Garden irrigation with cistern

Hello everyone,

the new building hasn’t even started yet, but early planning never hurts.

We will bury a cistern from which we would like to supply an automatic garden irrigation system. Now we need to decide with the house builder where we want our outdoor water taps on the house (two included). We want to place one near the cistern.

Is there a pump to which both the cistern and the fresh water can be connected and which then automatically switches over as soon as the cistern is empty? Or how is this done?

And would you rather put a submersible pump in the cistern or place an external pump in the garden that pumps the water through a hose?

Best regards

This topic was discussed exactly here a few weeks ago. You have to look for it. I would make the cistern large enough, depending on the need 4-6000 liters, and work with a simple domestic water system + suction line. Then you can bury a simple hose a little at the edge and lay it where you want it. With a domestic water system, you have constant pressure; this should be somewhat installed because of electricity, frost, etc. I would definitely keep both lines separate; otherwise, it becomes unnecessarily complicated and expensive. There are thousands of tools, but I would keep it simple.

Thanks! I'll look for the thread.

So then you would, for example, connect the Gardena pump to the domestic water system? Both are located near the cistern, so I would need two sockets.

forget 6000 L, that is absolutely nothing...whenever you need it, it will be empty.
I have almost 9000...

We are planning 10,000, with 3,000 accounted as retention volume. Would you then rather take an even larger amount?

It cannot be answered in a blanket way. Do a proper sizing according to your roof areas, garden area to be watered, and possibly other planned consumers. Various manufacturers offer this as a tool, and a reputable dealer will gladly do it for you. In your case, it would be a Retentions Plus system. Then you have a ballpark figure, and bigger is always possible.