Simple drain system help!!!

Need help with a simple easy water draining system... I like to hand water, last grow I drilled holes in a plastic saucer and let the water drip down to a deeper saucer then I shop vacuumed it... TIME CONSUMING AS HELL!!! I now am doing a little bigger grow and that’s not an option.. I ordered water heater drain pans and went to pick them up and just WAY too large...

now back to square one... any ideas? I need something simple.

I wanted to hook pvc up to the water heater pans (they had pre fittings) and then I could just water all and drain Into the outside....

thats what i do its a pain so i am going to use a danish hydro tray
for run off or medusa trays have holes for pipe for run off
there is rhizo trays too hope you get it sorted peace rab

You could pipe the runoff to a condensate pump. They are used on home furnaces to get rid of the condensate. They have have a little pump in them that can pump the water to a sink or floor drain. They turn on and off automatically when the water level hits a certain point.


https://www.hvacquick.com/products....MImvnwyaPk4AIVgrfACh1gQgdIEAQYAiABEgIaB_D_BwE

I amused myself using paint roller trays. I was using just 2.5L square pots, which sat nicely in the half size gloss roller variety. I used a 12mm hole cutter in the side, which made a good interference fit for hosepipe. It all went back to a condense pump like shown above. I had to lift the roller trays up a couple of inches as the float in a condense pump is a little high for a shallow roller tray. It all worked perfectly though. With a drip system providing coco fertigation regularly.

Obviously the weigh of your pots is a big issue here. But if you used typical plant saucers, then you just need the 12mm cutter, you garden hose, and the condense pump. £50

First grow it was 5gal pot sitting on a thin saucer which I drilled tons of holes in. Then sat on a paving brick which sat in a DEEP saucer... was a pain to crawl around with a small shopvac and suck all runoff up... maybe this time I’ll just get a bigger shop vac and just deal with it for now....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oKzSqGRCkws

^ could be much cheaper than buying flood trays which still need some kind of table/base raised off the ground to sit on anyway. $15 bux for polycarbonate 6 ft roof panels all day long at HD. Cut in half makes a 3x4 table, which you could set on a cheap slightly slanted sheet of OSB board at a slant with minimal framing lumber.

Or just by a flood tray and put an auto pump in the bilge area. If you need more trays you need more pumps.

And not sure how good condensate pumps are but boat/marine bilge pumps can be anywhere upwards of a few 1000 gph or more and automatic 500-750 gph ones can be had for around $20, and everone has a spare 12 volt higher anp laptop/etc transformer laying around free somewhere..

Non auto bilge pumps use an extra float switch that costs like 15 bucks, suppose you could find an AC style one that you could hook to your vacuum but that would be noisy going off all the time lol.

If your going with a drain system you might as well automate the watering system too imo. There is something theraputic about hand watering though

5 gal buckets with gromet and tees in bottom hooked together with 3/4 inch black hose. Linked to bucket with sump pump with automatic switch. 3 gallon buckets set inside the 5’s on a small platform within

The condensate pump and bilge pump are very similar.

Condensate pumps usually have two float switches. The obvious one, and a second mounted just a little higher. You don't need to use the second if you don't want to. It can cut the power to your delivery pump, or sound an alarm, if for some reason the pump doesn't stop the water level rising up past the lower float.

The condense pump pictured can probably send the water up 5 meters in the air. While draining hundreds of liters an hour. It's a tidy self-contained unit, with it's own non-return valve so water won't siphon back in from your waste barrel. Though it's more normal to pump straight to a drain.

They're really quite powerful. You can have a 30meter garden hose taking a crazy air-locked route around your place to find a drain, and it will still push through with some urgency.

Obviously they come in a range of sizes. Some are much smaller.

Some are peristaltic, with stepper motor drives. Giving them a quite different use.

Aspen sell the lot https://aspenpumps.com/