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Water In A Studio Without Plumbing: Ideas Needed


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I have a wonderful studio, but there is no source of running water. I carry 3 gallons out to my studio at   a time and fill up a crock on a shelf above a  gardening sink with a hose attached. when I turn on the sink spigot,I then get  water by gravity from the crock. The crock fitting did not fit a hose fitting, so I had to do some filing and glueing. This fitting is  not working; it leaks. Any other ideas? I feel like I need a minature rain barrell!

 

Added: The rain barrel  would be inside. 

Added: the spigots that come on coolers and drinking water containers do not fit hose fittings. That is what I have been using, after cutting, glueing, and clamping them onto proper hose fittings. Perhaps I just need to remove the old spigots and add hose fittings! Thanks for brainstorming with me.

 

Added: This has been a very helpful group of responses. My new goal is to quit lifting water and find a pump. The new challenge is to find adapters to adapte the pump hose, which seems to be 1/2 inch, to the required 5/8" fitting on the sink. Half way there!

Many pumps are sold without an electrical wire; they expect a person to add their own. Any ideas why? Even though the pump will not be submerged, this just doesn't seem as safe to me. Comments or explanations on adding electrical cords?

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A really simple approach, would just be to use a 10 gallon cooler, with a spigot, like those sports teams use. You'd still have to fill it, on your own, but the plumbing is already done for you.

 

Personally, I'd avoid using rainwater. Water in the open like that, can attract nasty stuff. There are even cases of stagnant water containing naegleria, an ameba, that gets into the brain, and is fatal. I guess if the container was covered really well, it might be OK, but water from the tap is almost always safer, due to the treatment it undergoes.

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I do not have plumbing and have no room for a sink. In the winter I carry out water in plastic gallon jugs. I generally have 3 or 4 of them out there. If I were going to store water above a sink I would probably get a big plastic jug with a spigot. With water weighing 8 pounds per gallon, a gravity-fed system is a challenge. I have considered a rain barrel, but the water coming out of the ones I have is full of pollen and other stuff I don't want in my studio.

 

I found a number of possible storage jugs with fill holes and spigots on Amazon searching for "water storage jug 5 gallon". For example

http://www.amazon.com/Bluewave-Gallon-Big-Mouth-Reusable-Water/dp/B000ZHHEB6/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&qid=1393938809&sr=8-26&keywords=Water+storage+jug+5+gallon

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A couple of years ago I had to make a basement overflow drain near where the well came in.  I found that it was pretty easy to get fittings, cut holes in 5 gal paint buckets and set up a re route to the drain in the floor. I would think the same could be done for a reservoir with fittings from that with a hose with inline valve to a second bucket for washing etc. I would wander around in lowes with a sketch of what I wanted to do-they would help you work it out.

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When throwing, I bring hot water out to the studio in a wash-pail bucket. Two gallons,maybe. Water is heavy. i do not drain water anywhere. It just seems to evaporate. The water that does not get used for throwing fills two 3 quart milk jugs. From these I water my two geraniums.

I did dig a four foot trench from my house to my studio which is twenty feet away. It has an electrical coil on it to keep the water from freezing. I also have a sink that drains back to my house drain. I didn't end up hooking the rest of the system up. I use surprisingly little water. I bring in a 5 gallon bucket of clean water from the house for glaze mixing. I keep glaze water separate from clay water.I bring all seives and dirty glaze pails back to my laundry sink to wash.

The only flaw to my system is that I have buckets of water sitting around the studio.

TJR.

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I throw in the house, but I collect my throw water in a pail and it is used outside for other things.  However, I glaze in the shop and just have a couple of 5 gal buckets with clean water and 3 or 4 gal jugs on the table for clean up, etc.  I take big clean up projects into the house.   I was surprised at how little water I use out there.  

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Depending on your soil type (no clay soils), height of your water table, and local laws, you could maybe install a driven-point well (also called sand points).  Aside from the actual driving which is a little labour intensive (but in no way mentally difficult), it's just hooking up a hand pump.  Definitely cleaner than a rain barrel.

 

Depending on how much you want to spend on hardware and fittings it might be an option to consider.  I know setting up rain barrels can be expensive.  

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RV style water pumps are on demand without a need for a pressure tank.

