servicing Two Rocks to Trigg – call Andrew 0400044236
Normally when your bore starts up you hear a ‘clunk’ sound as the bore starter kicks in. If you can’t hear this then chances are your relay to the starter is faulty or the problem is in your control box.
If the control box looks ok then you will need to call an electrician to have a look at the relay switch.
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
Which sprinklers should you run from a bore?
You have a couple of things to consider:
a) Flow rate: often bores allow you to run much greater numbers of sprinklers than a standard mains pressure system. 80l/min is normal as opposed to 30 off the mains.
b) Pump run time: every minute your bore is running is costing you money in electricity and wear and tear on your pump.
That said you don’t want to simply be governed by the cheapest option. In my own backyard I have 3 different types of sprinklers running. We have 4 big heavy duty gear drives on the verge, regular pop ups in the garden beds and then MP rotators in the lawn areas. It means the pump runs for aprox 2 hours each time it comes on, but we have chosen sprinklers that will fit the areas and do the best job.
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
Shared bores are a great idea in that only one whole gets drilled and can serve two or three properties. But shared bores can also raise some interesting challenges – and can be similar to the dreaded ‘neighbourhood fence’.
The question of who is responsible when it breaks down can be tricky. The question of what happens if my neighbour can’t afford his share of the repairs is also a grey area.
This week I have encountered two problems with shared bores and the solutions are interesting and worth knowing.
On Friday a friend rang and told me that his sprinklers kept coming on even though it wasn’t his watering days. He is on a shared bore and the obvious solution is that he has a solenoid stuck open. So everyone on the 3 properties is then inconvenienced until he fixes his solenoid. That sounded like the solution but then it got weird…
He went home to replace the solenoid yesterday but after turning the pump on to test the system he couldn’t stop the water flow. He unplugged his control box and still the water kept flowing. Eventually he had to go next door to his neighbour’s place and turn the pump off at the mains to stop the water. When he turned it back on the same problem occurred. A chat with an electrician suggests this is a faulty relay switch on his line and that when activated it is unable to shut down.
Thankfully he was able to access the main switch otherwise it would have been a lot of water down the drain.
He is getting the relay switch looked at this week so we will see what develops
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
We’re still working on landscaping at our own property and the latest project has been to get a bore put down. Once that is sorted we can retic the areas already developed and then get the bobcat in to help us prepare the new areas.
So today Luke from Aqua Attack arrived to drill the bore. It would have taken them a couple of hours but they hit a cave and some of the slotted pipe got lost meaning they had to take a bit longer.
They drilled down 25m or so and will be back on Friday to install the pump and do the electrics.
Here are a few pics of the truck backed up and drilling.
The tub for circulating water and sludge
Adding another piece of the drill
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
So you’re considering getting a bore…
Personally I think that’s a great idea as it reduces the amount of scheme water spread across lawns and gardens, will save you money in water bills and is also a capital investment.
If you’re going that route then you may like to consider a shared bore. This is an arrangement by which 2 or 3 neighbours on adjacent properties access the same bore, but pay for their own running costs.
I haven’t seen too many of these around to know how successful they are, but my guess is they would need to be undergirded by a fairly concrete written agreement as to what happened when the thing broke down. I can see the potential for the equivalent of a fence dispute to arise with this issue.
However if everyone is amicable it could also be a good cost saving way of watering the garden for all parties.
By the way if you ask me to come and service your retic and you’re operating it from a shared bore then be sure to let me know. I arrived to do a basic service on a property last week not realising it was a shared bore. I turned the system on but got no water – not realising that the other partner on whose property the bore control was located had tuned it off!
The control box was still wired up to run a master valve so I figured this must be the problem. After locating the master valve and seeing it was operating ok I noticed the ball valve had been turned to off. Strange…
But I got the system up and running only to hear it losing water somewhere… That somewhere was thru a 25ml pipe to the neighbour’s property. Had the neighbour ‘hacked into’ my customer’s retic?…
It was only after I had cut the pipe and capped it that it dawned on me what was going on.
It was a shared bore and the mains ball valve had been turned off because of that.
All’s well that ends well, but it did end up costing more time and money than either of us had expected.
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
Having moved into a place with no reticulation, we decided that this time around we would fork out the $$ for a bore, figuring we will be here a while so it will eventually pay for itself. I’m thinking that as water becomes more expensive it will also be a valuable capital investment.
After getting 3 quotes we have decided on the person we want to install the bore. The decision was based on quality of product, confidence in the person and price. We were impressed with another operator who had a great sales pitch, but it was going to cost $4400.00 instead of $3300.00 – quite a difference and we couldn’t see the need to spend that much extra.
If you want to know how your house is situated for a bore then go to the Perth Groundwater Atlas and zoom in on your home. You will be able to determine how deep you need to go to find water as well as some other data. This is the info drillers use to formulate quotes. A site visit is more to determine location of bore, control box etc.
These days bores are not huge ugly wells with large round covers, but are small and virtually unnoticeable. I’ll let you know how we go with the bore as it happens.
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
If you live in ‘The Green” in Brighton then you will find this is a common complaint.
Sooner or later it will happen to you. You will start to observe dry patches in your lawn and it will look like your retic is lacking pressure.
I remember the first time I was called out to look at one of these situations I was complete puzzled as to what was causing the issue. I ended up ringing Total Eden who install all the new systems in the area and discovered that there is an inline filter right next to the master valve that regularly gets clogged up with mineral deposits from the bore water.
I removed the filter, cleaned it out re-installed it and the difference was huge. You can see a dirty one above.
If you want to do this yourself then you can follow this guide here that was recently uploaded to the Brighton Intranet. Its worthwhile doing this procedure at the start of spring and halfway through summer to ensure all is working well.
This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
A bore is a fantastic idea.
You use the underground water supply, don’t pay for water that gets used by the bore and you get to water more often.
Recently I was doing a job by the beach in Quinns Rocks and noticed the water was very salty. My guess is the water table may have dropped and living on Ocean Drive a stone’s throw away from the sea resulted in very a salty result.
Obviously this impacts on your lawn and garden and needs looking at. For local bore work you could contact Aqua Attack.
For help or advice with these issues or to adjust your reticulation call Andrew on 0400044236 or email brightonreticulation@gmail.com
The big difference between setting up a controller for a bore and a system of mains is that the ‘master’ terminal actually serves to trigger the pump and a relay must be installed between controller and pump to get it going.
So you will always pay a bit more to get a bore system set up electrically.
Of course there is no requirement for a master valve as the system is not under constant pressure, so you will save on that front.
To get this set up properly you will need to call a qualified electrician and have them do the electrics for you.
For help with any of these issues call Andrew on 0400044236 or email brightonreticulation@gmail.com
