A family in Fairland called us last winter. They had been through three outages in two weeks. Each time, it was the same routine: fill buckets from the pool, boil water on the stove, and hope the mains came back before the kids needed baths. The father told us he had bought a JoJo tank from a hardware store months ago, but it was still sitting in the garden, unconnected.
That is something we see a lot in Randburg. People buy the tank thinking the hard part is done. But a tank without proper plumbing is just a big green container. It is not connected to anything. It does not fill automatically. It does not feed your taps.
We came out, assessed his yard space and existing plumbing, laid a proper concrete base beside the garage, positioned the 5,000-litre JoJo, and plumbed it directly into the household supply. We cut in after the meter with a non-return valve, ran the main into the tank through a float valve, and brought a booster pump back into the house supply, so the house runs through the tank every day. The water is always fresh and the pump is always proven. When the mains go off, nothing changes except that the float stops filling.
Two weeks later, Randburg Water went down again. He sent us a message: "Didn't even know the water was off until my neighbour came knocking for a bucket."
That is the difference between owning a tank and having a properly installed water system. If you have a JoJo sitting in your yard in Blairgowrie, Bordeaux, or anywhere else around here, give us a call. We will get it connected properly. How it should be connected, meter to taps, is drawn out in our backup water system installation guide.
