Water Butt - Water Level Indicator

This is a super simple approach for making the water level in a water butt visible from the outside without the risk of leaks from drilling holes in the bottom.

You can buy water butt gauges easily enough. They typically work by inserting a piece of transparent tubing into the bottom of the tank and extending it to the full height of the tank. The water fills the tube like the level indicator on a kettle so the height of the water in the tube matches the level inside the tank. Unfortunately this means you have to empty the tank and then drill holes in the bottom with the risk that things might start to leak.

I didn't want to do that and after a bit of thought I realised that it's possible to achieve the same effect by looping some tubing down and then up again.

• Transparent Silicone Tubing (length = 3.5 x the height of the water butt, any diameter is fine. I used 2mm internal diameter tubing)
• Drill & drill bit equal to or slightly larger than the external diameter of the silicone tubing

Mark the location for two holes at the top of the water butt. These should be above the highest internal water level of the water butt directly above the tap and approx 3-4cm apart.

Ensure the water level is lower than the marked holes so there is no chance of you drilling into water. Drill the two holes using a drill bit equal to the external diameter of the tubing.

Pass the tubing through the hole on the left (outside to inside). There should be enough inside so it reaches the bottom the water butt.

At this point the water butt will need to be partially full so if it is empty fill it up enough to raise the water level several centimetres above the bottom of the water butt.

Clean the end of the tube which is still outside the water butt as you will need to suck out some of the air. It shouldn't take much and once the water is part way down the tube if you then hold the end lower than the bottom of the tank the syphon effect will mean water will eventually slowly start to dribble out.

There may be some air bubbles in the tube so let a small amount of water run all the way through to clear the bubbles.

To stop the water flowing, pass the tube around the tap and then up to the top of the water butt again. Pass 0.5 - 1cm of tube through the hole on the right. This is really just to hold the tube in place.

Tighten things up by passing any excess tube back through the hole on the left. This should leave two nice straight sections of tubing either side of the tap.

There will be water in both sections of the tubing. The section on the left will remain totally full, however, water will only fill into the section on the right until it reaches the same height as the water inside the water butt.

Stand back and admire how much rain water you have collected :)

Note: the water level relies on the syphon effect of the water. If the water butt ever runs dry you will need to syphon air out the tube again to refill the tube with water.