Water Storage tanks-anything to consider apart from size?

[eyecatcher]

Yes I know size matters despite the naysayers………..I am shortly starting on a new build extension to our house. Actually the extension will be the house because its bigger. Theres only 2 of us and we don’t use more than 3000 litre of water a month just in the bathroom, washing up and hose piping the garden.

When sizing up water storage tanks there seems to be a rule of thumb calculator; assume each person will use to 80 litres a day...generous! (2400 a month). So I am quite happy to go for a 500 litre tank which covers me for a week if the water main is blown up; highly unlikely.

However I can go and select a dozen 500 litre tanks from between 4000bt to 7000bt.

The price range is really irrelevant but what considerations do you think need to be made in choosing the cheaper from the more expensive in the range. A lot of marketing blurb and b.s;10yrs warranty, 20yrs; foodsafe? Pretty design; poly vinyl/stainless steel.

What’s the bottom line thinking guys? what criteria helped you make your decision?

[Crossy]

If cost is not a serious issue make sure your tank is light proof so you don't get algae growth inside.

Stainless is of course, but the better quality plastic tanks will do the trick (not the blue plastic ones).

[lopburi3]

As said above - especially with low usage - use a Stainless Steel or Sandstone type tank. As we use 45,000 liters per month believe your usage is way low (most Thai will want at least two showers a day). I do have extended family so most days 8 persons but usage would be at least double your 80 liters per day amount - would highly recommend at least 1,000 liter tank (I have two 1250 tanks).

[eyecatcher]

As said above - especially with low usage - use a Stainless Steel or Sandstone type tank. As we use 45,000 liters per month believe your usage is way low (most Thai will want at least two showers a day). I do have extended family so most days 8 persons but usage would be at least double your 80 liters per day amount - would highly recommend at least 1,000 liter tank (I have two 1250 tanks).

Thanks for that but now I am going to ask you to justify why your tank storage is so high.

Indeed i am at a loss as to why anyone needs storage of more than 1000 litres....and i use 3000 a month why do i need 1000 litres?

Surely the purpose of the storage tank is to have sufficient water on demand should the supply be cut off for any period of time.

so; has anyone, ever had their water cut off for any more than a day wherever they have ever lived. Logic tells me that in a crisis as such, priority moves away from hosing the lawn to bathrooms.

haha, i didnt want to debate storage but why not; lets roll.

[steve187]

my government water can be off for 3 or 4 days at a time, so we have 2 x 1000 litre tanks, when we only had 1 we sometimes run out.

We have on one occasion run out with the 2 tanks, there was a major fault and special fittings were required. Things got so bad the local government installed a large tank and filled it up by firetruck.

And no I don't live in the Boondocks

Edited December 6, 2014 by steve187

[lopburi3]

As said - you need at least a day or two of water to cover outages of supply - these can happen even in Bangkok (although rare these days) - but if there is an outage you need a place to put water from truck.

[bankruatsteve]

Not sure where you are, but in Udon the local supply can go to nothing more than a drip for days. We have 1500l and I wouldn't want any less than that. BTW: your estimated monthly usage seems way low compared to our 2-people usage. Different strokes I suppose.

[kamalabob2]

Eyecatcher: I believe you might use more water to wash dishes, wash clothes, as well as showers, sinks and toilets inside your home. With a family of four I know for a fact we use 500 liters a day inside our home, not including any garden watering. A family member turned off the water supply to our 4000 liters of clean water storage and 8 days later we had no water. There are differences in the actual material used to make water tanks even by the same companies. The placement of outlets, size of bottom outlets can vary. The type of opening at the top of a water tank can vary. DOS has several attractive designer tanks, Safe Brand has a good selection, Diamond Brand which is known for the top quality Stainless Steel tanks sold in Thailand for consumer use also has a two top lines of "sandstone" water tanks. 2000 liter in one tank usually works out the lowest cost per liter compared to a 500 liter, 750 liter, 1000 liter, 1500 liter or 3000 liter in the exact same tank series. The tanks get much more expensive "per liter" once you go over 3000 liters. The brochures available at any building merchant or water pump specialists will clearly indicate the wall and bottom thickness of the water tank, no matter what material it is constructed. I see 25 year warranties on several DOS brand water tanks sold in Buriram. While a quality Red label Diamond Brand stainless steel tank can last trouble free for many years, NONE of the stainless steel tank companies will issue a warranty for more than 5 years in Buriram. If you have a well water supply it is highly recommended you not use a stainless steel water storage tank. The cleaner the water going into your tank the better your whole water pressure will be in your house. Any reputable water pump installation company can clean out your plastic water tank of any sediment in the bottom. Blue water tanks, as a general rule, are not as robust as the tanks of a sandstone color. Prices can vary, but the prices and locations of the two bottom of the tank threaded holes give you an indication of cost. The better tanks have brass threaded holes into he bottom of the tanks. How a store delivers and installs the water tank to your home can make a real difference in how long your tank will last. Municipal water can go out for three days in our small community if there are major water pipe repair issues. I keep rain water gathered via a rain gutter system for our garden watering.

