# Remote Spigot Options



## Oyarsa (May 19, 2021)

First off, I'm a beginner/novice at best, so bear with me...

My wife and I recently bought a house with a relatively good sized back yard. My wife likes gardening, and wishes to have a spigot (or two) in the far back by her gardening areas. I have been investigating a few options and would like some advice on the best route.

The house has two hose bibs: one that's closer, but is in an area with a concrete patio, and one that is further (about 200 ft from where I want to go), but at a dirt area. The latter is very close to a third spigot that is between the backflow preventer and the valves of our in ground sprinklers. I assume this third spigot is intended for the purpose of blowing out the sprinkler system.

Sooo....

My first option is to attach a 3/4" ght to 1/2" fip adapter to the sprinkler blow out spigot, to which I would attach a 1/2" flexible braided hose to the sprinkler system spigot, and connect that to 1/2" pvc out to the remote spigots with various pipes/adapters. The problem with this is that the hose I would use seems to have a 1/4" inlet/outlet. I assume that would limit my flow rate. Benefit is that it would be easy to drain/blow out myself for winter.

Second option is the same, except use the hose bib attached to the house. The sprinkler system uses domestic water, not irrigation.l, so there's no extra cost for the water. Benefit to this is being able to use the remote spigot when the sprinkler system water supply is shut off for the winter. The problem is the same as above (finding an appropriate 1/2" inner diameter hose).

Third option is to splice in a pvc T underground after the sprinkler system spigot, but before the control valves. The pipe is 1", so I would use 1" pvc to the remote spigots. Downside is not being able to use the spigots without the sprinkler system water turned on in the winter and making sure it is appropriately winterized.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks for your time, patience, and advice!


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## Theycallmemrr (May 16, 2019)

I added a spigot on the side of my house that did not have one by tying off my main line in my crawl space and punching a hole for the hose bib and pvc to come out of. If I wanted to add a remote spigot in the future I would probably just tie of the main line in the crawl space punch a hole in the exterior wall below the soil line and trench pvc to the location I needed it making sure it is below the frost line (not really a problem where I live) or at least where it could not be damaged when I aerate.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Let me tell you what I have. I have no idea if this is going to be relevant to you *at all*, but maybe some parts of it will be.

So I have 3/4 feed to the house, and 1/2" spigots. "Meh" for pressure and all that. When I had my irrigation put in, I had a 1" PVC "home run" put in straight to the main house feed, inbetween the water meter and the house shut off. So in other words a full 1" connection. And that 1" pipe has a 3/4"? maybe? quarter turn spigot, and thats all thats on that particular line. And man, if I don't get every bit of 10 gallons per minute out of it.

please, do not use the cheap thin walled irrigation pipe. It will break eventually. Spend the extra $20 or whatever it costs to get schedule 40 PVC.

The quarter turn spigot is also worth the price of admission. The combo of the two is like a firehose.


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## Oyarsa (May 19, 2021)

Theycallmemrr, that sounds like an ideal way of doing this, but I'm not sure I am comfortable drilling a hole in our house below the soil line. I'm sure it's not that difficult, but it makes me nervous along with poking holes in any of our plumbing under the house. Maybe I could hire a plumber to do that part of things for me and I could do all of the time consuming/expensive labor of digging the trench/placing the pipes.

SCGrassman, I definitely intend to use schedule 40. Do you feel that tapping off the "irrigation" line after the backflow preventer and blowout spigot would cause any issues?

Does anyone know of a short, flexible hose that can be under constant pressure that has a 1/2" inner diameter? I still like my idea of using the hose bib, but I don't want to be restricted by a 1/4" connection.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

That's exactly where you want to tap into it - after the backflow preventer. Sorry it was a little weird how I worded it, the irrigation system in its entirety is tapped in to the main line where the house is fed, and everything runs through the backflow preventer.

Strangely, my valve box and my backflow are on opposite sides of the house.


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## massgrass (Aug 17, 2017)

We have option #3.

Our installer originally put in a main water line around our property and branched individual zones off of that, so we tapped into it to add a hose bib near our raised beds. It's only usable until the system has been winterized, but we're pretty much done with using it by then anyway. It works well and was the easiest way to get the job done with our setup.


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