Sequential use of small water jugs with pump

[ItsMeOK]

Searched and searched for this but came up empty.

I want to have several plastic jugs for water (jerry can size)
I want to have all connected to the same hose and T'd off connected to the same pump.
But I don't want them all to be used at the same time and have the levels go down evenly. I would like for it to use one tank fully, then the next tank, etc. This way I can just take out 1 or 2 empties and fill and replace.

I am trying to come up with something that wouldn't take a CPU and programing to accomplish.

I was thinking of solenoids, but they take constant power depending on either always open or always closed. I see there are electronically controlled ball valves that seem to be the right road, with a ball valve at the top of each jug.

Then I was thinking of a switch that would sense if the preceding tank was empty and to then open the next tanks valve.

This is where it gets confusing. If the 1st one is open and empty, then trigger the 2nd one's ball valve. But now there is still the 1st one that is open and empty so the pump would suck in air too, right?
Is there a type of check valve that would allow water but not air?

How would one sensor trigger its valve to close then next one to open?

Has then been figured out already?
Is there a simpler way?
An existing product that I just don't know the name of?

Thanks

Edit. OR
What if I just had each tank have a tube that ran to the bottom and then to the top of the next tank. The water pump could pump out of the first tank.

Then have and air pump on the last tank and pressurize the last one so that it forces the water out and into the next tank and repeats causing the first tank to end up with all the water and the others are empty?

[Grit_dog]

Wake boat fat sacks work great. More durable than the Scamazon specials and many different sizes and shapes. I didn't suggest earlier as OP seemed intent on hand packing water jugs to the camper.

[tommyznr]

ItsMeOK wrote:

way2roll wrote:

way2roll wrote:
The farthest reaches of my brain are inventing some inflatable vessel. An inflatable/flexible holding tank/bladder if you will, that rolls up the unfilled part...

here ya go. Only takes up the space based on the volume of water, Less water, less space, fill as needed.

***Link Removed***

Now that's a good idea.
Thank you!

Just for giggles, how would you use that to solve your stated problem?

[ItsMeOK]

way2roll wrote:

way2roll wrote:
The farthest reaches of my brain are inventing some inflatable vessel. An inflatable/flexible holding tank/bladder if you will, that rolls up the unfilled part...

here ya go. Only takes up the space based on the volume of water, Less water, less space, fill as needed.

***Link Removed***

Now that's a good idea.
Thank you!

[valhalla360]

ItsMeOK wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

ItsMeOK wrote:
Well to address some of the "comments", this is for a smaller vehicle (Class B Van) so space is at a premium. It's for being able to have a modular system that has an adjustable capacity depending on what the needs for the current trip or for what other people use needs are. Need more water for this type of trip, slide in more cans. People that don't need that much water can use the space for other stuff. I was actually thinking of collapsible containers but was trying to simplify question so the decision could change while on a trip.

It would allow using the oldest water first. Also, you could carry a can in a backpack, etc. into a restroom, etc. and fill one.

A larger built in tank with a 5gal jug you can use for refilling when you can't get the rig close enough to fill directly off a tap would be my recommendation.
- If it's a short trip where you don't need maximum water, you probably don't need maximum storage either.
- If it's a long trip where you need maximum water, you also need maximum storage.

Much simpler than a rube goldberg system with lots of failure points that offers little additional utility.

Yep, hard to believe it wasn't obvious.

[Fisherman]

ItsMeOK wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

ItsMeOK wrote:
Well to address some of the "comments", this is for a smaller vehicle (Class B Van) so space is at a premium. It's for being able to have a modular system that has an adjustable capacity depending on what the needs for the current trip or for what other people use needs are. Need more water for this type of trip, slide in more cans. People that don't need that much water can use the space for other stuff. I was actually thinking of collapsible containers but was trying to simplify question so the decision could change while on a trip.

It would allow using the oldest water first. Also, you could carry a can in a backpack, etc. into a restroom, etc. and fill one.

A larger built in tank with a 5gal jug you can use for refilling when you can't get the rig close enough to fill directly off a tap would be my recommendation.
- If it's a short trip where you don't need maximum water, you probably don't need maximum storage either.
- If it's a long trip where you need maximum water, you also need maximum storage.

Much simpler than a rube goldberg system with lots of failure points that offers little additional utility.

That's my thoughts too.

[way2roll]

way2roll wrote:
The farthest reaches of my brain are inventing some inflatable vessel. An inflatable/flexible holding tank/bladder if you will, that rolls up the unfilled part...

here ya go. Only takes up the space based on the volume of water, Less water, less space, fill as needed.

Aquatank

[Grit_dog]

ItsMeOK wrote:
People that don't need that much water can use the space for other stuff. I was actually thinking of collapsible containers but was trying to simplify question so the decision could change while on a trip.

It would allow using the oldest water first. Also, you could carry a can in a backpack, etc. into a restroom, etc. and fill one.

"People", as in not you or someone camping with you? Like a rental?
Oldest water first?
Think about the real world use here. How long do you anticipate leaving a jug of water in there?
Cool concept you're thinking of. Complicated for what it is, IMO.

