grommet at the bottom of the garbage can, but then I would have to temporarily plug the hole somehow while I fill it.

Do you have a laundry hookup. They are hose fittings.

Another option is to unscrew your aerator from the kitchen faucet, take it to your hardware store or plumbing supply and explain that you want to hook a garden hose to the faucet. They should be able to find an adapter to help you.

Run a length of cheap 3/8 inch vinyl tubing from you sink to the patio. Set a bucket on your patio and just siphon it from your sink. That's temporary but workable. Next look under the sink and describe the connection between the cold water shut off valve and the faucet fixture. Plastic? Tubing? Or copper? If you decide to tee into it (downstream of the cutoff valve) I strongly suggest putting a valve on the tee and the hose end at the patio open. You do not want a pressurized hose running across your living area. Also, do not place the end of the hose at the patio below the water surface. It must fall into the container, otherwise you are at risk of back flow contamination.

The siphon idea is interesting. But I think it might not work unless the top of the reservoir on the patio is at sink height. Also, wouldn't it require me getting the siphon started each time (essentially sucking the water through the length of the hose)?

Here's what's going on underneath the sink. The supply lines are PVC. They connect (via a compression fitting of some sort) to shut-off valves. The shut-off valves connect to flexible metal hoses, which connect to the faucet.

I would think that the opportunity for an easy T-connection would be where the shut-off valves hit the metal hoses, since the fittings can be easily unscrewed. The question in my mind is whether you can put a T-connection there, and whether there is an adapter that will connect a hose (either garden hose or otherwise) to that fitting.

Of course, I am not a plumber, so maybe I'm taking an overly simplistic view of this. If my description doesn't make any sense, let me know and I'll post a picture.

It might be worth checking a large pet store too. There are all manner of gadgets out there to help apartment dwellers deal with filling and emptying aquariums as well as dog-washing.

There is an attachment for a drill that can be used to pump water but I'm not sure how long that would hold up under frequent use. You would need to have water from the kitchen faucet running into a bucket in the sink and use the drill pump to get it from the bucket through the hose to the patio reservoir. That would be a slow process but easier than carrying buckets through the living room.

There is another attachment that fits onto a regular aerator-type faucet and is threaded for a garden hose but it doesn't sound like your faucet is a type that would work with that.

Very interesting idea, bcday. Some quick research shows that people are mostly unimpressed with the drill bit pumps of every variety and brand. Harbor Freight sells one for $4 which might be worth trying if it comes to that even despite the reviews ([url]http://www.harborfreight.com/all-purpose-drill-water-pump-34302.html[/url]).

Another possibility, which I saw someone mention in the comments for one of these, is a submersible aquarium pump. I would need to find one that can hook up to the necessary hosing/tubing. I could just fill up the sink, drop it in, start pumping, and then keep the sink running.

Thank you for the great ideas! I'll definitely try these out if the plumbing solution doesn't look realistic.

You can certainly rig up a 1/4 inch tee with male and female connections between the stopcock and faucet hose. Put a 1/4 inch valve on the tee, then a 3/8" barb, and hook it to some cheap 3/8" vinyl tubing. You will want to control the flow from under the sink, so the vinyl hose is not under house pressure. And make sure their is an air gap at all times so the water falls out of the hose into the container. If its below the water surface you could inadvertently create a backflow from the storage container into your potable supply.

Some showerhead assemblys come with a showerhead and then a hand held sprayer.Get some fittings so that you can use those snap in/on hose sprayers(garden).Have your hose close to bathroom ready and then other end close to patio.

doug9345 had the best idea. unscrew your aerator, that little piece at the very end of the faucet. go to a hardware or appliance store and get a faucet adapter . the adapter is two pieces, one screws on where the aerator came off and one screws onto a garden hose. the adapter will snap on and off the faucet by pushing a collar. get a hose as long as needed.save the aerator so you can reinstall it when you move.

It sounds like he has one of those newer style faucets with the pullout faucet head which doubles as a sprayer. This means there is no aerator to unscrew. So I'd say the best options are either the submersible pump or find a laundry hook up near a window. Since it's a rental property, I wouldn't even try messing with plumbing.