Water Tank : Controlled Overload

Do you leave your running water a lot? Do you flood your bathroom most of the time? We never wait by the tank when we are filling in the water. Then we do something else, and we always get back late to check on it. I have a wash basin counter next to my water tank. The problem is when the tank is overloaded, the water will flood the basin counter. The disaster occurs when I leave my electric shaver or my cell phones on the counter. Arrghhh....

Lately I realized that my grandfather had his way to overcome this kind of problem. Then I write this instructable representing him ;)

What you need is simply a drill with a set of bits. A PVC pipe at the length of your tank's wall thickness. Some wall putty or white cement.

Drill a hole on your water tank's wall, one inch from the top. Locate the position where you want the water spill out. It is better far from the faucet to avoid wavy water from faucet drop point. But that is the only position best in my case, the corner, so I can put another bucket below the hole to save some water for cleaning purpose. The size of the pipe should be equal or slightly larger than the faucet size. If your pipe is smaller, then the water level will still rise slowly because the volume of water filling in is larger than the volume of water goes out. Half inch pipe is good. Not too big and it match most faucets used at home. After the pipe goes in, apply the wall putty or white cements around the pipe and let it dry.

I need some time to convince my wife. I have not yet granted permission to drill our shiny ceramic (>.<) Well, actually she is tired wiping the flooded basin counter, but she is too worried that I will mess up the ceramics :P

There is my grandfather's 50-year-old water tank with that overloaded water control hole. There was a mini swimming pool in front of that tank, so the overloaded water would fill the swimming pool. No wasting water at all. Sadly, we had to remove the swimming pool and I can't publish the photos of it full with naked kids in it :P

Pro : You can control where the exceeding water spill out.

Con : It will leave water marks below the hole if you don't wipe it dry frequently.