If you have water pooling in your backyard somewhere, you may be wondering how to remove it without the need of costly equipment. Good news! You can do it using a garden hose as a siphon. You can even siphon it without using your mouth.
That’s a good thing! After all, you don’t want to end up tasting any of that water that all the birds and insects in your yard have been drinking.
The good news is there’s a perfectly easy way to siphon stagnant water with a garden hose without sucking on it with your mouth. Here’s what you want to do.
Steps to Use a Garden Hose to Siphon Water Without Using Your Mouth:
First things first, do you have a good garden hose? If not, consider buying the best garden hose on the market. Great, now that that’s taken care of, here’s what you need to do:
Step 1
Make sure you have a nozzle or spray gun attached to the end of your garden hose that allows you to turn the water on & off. Turn it to the off position
Step 2
Fill the hose with water by turning the water on at your source.
Step 3
Unscrew your garden hose filled with water from the source preventing as little water as possible to spill from the hose. Plug the end with a rubber stopper or thumb.
Step 4
Locate the deepest part of the puddle you wish to drain. You may want to dig a little to make sure you’ve found the deepest part.
Step 5
Place the plugged end of your hose at the bottom of the trench you’ve dug. You may want to place something heavy on the hose just outside the puddle to make sure it stays in place. Just be sure it’s not heavy enough to kink the hose and block flow.
Step 6
Place the other end of the hose with the nozzle over a drain or an area of your yard that you want to send the pooled water to. *Important: The position of the nozzle must be below the pool of water you’re trying to drain.
Step 7
Move the nozzle to the on position. If water starts to flow out of the hose, you’re in business.
Here’s The Best Video I’ve Found on How to Siphon Water in your Backyard with a Garden Hose without using your mouth:
Things to Avoid That will Interrupt a Siphon
Once you get the siphon going, there are two things that will break the siphon’s flow:
1. Air gets into the hose
A siphon only works if the hose is completely filled with water. If any air gets into the hose, it will interfere with the flow of water
The most common way air is introduced to the hose line is if the end of your hose that’s in the puddle you’re draining does not remain submerged.
That’s why it’s important to dig a deeper trench at the bottom of the puddle you’re trying to drain. This will give the end of your hose the best chance of staying submerged.
You also may need to dig waterways through which all of the water in the area can flow into your trench that you’ve dug as the water drains. This will prevent you from having to repeat the steps above if you have multiple puddles.
As long as all your puddles are connected with a waterway linking the bottom of all your puddles and your main trench from which you’re draining is the deepest, you should be able to siphon all the water out of you yard with your garden hose.
No pumps needed!
2. Gravity Works Against You
The second thing that will prevent a siphon from working is if the end of the hose you’re siphoning from falls below the end you’re siphoning to.
Think of it this way: You always want the water in your hose flowing more or less downhill.
That’s not to say that that the water has to go in a straight line downhill. It can go uphill a little. It just has to mostly go downhill.
In other words, keep your garden hose nozzle below the puddle from which you are draining. Some illustrations to help:
Final Thoughts
It’s totally possible to use a garden hose to siphon water without using your mouth. If it’s water in your backyard or any place where the water might be contaminated, try siphoning it using the instructions above for the most sanitary way to remove it.
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