How Water Towers Work

Purpose and function of elevated water storage tanks.

The job of finding enough water, making it safe to use, and then reliably distributing it to the system customers with almost no downtime is a monumental task that requires a lot of infrastructure. And, probably the most visible component of a public water system is the elevated storage tank, also known as a water tower. I’m Grady Hillhouse and this is Public Works, my video series on infrastructure and the humanmade world around us.

Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse
Animation: Stephanie White, Connor Claver, Dayan D'aniello

Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

[PracticalEngineeringChannel]

"Public Works" is a new video format I'm trying out. Let me know if you like it, and if so, what topics you'd like me to cover in the future!

[radicalxedward]

The cheap, reliable access to water via taps is probably the single most underrated thing about developed countries.

[Raguleader]

Water towers also provide another mildly interesting service, by dint of their being tall and easy to spot: Navigational aids for low-flying aircraft. Pilots can use particular towns as waypoints and use the water towers to verify their location. In case you ever wondered why your local water tower probably has your town's name in huge letters painted on it.

[raymondrizzo]

Hi Grady, I am an older man and have been wondering how those tanks work for decades. Your explanation was first rate, especially the part about the “stored energy” contained in the water within the tower. Thank you for such a well done explanation. If my daughter was little again, I would love to watch your videos with her.

[djrbaker]

Here in Brazil, depending on the region, almost every home has some kind of water storage. Specially in remote areas that have little to no infrastructure like the north and northeast of the country, the Amazon included. We're taught to design homes with storage for at least 2 days due to the systems being unreliable. Larger structures are also required to allocate a significant percentage of their daily water usage to be used exclusively for firefighting as there aren't any expressive quantities of hydrants in the country.

[rickyramsey]

Good video, I am an electrician and I work primarily in this industry. We also use hydro-pneumatic storage tanks to store water under pressure with an air blanket to absorb water hammer and help regulate the pressure as it builds up via a pump and is lost through demand. Anyway, I watch your videos a lot and they are consistently good, thanks for that!

[rchydrozz]

Notice at 9:20 the bands on the wooden water tanks are closer together at the bottom, where the pressure is higher nearer the bottom. Wider spacing as they go up.

[jacksonrich]

It’s crazy how comfortable we get and take some of the “simple” things for granted.
Great video. Thx for sharing.

[AnimeFreakish]

Ah yes, I've driven by that water tower in my hometown for over 20 years and began to finally wonder if it really does anything. You learn something new every day

[bigkiwimike]

Very interesting video. For 12 years I was chief engineer in the pump house at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. The museum was built around the pump house which was opened in July 1877 to supply water to Auckland city. The boiler room contained four 30’ long Lancashire boilers which supplied steam to the double compound beam engine in the engine room next door. The engine drove two pumps which took water from Western Springs Lake to reservoirs in Ponsonby and in Kyber Pass Road, from where it was then gravity fed down to the city.
As a result, I have always had a fascination with water and its supply and how without a water supply, you do not have a city.
Keep up the good work.

[freddsims]

Gravity is not only a good idea, it's the law.

[MarlinRoth]

Im a plumbing apprentice and didn’t know how water towers worked until I watched this video. It’s pretty cool that city-provided water from water towers are literally just a GIANT version of how a single house that has well-pump provided water gets it’s water out of the earth.

Water well-pumps push water from a deep hole in the ground, through some pipes, and then water gets inside the house and usually 20-40 gallons of water is stored in a water storage tank AKA pressure tank. When the pressure tank has a satisfactory amount of pressure for what it is designed for, then the well pump stops pumping water to the house until the people inside the house use enough water that the tank needs to be somewhat refilled.

[southronjr]

I am a FireFighter in a fairly small town in Ga, the town has about 12, 000 residents. The local landfill operator was VERY unaware of the need to keep the pile covered as much as possible and actually told me spontaneous combustion from decay was a myth, so guess what happened one day after a torrential rain came through. Yep the pile caught fire. At max flow we were pumping over 7, 500 gallons of water an hour onto it and that was only to keep it from flaring so high it caught the surrounding buildings on fire. Over a 7 day period we put over 4, 000, 000 gallons on it. The water came from the towns water supply that we had to truck to the scene in tankers and tenders but it all came from the town. We put such a strain that the local water dept sent out notices that the pressure had to be cut in half and that severe drought water restrictions were in place until the fire was over. Thank God for the the rains because the over flowing river where the water was taken from fed the water dept, had it been at normal flow rate, we would have not had enough water to fight it. Oh and btw, if you were wondering the heaviest flow stopped after just 3 days because the state came in with a massive trash pump and set up 6 ag sprinklers on the pile and just used the runoff from what we had pumped on as their water source. We had to spray some areas that they couldn't reach but only when it flared.

[austin]

I used to be a water plant operator in my home town years ago. Nice to see a video explaining the use and importance of a water tower. Ours held 100, 000 gallons of treated water when at capacity. Very handy thing to have when there were power outages or serious water pipeline breaks

[nidhigilson]

I have an interview coming up for a hydraulic modelling engineer position, and this video is just the perfect summary of how the water distribution network works. Thanks for summarising so well. This will come in handy for my revision

[wewjoj]

I'm so grateful to have water. I feel like a lot of us take water for granted.

[biggusdickus]

Just started a job as a Water System Operator in a large city, and it's been a nerd's dream finally getting my hands on water infrastructure. Your channel was a big inspiration for me to get my state certifications and get into this career path!

[roblaquiere]

I work on pumps every day. Supplying the irrigation needs for the many golf courses in my area is a huge industry by itself. They need pressurized water to run all of their different sprinkler systems. Lawn grass is the largest cash crop in America after all.

[brendanschneeberger]

This video is so excellent. One clarification about pressure zones though, is they don't necessarily each need their own water tower/reservoir. They can be accomplished by a city-owned pressure reducing valve :)

[paulbarker]

I'm a Certified Irrigation Contractor. While we learn and discuss water dynamics from an irrigation perspective, the greater water supply system is not necessarily part of our knowledge base. This was fascinating and well enjoyed. I will use this video in my training of employees because it will contribute to our greater understanding of the way water works.