Using a break tank to control the water path
A break tank can separate incoming water sources from an irrigation pump set, provide a controlled suction supply and help manage problems created by long routes, changing levels, elevation or several storage points.
The right arrangement depends on incoming flow, useful storage, overflow, level control, pump suction requirements, air management, isolation, access and the way each water source is permitted to operate.
Redbourn Golf Club
JK Irrigation installed a break tank to correct an identified design limitation in a long water-supply route at Redbourn Golf Club. The new arrangement resolved the associated supply problem.
The final project record will identify the route, tank and control details only after the technical information has been checked.
Redlibbets Golf Club
At Redlibbets Golf Club, the pump-set elevation and arrangement of the available water supplies had created an air-locking problem. JK Irrigation installed a break-tank system to provide a controlled gravity feed into the new irrigation pump set.
The site uses lake water, borehole fill and more than one storage location. Those sources are brought together through the break-tank arrangement before water reaches the pressure set.
Questions to resolve before specifying a break tank
- Which sources feed the system and at what rate?
- How do source levels and incoming pressures change?
- What suction conditions does the irrigation pump set require?
- How much useful buffer volume is needed?
- What level controls, overflows and protections are required?
- How will air, sediment, isolation and maintenance access be managed?
A tank is not treated as an isolated product. It is considered with the source, controls, pump duty and downstream irrigation demand.
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