Taps for oak barrels?

[AJB Temple]

I have been given, after some begging, two pallets of oak whisky barrels (12 barrels). These are in very good condition and each holds about 40 gallons.

They are fully intact (lids and bottoms secure). There is a stoppered bung hole half way up, which is not much use. I intend to use them as rainwater collection butts (I already have a 10,000 litre tank underground and a couple of large galvanised troughs. But we get a lot of roof water and there is no mains drainage so we use it for watering our garden and topping up the wildlife pond. They will be kept off the ground on oak offcuts from my timber framing projects. I might have to make some more offcuts.

My problem is taps. With lids etc intact I can't reach in to do up a screw fitting. I have seen (pricey) wooden taps on-line and they seem to knock in to presumably a tapered hole?

My question is - what is the best tap to a) work for years and b) not leak. And if they are indeed fitted into a tapered hole is there a special drill for that job?

 

[Trevanion]

I'd be tempted to get a regular brass garden hose tap with a 1/2" BSP thread, get a corresponding thread cutting tap (not a water tap, different thing!) and thread the new hole in the barrel then epoxy the tap into the barrel when threading it in.

 

[Nico Adie]

These seem reasonable, looks like they have various sized tapered inserts. You may have course already have seen them, in which case apologies for granny/egg/suck/etc

https://www.oak-barrel.com/tap-adaptors-for-wooden-barrels-d140925.html

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks both. I like the idea Trevanion but Nico's adaptor suggestion seems ideal. I will try one and see how I go. And no - I had not seen it.

 

[marcros]

are the holes in the right place? I have half a barrel and it has half a hole in, suggesting that the hole in mine is right in the middle of the barrel.

 

[AJB Temple]

No, As I said in the original query the existing holes are in the centre, hence useless. "There is a stoppered bung hole half way up, which is not much use." However, they are plugged and watertight.

 

[marcros]

s

No, As I said in the original query the existing holes are in the centre, hence useless. "There is a stoppered bung hole half way up, which is not much use." However, they are plugged and watertight.

sorry, I did see that but then instantly forgot that I had read it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You'll need a way of filtering the water going in or the tap will be perpetually blocking and you'll need to unscrew it every time. You could use the barrels on a stillage and use the existing bung holes - old brass taps are still around (long illegal for use with beer) and you could probably rig up a hose coupling for those threads.

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks Phil. That is a good point. I have a leaf gate at the top and fine wire mesh at the barrel entrance.

Not sure what a stillage is but I will google it.

The barrels cost nothing but actually using them may be troublesome!

 

[bourbon]

the answers to your questions are, Yes, they are a tapered hole and, yes there is a special boring tool. They crop up on e-bay occasionally

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The barrels could well last longer used on their sides - they're not designed to be used upright.
A stillage is just some sort of stand (I reverted to cellar speak - it was my job for a couple of decades.)

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks Phil. I missed your post for some reason.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I gave up on rainwater storage because the butt's tap kept blocking up (plastic butt and 1/4 turn plastic tap with reasonably wide orifice). The tap was fitted about 3" up from the bottom, so you'd think that would allow the carp to settle out, but not so. We used the diverters that go into plastic drainpipes, and they catch all the debris that's washed off the roof (or so it seems), so the diverter blocks, the transfer pipe blocks, and finally the tap blocks, as described. Not worth all the faffing about.

I guess if there was some sort of settling-out arrangement that could be more easily cleaned that would work, but I've not found one in the garden shop, although they keep dozens of the diverter kits, usually).

 

[AJB Temple]

The tap on each butt is actually for ancillary usage. The situation for us is that we do not have any mains drainage and so all roof water is either sent to a ditch, where it eventually seeps to a small river, and all foul water is processed via a klargester and clean water goes (licensed) to the same place.

We have a number of ponds, a developing garden and a significant need for water. So I have been harvesting it for some time, mostly into two 2500 gallon underground tanks (which I got dirt cheap).

Since I replaced all the guttering with galvanised steel, I have been diverting much more roof water off than before. We now have 14 butts dotted around where we can collect water, as well as two deep troughs. Some water is drawn off into cans, but the vast majority of it is pumped using a JSP sump pump that will go down to 2mm, or a cast iron drop in pump that will deal with sewerage particle sizes (not that it has to).

It is most efficient to pump out the butts using a submersible pump and either store in the underground tanks, or straight into the ponds. If I need to take water for the garden it can come from the ponds if needed, or the underground tanks.

It is a bit of a faff, as if we get really heavy rain, then each butt can fill in a few days, but the submersible pump with a 2" flat hose will empty them to zero in 30 seconds.

I agree the black plastic taps (we have them on some plastic barrel butts in the kitchen garden) block easily. I think I am going to fit lever operated shut off valve taps to the oak butts as these allow a significant flow rate. At present I just let them fill and pump them out with the JSP.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I quite understand - a rather different problem to mine!