[IMHO]

Is the water going into the tank unfiltered? If yes, you want plastic, just to be safe against corrosion.

Is the tank going to get direct sunlight? if yes, you want stainless, or a regular dose of chlorine.

Whether going plastic or stainless, make sure what you buy is Mor Or Gor grade (Thai Industrial Standards), i.e. bears this mark:

[IMHO]

Not sure where you are, but in Udon the local supply can go to nothing more than a drip for days. We have 1500l and I wouldn't want any less than that. BTW: your estimated monthly usage seems way low compared to our 2-people usage. Different strokes I suppose.

Agreed on the usage - it seems awfully low.

A water-saving cistern toilet uses 6L per flush - two people going 2 times a day (i.e. no spicy food!) is 720L already. If eating spicy, you can at least double that

What about washing clothes? even just one small load every 2 days is another 450+ litres per month.

A water-saving shower uses around 8 Litres per minute - so two people having only one 5 minute shower per day is still 1600L/month. If having two quick showers per day each, that's the whole monthly budget gone.

It might seem trivial, but even the water to mop a small area of floor daily is going to add up to at least 150L per month. Washing dishes and produce is probably going to be at least the same too.

As for the garden which the OP also waters from mains, how long is a piece of string?

3000L is really being a real water miser - if the OP really inly uses this, thumbs up! No way in my house - we can use up to 10,000L per person some months, and we don't water our gardens with the mains

[Langsuan Man]

Having a water storage tank in not only for having a "reserve" supply but also for being able to use a pump to get the water into the house. If you only have a one story house you can probably get away with using the pressure from the "mains" but if the water has to go up to a second story then you are going to have to pump it. If you have sufficient pressure today, who knows what it is going to be like tomorrow, so having an external tank and pump future proofs you installation. And it is illegal to install a pump directly to the mains if you are thinking about that solution

The size of you tank in many instances will be tied to how much room you have to locate it. The question of material is also up to you but I have seen too many people who have the stainless steel tanks have problems with them if they should start to leak so I personally stay away from them, just like I would never consider an underground tank, for the same reason

My choice are like these, hooked up in series:

[eyecatcher]

Thanks for the replies.

Who was it called me a cheap charlie water user?

Just dug out my last 6 months water bills 3m3; 6m3; 7m3; 4m3; 3m3; 3m3; The 6 and 7 must be the dry season hosepiping.....and cheap, well that lot cost 180bt for the 6 months.

I appreciate different families have different usage; I own a spa, so the washing machines are there; washing up just twice a day and our shower at home sadly isn't pumped yet so its pretty crap and as such one minute doesn't go through more than 2 litres. We also buy our drinking water in the 20 litre drums.

However I cant live like a local completely and the new place is an opportunity to set up for pumps to a decent shower and even get a washing machine set up.

On reflection I think its the potential washing machine usage that will be the determining factor; I know from the spa that we use 20k litres a month, mostly the washing machine. Then again a water tank is actually refilling itself as water is drawn off elsewhere.

I do have some building criteria; I wanted to build a separate "shed" for the tank and pump and also for my tools so i was looking at tanks with a narrow diameter. 1m is about the smallest but it makes them taller obviously.

Undoubtedly everyone uses more water when they feel they have a comfort zone of a few days storage; essentially taking it for granted; whereas we get up every day wondering if we can have a shower or flush the bog.

On reflection and the great advice above, I think 1000litres would be a safer be for us;and gives us more options and the cost is negligable; in fact it would be cheaper than the pump.

Nice post 'bob' I will give those outlet positions and material a coat of looking at now.

sorry about my erratic/eclectic post.......desperately waiting for my bog cistern to refill!!

