ᐅ Concrete Ring Cistern – Experiences

Hello,

we are currently considering installing a cistern, but according to quotes from the general contractors, it would be really expensive...

A colleague suggested the following:

Simply inform the excavation contractor to install concrete rings. There are also various online guides available later on for the connections, which could be done as self-installation.

Has anyone had experience with this?

These plastic cisterns are just extremely expensive...

exto1791 schrieb:

These plastic cisterns are just ridiculously expensive...

They aren’t that much different in price compared to concrete cisterns, are they?

KingJulien schrieb:

They aren't much different in price compared to concrete cisterns, right?

No, they're similarly priced, but I'm wondering about doing this using concrete rings.. Maybe the civil engineer could arrange it "off the record," so I wouldn’t have to buy a ready-made product separately.

Of course, it depends on how you plan to use it later and where it should be located. We once poured concrete under the stairs leading to the garden on the side of the house and placed a manhole cover on top. For that, we built a simple inlet and overflow system with PVC pipes ourselves and operated the whole setup with a basic domestic water pump, but only for garden irrigation. Inside, we coated it with a slurry, and the system worked perfectly for decades and proved to be very reliable.

@rick2018 also recommended a deep well pump for this purpose, which is probably more expensive but might be more suitable depending on how you intend to use it; you’ll have to assess that yourself. I only know this "old" system, which was very good and absolutely cost-effective for my needs and my 900sqm (9,688 sq ft) property at the time. However, I often prefer the simpler option of a garden hose or basic lawn sprinklers and won’t use a complex system. Very old school, indeed...

We have been using such concrete rings for about 30 years. If I remember correctly, repairs were needed three times over all those years due to water leakage. They have served us well, but nowadays I would still opt to install a prefabricated cistern underground.

Garten2 schrieb:

We have been using these concrete rings for about 30 years.
If I remember correctly, repairs were needed three times over the years due to water leakage.
It has been sufficient for us, but nowadays I would still opt to have a pre-made cistern installed underground.

What would be the reason why you would prefer to have a pre-made cistern installed?