Self-Cleaning Water Tap for Gardens

In this Instructable, I will be showing how I made this self-cleaning tap.

First, what do I mean by self-cleaning? Going back to how conventional water taps work, you turn on the tap, the water flows out through the nozzle and then you turn the tap off when you are done. The problem with this is that in environments where you need to work with dirt, washing of hands with these types of taps may not be as clean as you think.

Let me explain:

• Your dirty (with soil) hand from the garden to turn the knob of the tap - This leaves the taps knob dirty.

• Water flows out and you wash your hand clean. Good.

• You want to turn off the tap and you use your clean hands to turn the (now dirty) knob of the tap.

• In essence you still leave with a dirty hand, not just as obvious as before washing but it's still got some dirt. 😂

This tap that I've made solves that, the water flowing out gushes on the knob that opens the tap too. So as water flows to your hand for washing, the knob for the tap too is also being cleaned simultaneously as it is also in the way of the water.

• Big bottle (I used a 5 litre Keg)

• 20ml syringe ×3

• Box cutter knife

• Pen knife

• Glue gun

• Rope

• Marker/Pen

• Take the bottle or keg. In my case a 5L keg, which is a decent size.

Choosing the bottle size should be influenced on how much water you'd be needing. Bigger kegs store larger volume of water meaning longer time of use before refill. Consequently you'd be needing a thicker rope for bigger kegs.

• Take two 20ml syringes.

• Cut each syringe into equal halves so you have 4 pieces.

• Using the glue gun, glue each piece to the four corners of the keg near it's base as shown in the images.

• Take the keg again, now unscrew the cap.

• Take another 20ml syringe and cut off the tip so that the piston can pass outside it on pushing the piston through the tube.

• Using a marker or pen, place the syringe tube on the cap and trace out the size of the syringe tube on the cap.

• Using a pen (due to it narrow pointed cutting blade), cut out the drawn circle.

• Place the syringe tube through the hole into the bottle cap making it pass through it for about 3cm.

• Apply generous amount of hot glue around the side of the syringe tube and plastic cap to hold it in place and avoid leaks.

• Insert the piston into the syringe back in case it's been previously removed.

• Screw the made tap back onto the keg.

• Take the rope and tie it to the handle of the keg.

• Pass it through the tube glued to the base on one side.

• Bring it out and pass it through the tube on the opposite side of the first tube.

• Adjust the length of the rope to the desired length which will be determined by the height of where you'll like to suspend it.

• Tie the other other end of the rope back to the handle.

• Take another piece of rope and do this again for the other pair of tubes.

• The mechanism is simple, when you push the piston of the syringe up, it allows a passage for the water out which in turn sucks air in as bubbles.

• Once you remove the pressure pushing it up, the weight of the water pushes the piston back into the syringe and closes the tap.

Hope you find this as fun as I do, thanks.