[billd766]

As said above - especially with low usage - use a Stainless Steel or Sandstone type tank. As we use 45,000 liters per month believe your usage is way low (most Thai will want at least two showers a day). I do have extended family so most days 8 persons but usage would be at least double your 80 liters per day amount - would highly recommend at least 1,000 liter tank (I have two 1250 tanks).

Thanks for that but now I am going to ask you to justify why your tank storage is so high.

Indeed i am at a loss as to why anyone needs storage of more than 1000 litres....and i use 3000 a month why do i need 1000 litres?

Surely the purpose of the storage tank is to have sufficient water on demand should the supply be cut off for any period of time.

so; has anyone, ever had their water cut off for any more than a day wherever they have ever lived. Logic tells me that in a crisis as such, priority moves away from hosing the lawn to bathrooms.

haha, i didnt want to debate storage but why not; lets roll.

You must live in the city somewhere and have good water supplies.

I live in rural Thailand with a total of 5 people using water.

I have a total of 27 x 1,700 litre concrete ongs (40,500 useable litres) and in the 10 years we have lived here only 1 year did the government water never run out. This coming year I expect the government water to stop by the end of January and with a bit of luck it may come back by Songkran.

When it runs out either the fire department or the local government will send water tankers out to the villages to top up the storage tanks for everybody. The fire department is free while the tessaban charge 50 baht per cubic metre (1,000) litres. Where they will get it from next year I have no idea an the local reservoirs are getting low now.

Edited December 7, 2014 by billd766

[dotpoom]

We have two side by side...cement..were here when I bought the house.

[Mudcrab]

Does anyone know if large tanks are available anywhere. I'm talking 20,000 L poly tanks.We only have bore water - no mains water and I'd like to harvest some rainwater for household use. The bore water can go on the garden.

[eyecatcher]

We have two side by side...cement..were here when I bought the house.

I hope we are as lucky as you when we move onto our next house................................otherwise I will have to post this topic again

[davidmann]

As said above - especially with low usage - use a Stainless Steel or Sandstone type tank. As we use 45,000 liters per month believe your usage is way low (most Thai will want at least two showers a day). I do have extended family so most days 8 persons but usage would be at least double your 80 liters per day amount - would highly recommend at least 1,000 liter tank (I have two 1250 tanks).

Thanks for that but now I am going to ask you to justify why your tank storage is so high.

Indeed i am at a loss as to why anyone needs storage of more than 1000 litres....and i use 3000 a month why do i need 1000 litres?

Surely the purpose of the storage tank is to have sufficient water on demand should the supply be cut off for any period of time.

so; has anyone, ever had their water cut off for any more than a day wherever they have ever lived. Logic tells me that in a crisis as such, priority moves away from hosing the lawn to bathrooms.

haha, i didnt want to debate storage but why not; lets roll.

over a month in our village

[Thaijack2014]

This is a very interesting topic. We are a 2 person household and use a 1200 liter tank, which, if the pressure from the governmentwater is not high enough can last us THREE days. I was astonished how much water we use. So it's about 400 liters a day (inlcuding washing clothes).

On two occasions we had have water brought to our house.

Now I built two watertanks made of those concrete rings. Sealed with a waterproof cement/concrete and connected to the government water. Even when the pressure is too low for our plastic tank, the water keeps running into those tanks (both around 1000 liter). The tanks are connected to the piping and if I need water into the big tank, I shut of the main on the street and pump the water through the same pipe as it gets in to the plastic tank and fill it up. So far it worked fine.

The tanks are closed with a lid and there is no sunshine coming through and no groundwater seeping in. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that water is as good as the water we get directly from our watertap.

Before I had to check our watertank if it had enough water, because I couldn't trust the water coming from outside. This is over now.

[eyecatcher]

Does anyone know if large tanks are available anywhere. I'm talking 20,000 L poly tanks.We only have bore water - no mains water and I'd like to harvest some rainwater for household use. The bore water can go on the garden.

Not withstanding my faceacious comment to khun dotpoom above; I would suggest that a larger tank needs to be concrete or steel to withstand the pressures exerted by what is 20 tonnes of water.

I suspect that the blue tanks that have been more or less condemned and indeed the other tanks upto 3000litres have a wall lining of 5-10mm.

Others have said that above 3000 litres is difficult/expensive and that's probably because of the wall thickness.

