You will be pleasantly surprised how much water you get from a small water storage tank. Capacity is the number people fixate on, but it is only a guide to how much water might be stored at any single point in time. A tank of any size is constantly filled, emptied, and then refilled. Our 450 litre water tank, the smallest we sell, will punch well above that capacity with ongoing replenishment from the rain.
There are sizeable benefits to investing in a smaller water tank of less than 10,000 litres. Here are a few of them.
A Smaller Tank Means a Lower Price
Obviously, you will pay less for a smaller tank. This is particularly important if your budget is limited and might not stretch to water storage tanks in the 25,000 to 30,000 litre range. The lower price also changes the shape of the decision. A small tank you can afford now starts collecting rain this season, whereas a large tank you are still saving towards collects nothing at all. For a lot of properties the question is not which tank is biggest, but which tank actually gets bought and installed, and a smaller one is far more likely to clear that bar.
Reduce Your Water Bills
Because a small tank can deliver thousands of litres of clean water for domestic use, including drinking and cleaning, you will reduce your reliance on mains water supply, with your water bill coming down at the same time. The saving is not a one-off. Every time the tank refills, that is more water you are not buying. This is the point people miss when they look at a 450 litre tank and see 450 litres. What you are actually buying is a tank that keeps handing you that volume again and again through the year, and every one of those fills is water the meter never sees.
Easy to Install
Plastic water tanks are incredibly light when empty. Even our 30,000 litre ENDURO and XPRESS tanks are easy to manoeuvre and install, and our smaller tanks are lighter still. That puts a DIY installation genuinely within reach, which takes another cost out of the project and lets you put the tank in when it suits you. If you want to know how the two ranges differ, we have compared them in ENDURO vs XPRESS.
The one thing you cannot skip is the base. You must place your tank on a properly prepared base, and that applies just as much to a small tank as a large one. We have all the information you need on that topic in our guide to selecting the best base for your water tank.
Simple Sustainability
Affordability and simple installation make a smaller tank an easy way to become more sustainable, something Promax takes as seriously as you do. Sustainability efforts often stall on cost and complexity, and a small tank removes both of those obstacles at once. And again, because a small tank is frequently replenished during the year, your rain harvesting efforts will produce a surprising amount of water. As a result, you can continue irrigating your property even when water restrictions are in place, which is exactly when a garden most needs the help.
The Perfect Fit
Our small tanks are perfect in high-density urban areas where backyards continue to shrink. A tank has to earn its footprint on a small section, and a smaller model asks for far less of the space you have left. But just because you buy a small Promax tank, that does not mean you miss out on easy access. All Promax tanks, regardless of their size, are manufactured with a 450 mm access hole as standard. This makes it a straightforward exercise for you to open up and clean out the tank, which is not something you want to discover is difficult years later. You can see the options in our small water tanks collection.
Not Out of Place in Rural Settings
Small tanks are not only an urban answer. Water storage tanks of less than 10,000 litres are ideal for irrigating smaller paddocks or crops grown in a confined area, where a single large tank in one corner of the property would mean moving water a long way to reach anything. Because they are so affordable and easy to set up, it is not unusual for our customers to install several small tanks on one farm or lifestyle block. That approach puts storage where the water is actually needed, and it spreads the cost out rather than committing to one large purchase in a single go.
Smaller Tanks Are Out of Sight (Sort Of)
Because of their relatively diminutive dimensions, smaller Promax storage tanks are discreet compared to larger models. Corrugated ENDURO tanks go a step further: they are strong enough to be partially buried up to one-third of their height, further reducing their visual impact.
There is a practical bonus to lowering a tank into the ground. It can sit below gutter height, so rainwater can flow down from the roof and fill the tank to the very top, optimising its capacity. Of course, when the top of a tank is above gutter height, it can never be completely full. We have yet to work out how to make water flow upwards.
Tiny Homes Love Small Tanks
Tiny homes are making a huge splash in New Zealand, and small Promax water storage tanks are valuable additions to these miniature masterpieces of architectural design. The match is a natural one. Even the tiniest house can harvest thousands of litres of rain from its roof, because a roof does not need to be large to catch a useful amount over a full year. And an empty tank is light enough to be easily towed from site to site, which matters when the whole point of the house is that it can move with you.
Sizing a Small Tank to Your Situation
When you consider all those benefits, smaller can be smarter when it comes to water storage tanks. The one thing worth doing before you buy is checking that the capacity you choose will meet your water requirements, because "small" covers a wide range and the right answer depends on your roof, your rainfall and what you want the water for. Our rainwater tank size calculator is a good place to start, and our guide to what size water tank you need walks through the reasoning.
Our sales team can help you size up your situation and ensure your tank gives you enough capacity to meet your water requirements. Get in touch today if you would like to have a quick chat about small tanks.
Call Promax on 0800 77 66 29