How to Empty 55 Gallon Barrels with Little Effort

A few questions have come up on how to get the water or other liquids out of a fifty five gallon barrel.  It is really pretty simple.  You can always use an old fashioned siphon hose.  Personally I don’t like to suck on them so I use a Super Siphon hose.  They consist of a metal fitting on one end of a six foot hose. You just stick the metal end in the liquid and shake it in an up and down motion a few times and the siphoning action starts.  An adapter is available so that you can extent the length of the hose by adding a garden hose. 

There are also siphon pumps that are easy to use.  There are a long tube that fits into the barrel with a small pump on the top to start the water flowing.  These are available for both five gallon and fifty five gallon containers. 

A third item that you need if you use fifty five gallon barrels is a bung wrench.  There are available in both plastic and metal.  The one I use is plastic and will also lift the lids from 5 gallon buckets. 

A quick internet search under Super Siphon hose, Siphon Pump and bung wrenches should provide you with several sources of these items.

There’s a handful of great options on Amazon if you’re looking to buy supplies. There are both manual and electric pumps available, but for true emergencies it would be best to have a manual pump to conserve batteries as needed.

Howard

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4 thoughts on “How to Empty 55 Gallon Barrels with Little Effort”

  1. Bpoilspilldamages.us

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  2. I suggest testing out your siphon pump to make sure it works for you. I took the word of a seller that they were great and bought one. About a year later, I needed to empty out a 55 gallon water barrel so I gave the pump a try. It did not work well at all in pumping out the water and fell apart with little use. I got rid of the pump and got a siphon hose, which works great and is still in good condition after four or five years.

    1. Susan, can you give me the name of the siphon hose you purchased for the 55 gal. drums? I have 6 that I’ve been collecting rain water in to water my garden and need a reliable product. Thanks!

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