Maybe you can find in GRP, or a steel like they store petrol.(google Condor tanks)

From my experience you are already into the realms of underground storage tanks, like sewers, holding tanks....basically giant submarines....the advantage here is that underground the walls dont need to be so thick and the pressures exerted by the storage and counter acted by the surrounding earth (and concrete surround)

but what do I know?

[JacChang]

Make sure it's strong enough, so you can crawl in and clean the insides maybe once a year, nice scrubbing.

[eyecatcher]

Make sure it's strong enough, so you can crawl in and clean the insides maybe once a year, nice scrubbing.

Are you serious?......................................................cleaning is the wifes' job

[Mudcrab]

Does anyone know if large tanks are available anywhere. I'm talking 20,000 L poly tanks.We only have bore water - no mains water and I'd like to harvest some rainwater for household use. The bore water can go on the garden.

Not withstanding my faceacious comment to khun dotpoom above; I would suggest that a larger tank needs to be concrete or steel to withstand the pressures exerted by what is 20 tonnes of water.

I suspect that the blue tanks that have been more or less condemned and indeed the other tanks upto 3000litres have a wall lining of 5-10mm.

Others have said that above 3000 litres is difficult/expensive and that's probably because of the wall thickness.

Maybe you can find in GRP, or a steel like they store petrol.(google Condor tanks)

From my experience you are already into the realms of underground storage tanks, like sewers, holding tanks....basically giant submarines....the advantage here is that underground the walls dont need to be so thick and the pressures exerted by the storage and counter acted by the surrounding earth (and concrete surround)

but what do I know?

I've got 2 X 20,000 L tanks above ground in Oz.

They are about 3m high so the pressure on the walls isn't that great - about 5 psi. The weight on the ground however - as you said is about 20t when full. They sit on a sand bed.

The walls are not that thick - when empty can easily be pushed in by leaning on them so they are probably only a few mills thick.

The tanks can be purchased in even larger sizes - but not much help to me in Thailand!

I can't say I have seen anything this size locally in Thai.

Could be there isn't the specialised equipment available to form them.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Mudcrab

[EvilDrSomkid]

For reference, we live in Bangkok and have the following set up:

Main water into Filtex double filter into 1000L DOS tank, into 720W Grundfos pump.

We are two people and our monthly bill is about 200baht. Don't remember how many CBM that is, but we had to empty the tank one time and it only took 3 days.

That was normal usage. Washing machines, front loaders, use almost 150L per wash. Then, 2 to 3 showers a day pp.

Yeah, people use A LOT of water.

Do yourself a favour and have a good filter before going into your 1000L tank(s)

[samuibruno]

hi

we have blue plastic tanks now over 12 years with out any problems but need to be out of direct sunlight

otherwise fibre glass tanks

the blue plastic jobs are very hard to repair if they leak

stainless also maybe wont last , depends on your water supply

fibre glass is pretty much impervious no matter the condition of your water and easy to repair if they develop leaks

i store 3 weeks worth of water

but we have pool and gardens

cheers

[Daniel Boon]

One millimetre of rain per square metre equals one litre of water ... water for human consumption from steel tanks only ( Blue Scope steel) ... 'food grade plastic' is specious advertising ...

[jpinx]

There's always the choice of a separate supply for cooking and drinking, and the other for toilet, laundry, etc. I lived on Minimal water in the mountains of south spain and we had a big swimming pool for supply of non-potable water. We also had a rigorous water recycling system, especially using laundry water to flush the toilets. You can not have too much, apart from the issues of keeping it fresh.

[PLW]

You will be happier with a 1000 liter tank. It doesnt cost that much more and will give you extra capacity you may need in this 3rd world country environment.

[NanLaew]

I went with the concrete 'well pipe' rings for water storage where prolonged outages and low pressure was an issue. These were built on a reinforced, 0.5 m deep concrete pad. The reduced footprint offered by these made for more room and when the three of them were topped out at about 3.5 m high, they handily blocked the neighbours view of my back yard.

[EnglishJohn]

After some research, I discovered that stainless steel is usually pretty low quality in Thailand and will corrode. I went with the sandstone type plastic one with the anti bacterial silver lining inside.

Can anyone recommend a good way to filter the water coming in ?. The water in my bath is always a bit brown looking (before I get in I will add).

[smotherb]

What a disappointment. Saw the banner line and thought it was another thread on Thai women.