The bucket flow test is a simple but effective way to discover the available water supply flow rate, at any given property. All you need is a standard 9 litre bucket; a watch with a second hand and the garden tap that you plan to connect your system to. Turn the tap on and once it is fully open place the bucket underneath it, then time how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to the top and that’s all there is to it. Now simply type the number of seconds it took to fill the bucket into the space below and we will work out exactly how much usable water (Usable water is 80% of the total flow rate) in litres per minute you have available to use for your home watering system.

Please Note: If you are connecting to more than one tap, simply repeat the test at each tap that you are connecting to and make a note of the results showing each taps location and its litres per minute of usable water result.

Use the calculator below to find out your water flow rate in litres per minute. Simply enter in the number of seconds it took to fill your bucket, then click on the L/pm field to find your answer!

60 (Seconds/1 minute) divided by the number of seconds it takes to fill the bucket, multiplied by the number of litres in the bucket (Standard round plastic bucket is 9 litres).

I.E. Bucket takes 10 seconds to fill - 60 divided by 10 = 6 litres per minute, multiplied by the number of litres in the bucket (9) - 9 X 6= 54 litres total. Usable water available is 80% of the total water available (54 lpm Total - 43.2 lpm Usable).

So; if it takes 10 seconds to fill the 9 litre bucket; the usable water (80% of total available) would be 43.2 litres per minute of usable water available.

Click here if you can't see the calculator below