High Waterer Using Priming Bulb

Several plants in my home are high up, so they are hard to water. For the longest time I walked around with a chair to climb up to water them, but that was a bit of a hassle. So, I built a gadget that lets me water them while standing under them.

Because I collect junk I had most of the supplies for this project around already. The only thing I needed to buy was a small engine priming bulb.

Supplies

- priming bulb

- a stick long enough to reach from about the elbow level of the user to
the highest watering height; a broom stick would work, I had a square molding around

- a piece of hose to fit the connections on the priming bulb, about 1-2ft longer than the stick

- two hose clamps that fit the hose

- a bottle or container with a wide enough mouth to fit the hose and still have room to run some water into it at the same time (I had an old reusable water bottle whose lid was leaking); this needs to be stiff enough to zip tie it to the stick

- zip ties (duct tape or similar would work as well)

- a piece of wire to stiffen and control where the hose points (I used an old coat hanger)

Tools

- drill with bit to drill a hole that your zip ties can fit through

- knife

- optional, but a zip tie gun will make this easier and sturdier

1. drill a hole sideways through the stick about 1/2 inch from the top
2. attach the bottle to one end of the stick,with the opening in the direction of the other end of the stick (when I say "attach" it's your choice how, I used zip ties, but you could use tape or, if you are good, string)

3. bend the wire so one end is as long as you want the hose to project sideways later, and the other end is at least as long.

4. attach the piece of wire to the other end of the stick
5. cut a piece of hose about 1 inch longer than the bottle is tall; cut one end at a bit of an angle so it won't close off when it sits against the bottom of the bottle
6. push the flat end of that piece of hose over the "in" end of the priming bulb and hose clamp it in place
7. push the flat end of the remaining hose over the "out" end of the priming bulb and hose clamp in place
8. test fit the hose-bulb-hose into the bottle and against the stick; take a rough measure of the gap between the hose clamps and the stick;
9. cut a piece of support (you could cut it off your stick or use something else) that will let you attach the hose to the stick at the hose clamp without compressing the bulb; do that only on one side of the bulb or you won't be able to compress it fully (I put mine above the bulb, it's marked in the picture above)
10. attach the stick, support, hose/bulb to each other; make sure this one is good and tight, since you will be lifting the whole gadget from there
11. consider how you will attach the hose so it doesn't kink shut; you will want a sufficiently large bow that it doesn't collapse, but not more than necessary so it flops around; details depend on your hose.
12. attach the hose to the stick to the stick and the wire according to what you worked out in the previous step; put a zip tie through the hole you drilled in step one to attach the hose over the top of the stick

Fill up the bottle and squeeze the bulb. You will need to squeeze a few times to fill up the hose but then you get a nice little gush per squeeze.