[2112]

If you have a truly air tight system, you could pressurize the farthest tank with a small air compressor. It would have to stay up with the pump volume so the pump doesn't create too much vacuum.

Have a hysteresis pressure switch (say close at 30psi and open at 40psi) monitoring the farthest tanks pressure to turn on the compressor when the pressure drops. Again, the farthest tanks tube feeding the next tank would need to draw off the bottom, and so on.

That sounds great in theory but I bet you would be forever chasing leaks in practice.

I like venting the farthest tank to atmosphere and daisy chain the tanks with all the draw tubes feeding off the tanks bottom. The tubes will have to be large enough in diameter to support the pumps flow demand. And you can't have any air leak throughout the system.

[way2roll]

The farthest reaches of my brain are inventing some inflatable vessel. An inflatable/flexible holding tank/bladder if you will, that rolls up the unfilled part...

[Gdetrailer]

ItsMeOK wrote:

time2roll wrote:
If the tanks must be level then they just need to be sealed with two tubes. The tube that connects to the next must feed from the bottom. The pump will pull all the water out with the end tank admitting air and empty first. The tanks will empty in sequence.

Thank you. I had thought of that but could not work out if the physics of it would actually work that way. I might have to do a mock up to prove it to myself.

While "siphons" can work, they can be problematic. The first container closest to water pump must be 100% air tight in order to draw water reliably and consistently from the container farther away from the pump. The final container farthest from the pump must have a open vent to air.

The final container farthest from the pump will draw down first, then the next container draws down after that until no water left. Creates a "daisy chain" of serially connected containers.

The downside to all this is you can't simply remove any container other than the first container(s) that emptied without affecting the entire chain. You are now creating a huge mess of serially connected jugs and if any point other than the first jug does not have a 100% air tight connection you lose that siphon perhaps in the middle of your shower.

Gravity is far more reliable than siphon but since you do not or are not able to stack jugs one above another sort of rules that out.

If you consider the option of using the containers in parallel you no longer have siphon issues from jug to jug. You can easily control what jugs the water is being pulled from by opening only the specific valves for the jugs you want to use first.

How this works is you need a "manifold" which is a fancy term for a common connection point and the manifold has one valve for each jug.

You could expand and control this system as needed easily.

You can choose only one jug or multiple jugs at a time to be used.

For instance, say you have four 5 gallon jugs to use, open two of the four valves and you have 10 gallons of water to use for your shower and two jugs in reserve.

Once the in use jugs are empty, close those valves and open the full ones and you now have ten gallons to use while you remove the empties to refill..

You could even open three of the four and have 15 gallons and the close jug is your reserve until you refill the empties..

Less chance of parallel operation to fail vs a serial daisy chain system..

But, hey, it is your shower to fail on, not mine.

[ItsMeOK]

valhalla360 wrote:

ItsMeOK wrote:
Well to address some of the "comments", this is for a smaller vehicle (Class B Van) so space is at a premium. It's for being able to have a modular system that has an adjustable capacity depending on what the needs for the current trip or for what other people use needs are. Need more water for this type of trip, slide in more cans. People that don't need that much water can use the space for other stuff. I was actually thinking of collapsible containers but was trying to simplify question so the decision could change while on a trip.

It would allow using the oldest water first. Also, you could carry a can in a backpack, etc. into a restroom, etc. and fill one.

A larger built in tank with a 5gal jug you can use for refilling when you can't get the rig close enough to fill directly off a tap would be my recommendation.
- If it's a short trip where you don't need maximum water, you probably don't need maximum storage either.
- If it's a long trip where you need maximum water, you also need maximum storage.

Much simpler than a rube goldberg system with lots of failure points that offers little additional utility.

[ItsMeOK]

time2roll wrote:
If the tanks must be level then they just need to be sealed with two tubes. The tube that connects to the next must feed from the bottom. The pump will pull all the water out with the end tank admitting air and empty first. The tanks will empty in sequence.

Thank you. I had thought of that but could not work out if the physics of it would actually work that way. I might have to do a mock up to prove it to myself.

[valhalla360]

ItsMeOK wrote:
Well to address some of the "comments", this is for a smaller vehicle (Class B Van) so space is at a premium. It's for being able to have a modular system that has an adjustable capacity depending on what the needs for the current trip or for what other people use needs are. Need more water for this type of trip, slide in more cans. People that don't need that much water can use the space for other stuff. I was actually thinking of collapsible containers but was trying to simplify question so the decision could change while on a trip.

It would allow using the oldest water first. Also, you could carry a can in a backpack, etc. into a restroom, etc. and fill one.

A larger built in tank with a 5gal jug you can use for refilling when you can't get the rig close enough to fill directly off a tap would be my recommendation.
- If it's a short trip where you don't need maximum water, you probably don't need maximum storage either.
- If it's a long trip where you need maximum water, you also need maximum storage.

Much simpler than a rube goldberg system with lots of failure points that offers little additional utility.

[time2roll]

If the tanks must be level then they just need to be sealed with two tubes. The tube that connects to the next must feed from the bottom. The pump will pull all the water out with the end tank admitting air and empty first. The tanks will empty in sequence.