While this may not be cutting edge or bring about a revolution, it may be of use to some..
Some time ago Cape Town was suffering a drought second to none, every single JoJo tank had been sold and people were resorting to strings of buckets to catch the little rain that did fall. I you were able to find a JoJo tank you needed a second bond to afford it.
I was in the same boat and stumbled across an online ad for a small portable PVC pool. It was 3.6 meters in diameter and about 800mm deep. A thought struck me, why not just slap one of these up and fill it with rain water, it was a fraction of the cost of a JoJo tank and besides, it would have a dual function. I could cool off and if I needed water there would be around 7000 litres.
The theory was great but in practise the rain water needed some HTH to stay clean, so I just tossed one of those floaters in and we were all smiling again. After some time the dust settled in the bottom and I started calling the pool sandy bay…
The silly pump and cartridge filter they supply with the pool was about as useful as an ashtray on a Harley. I look around in the classified for an old pool pump but they seemed in short supply, eventually I saw a Pentair pump and filter combo for sale. It must be about a 1/2 bag sand filter and .25 KW pump. It was specially for these PVC pools so the pipes and fittings were all the correct size. The pump worked well and I could even use a normal pool vacuum with a small modification into the inlet.
The pump has a very flimsy plastic selector lever so best you don’t yank the thing around, you need to almost will the lever between settings. The other great thing is the pump has a built in timer so once you have set it, it will run at a set time every day for as many hours as you choose. Load shedding will reset it though but at least you have water..
I still wanted to change some things though, the flimsy pipes supplied with the pool burnt though from the sun in no time and the PVC lining inlet and outlet is an odd size so you can’t just change the pipe. Time for plan B..
I went to a local pool hardware shop and bought a normal pool eyeball inlet, then looked around for a JoJo tank outlet, I found one that perfectly fits the pool vacuum pipe. Armed with this and a few other PVC fittings I went home to modify.
I cut out the inlet to the pool and replaced it with the eyeball inlet, connected 40mm pipe to it and also removed the screw in fitting on the pump and replaced it with a normal 40mm screw in fitting.
Next I had to pump out the pool until the water was below the outlet, I then cut that out and fitted the JoJo tank outlet also using the re-inforced section where the existing outlet was. On the pump I removed the screw in fitting and replaced it also with a 40mm screw in fitting. I fitted the 40mm pipe and we were ready to go.
I re-filled the pool and turned on the pump, the jet of water was like something from a SPA.. I fitted the vacuum and was able to vacuum out the pool in about 5 minutes.
Costs… the pool is around R 1800.00 now while the pump can be picked up for about R 2800.00, the fittings and 40mm pipe cost me around R 850.00 so the total of R 5450.00 is slightly more than a 5000L JoJo tank…
BUT… you can’t swim in the JoJo tank..
