Very long water line...

[Water Monster]

Mr. Love,

We recently had 1" tap installed at street and need to run waterline 2500' to front of our property. I am receiving numerous answers about how to do this and cost is also a concern. Pressure at street is approximately 80 lbs. with a slight uphill grade then mostly straight and level.

The local water authority that installed the tap recommends a minimum 1" line. An engineer I spoke with recommends no less than 2" and a plumber suggested stepping down the line which I like best as it will be less expensive and hopefully perform better than minimum recommendation but not sure how to do this...1000' with 2" pipe then 750' with 1.5" pipe then another 750' with 1" pipe?

We would like to terminate the waterline at a frost proof hydrant as no building is on the property yet. In the future we would like to run 3 separate lines on the property another 200' or so for small cabins. Any advice or assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Don

 

[Terry]

I agree with the engineer. It has to do with friction loss. And then adding more cabins at the end? Go big.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Pressure at street is approximately 80 lbs. with a slight uphill grade then mostly straight and level.

You will want to know the altitude rise. A topo map chould be helpful for that. 100 ft of rise would give over 43 PSI pressure drop by itself.

A GPS could help. The indicated altitude is not as accurate as the horizontal position data.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/hazen-williams-water-d_797.html is useful pressure drop calculator. I suggest maybe 30 GPM as a flow rate unless you know you need more. The drop from the calculator adds to the drop from altitude.

Consider poly pipe ASTM D2239 where IPS ID is held and OD varies with PSI ratings. http://www.charterplastics.com/pipe/

 

[Water Monster]

Thank you, gentlemen...head is not substantial in my opinion. My concern is cost now as a 2" pipe for 2500' is a budgetary problem. Could I increase the pressure at the end by tapering the run as mentioned in initial post? This could save me some money. I also wonder if it would be more cost effective to use the 1" line solution for the entire 2500' length just to get the water to the property and then install a pressurized tank solution? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the charter plastics link. I was quoted close to retail price of .70 for 2500' of 2" PVC. I would much prefer pipe on a spool?

On a distance like this how often should I use ball valves?

 

[Greenmonster123]

1" poly at 10 gpm will lose 2.73 lbs per 100'. You should use 2" at a minimum. See the charts here https://www.hunterindustries.com/sites/default/files/tech_friction_loss_charts.pdf

 

[Water Monster]

Ok...so that means at 2500' the pressure loss would be 68.25 less the original 80 lbs. at the street or 11.75 lbs. pounds of pressure at the hydrant. Completely unacceptable but if I'm using the right chart and 2" has a .10 pressure loss per 100' then 2500' /100 = 25 x .10 = 2.5 lbs of pressure loss which is close to nothing. Even the 1.25 pipe has very little pressure loss over this distance. Am I thinking about this right?

 

[Greenmonster123]

Yes you are reading it right but you have to figure in the max flow you will have. Will this just be a residence, will you be irrigating anything?

 

[Water Monster]

RV park...maximum of 3 recreational vehicles and would like to include frost proof hydrant. Cost is an issue but we need to drop to 1" pipe at some point and I like the cost benefits of tapering the run down.

 

[Greenmonster123]

How deep are you burying the pipe and how are you trenching? Also what time of soil?

 

[Water Monster]

Frost line here is 12-18' and we plan to bury 30". Soil mostly red clay.

 

[Craigpump]

Look at it from another perspective, IF you taper it down like the plumber suggested and you're not happy, you'll do it all over again while wishing you had put 2" in from the beginning. More time, wasted money. Of course it could be the plumber is telling you to reduce the size hoping you'll call him for a booster system.

 

[VAWellDriller]

Put 2" and forget about it. Digging the ditch is the hard part, time consuming part, and expensive part.....silly not to go on and put the 2" since the material cost is really not that much.

 

[Texas Wellman]

Looking at some online prices 2" pvc in 20 ft pieces is about $15 a stick versus about $7.50 a stick for 1". You'll only save $900 by going with 1" and then probably cause future headaches and more equipment costs with booster pumps etc.

Go with the two, cut corners elsewhere.

 

[Texas Wellman]

PS...the pressure will drop when the flow increases. Like everything else, people tend to use water at the same time. The more flow through the pipe the more pressure you will lose just about the time everybody needs it.

 

[Craigpump]

Looking at some online prices 2" pvc in 20 ft pieces is about $15 a stick versus about $7.50 a stick for 1". You'll only save $900 by going with 1" and then probably cause future headaches and more equipment costs with booster pumps etc.

Go with the two, cut corners elsewhere.

Charge people more to park their RV

 

[Water Monster]

Thank you for the comments. I'd like to replace the RV's with cabins in the future.

I'm sold on the 2"...is it possible to find 2" poly line in significant size spools?

 

[Craigpump]

We used to get 1000' rolls of 2" in the oilfield and fuse it

 

[Water Monster]

That's what I'm looking for...is this potable? Engineer suggests larger pipe for run over 1000' with 2"? If we split at end for 3 cabins/RV's and a hydrant is 1" ok? Will PVC manifold from Jaccuzzi supply work?

 

[Greenmonster123]

2" poly is a bear to work with, especially if it is below 75 degrees. 2" gasket pvc would be pretty easy for a do it yourself job.

 

[Craigpump]

Check with Charter Plastics, I've seen 3500' of 1" on a reel, but I don't know if 2" would be available like that.