 

http://www.amazon.com/LF122202A-Automatic-1-1-GPM-12-Volt-3-5-Amp/dp/B000O8AZ6M/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1393954710&sr=8-10&keywords=water+pump+120V

 

run about $60 but require 12V.   You could run off a small battery charger that plugs in assuming you have 120V power to the studio.

 

This means you can use a 55gal drum to  collect rain water etc and not worry about gravity feed and use a reg household style faucet in your sink.

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I never would have thought of this! We have plenty of springs, but we also have heavy clay soil. Great idea however!

Applekate,  if you have springs, you may have sand (or some other suitable soil) under the heavy clay which is fine, if it's shallow enough.  Check with your local geologist or water authority.  It could be okay.

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Well although you implied low cost you didn't actually say if cost is a big factor. The cink ($1800ish) works fantastic and we have been using one for going on 5-6 years now. The nice thing about the cink is that it is self contained and needs no daily or even weekly screwing around with. We clean ours out every few months by washing filters, removing built up sludge in the holding tank and changing water to remove any odors. By the time you buy a studio style stainless steel sink and the on demand system components you may well be in for a good portion of the cost of this and not have the portability of a self contained sink like this.

 

I know it seems like a lot  but Studio equipment on the whole is expensive. It also seems to last a very long time and anything that saves some of your most valuable commodity, time, is worth a look even if it seems to cost a lot a first blush. I still get a new bucket of water every few days and will knock off the bigger cleaning projects in a bucket before using the cink (to save on cleaning) but water really does become less of a hassle and I can concentrate on why I'm there instead of spending valuable studio time fussing with water.

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I never knew that pottery was such a dangerous profession.  Clay dust...toxic glaze chemicals...and now various diseases from collecting hair for brushes, and brain ameobas from collecting rain water.  AAArghhhhh!

We gotta die of something, may as well be exotic! Just read the paintbrush topic... scare you indoors fast.

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I have a large plastic rain barrel which I fill with the hose right before we turn off the spigots for the winter. I've been using this for 10 years. Water is always nice and clear. It is pretty much sealed except for a plastic screwed in plug on the top and a spigot on the bottom with a mini hose. I thought this was temporary, but turned out to be all I needed.

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I live about 150 yard away, so I just run a long hose out in the summer.

I have zero idea which state you live in but if freezing is not an issue-rent a trencher and dig a trench at least 18 inches deep and put in some PVC plastic pipe bury and have water. This will not cost that much if you do it yourself .If you are in a freeze state you need to go deeper with this winter maybe 20 feet with a heated pipe.Just kidding on the 20 feet.

mark

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PA frost is 48" where as it is normally 36". Wonder why so many places are bursting pipes!

No doubt there Pres. Our frost depth, is right around that as well. Normally it's around twelve inches.

 

My friend, who lives in Maine, says their frost depth, isn't anywhere near our's, and he's a stones throw from Canada.

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My wife and I plan to use a storage tank and a system of strainers to recycle the water we use. We'll have to fill the tank initially with a hose, but after that just an occasional top-off and cleaning of the strainers should be all that it needs. We'll use either a hand pump or small electric one (the 12v one is a great idea) to bring the water back in.

 

It'll basically be a homemade cink with a large storage tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

wow i have a hair salon in my garden my husband ran a pipe out from our water had our plumber in and he connected a shower unit and have a small tank outside dug into the ground , and a pump, which pumps the water into our drain, and that didn't cost the earth to have done, my husband just hoses it out now and again, cos i won't lie it does get a build up of soap and gunk. but otherwise pretty good, we lagged the pipes and just buried them slightly in the ground,  what a fab studio that would make, but business comes first ....

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I have the same issue and I solved it by getting...... a rain barrel.  Sam's Club has them locally.  They are 60 gallons, have a garden hose faucet on the bottom and fill at the top.  I have mine sitting on a cabinet and I fill it various ways including melt water from buckets of snow that I collect and filter.  As for a pump, there are lots of pumps that hook up to garden hoses that you can get in either 12 volt or 115 volt and you can pump water into your rain barrel or out, or both.   I am thinking of building a recirculating water system that would run from 2 or three plastic barrels and utilize a solid trap under a sink. 

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