"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
michael adams wrote:
How to siphon bath water out of an upstairs bath, and into
the garden or a water butt.

I definitely did this in the past - but I can't work out how
using my previously suggested method - first slowly filling the
hose from the bath tap it was possible to first get the water
in the hose to climb out of the window.
[...]

There was nothing wrong with the method you described: cork in the
bottom end, fill gently from top end.

Yebbut: I'm sure that's the way I did it. Its just it made such a
mess at the time, and invited such comment from the neighbours
more Gerry and Margot then Tom and Barbara, that it never got to
be a regular thing. So it was only done a few times.

However the main problem with my previous method is surely as
follows -

The point where the hose passes through the window is higher than the
open end of the hose under the tap. And water will find its own level.
So that rather than the water in the hose rising sufficiently to
get out the window, it will simply pour back out of the open
end under the tap. I think it took a lot of standing up with
the hose at arms length, so that all the water in the hose went
out and down through the window. This was the cause of a lot of
splashing and mess IIRR.

Also there's the problem that while you can carry the dry hose
up to the bathroom and feed it slowly through the window with
no problems, carrying a wet hose back through the house or pushing
the end of the wet hose back out through the window to end up
anywhere, possibly while its still containing some water is a
rather different matter.

Two or more person operations can also involve a lot of
"shouting", which is not only considered uttterly déclassé
in an urban environment, but can give rise to jocularity among the
neighbours, if things start to go wrong.

Not that they will of course.


michael adams

....



If one's alone, put a cork in the
top end (to be on the safe side), pop downstairs and remove bottom cork,
pop upstairs, remove top cork. If there are two of you, much exercise
will be avoided, and common sense will dictate the choreographing of
fingers in and out of the ends of the hose. Important to tie the hose to
one of the taps, or weigh it down with a brick, so that it doesn't
wriggle out of the bath just as you've gone out into the garden feeling
smug.

Note: to make a natural cork smaller, roll it back and forth under your
foot.

--
Mike.