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Make a Hidden Christmas Tree Watering System

Make a Hidden Christmas Tree Watering System
This easy-to-build system is disguised as a wrapped present under the Christmas tree. It allows easy refilling and can water your tree for several days if you are away from home.

There are many benefits to decorating with live Christmas trees, but the daily watering can become a bit of a hassle, especially if your tree stand is difficult to reach. It's also impossible to travel for any extended period of time without getting someone else to water your tree while you are gone. This system will eliminate both those problems.
 
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Step 1Materials

Materials
You will need:
- One live Christmas tree.
- One live Christmas tree stand. Although you can't see it in the pictures because of the tree skirt, I used a tree stand with a 1-gallon reservoir, 360-degree x 10-degree tilt with a foot locking mechanism. Any tree stand should work though.
- A bucket that's about as tall as the top of your tree stand. Any plastic container that holds more water than your tree stand should work though.
- A box with a lid. The box should be big enough that your bucket can fit inside it.
- Wrapping paper and bow for decorating the box.
- Approximately 4-feet of 3/8" plastic tubing. Other dimensions may work and you can go longer or shorter if you need, but 4-feet met my needs well.
- Two 3/8" Compression Couplings x 3/4" MIP Brass Adapters with nylon or plastic bushings for the compression couplings. It's important that the compression end be the same size as the outside diameter of your tubing, but the other end is unimportant. This will be used merely as a weight to keep the end of the tubing in the bottom of the reservoir and bucket.
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16 comments
Dec 20, 2011. 7:39 PMjollyelf says:
I know I'm late to the party (by 3 years) but I tried this in 2011, and it is awesome! Thank you, Ricky, for taking the time to post. We have large trees every year, that guzzle a lot of water, and I have a hard time keeping up with them. This is perfect. It actually makes watering the tree fun. Brilliant. Thanks again!
Dec 16, 2011. 7:21 AMspeedilad says:
Great idea and instructions.. One possible improvement on the difficult siphon start procedure (helps if very little space for your hands in the tree stand).. I used small rubber stoppers (Home depot or other hardware store) on each end of the tube after filling... Placed the tube ends in the stand and the buckets, then used my finger to knock the plugs out... (let the tree stand plug fall where it may and get it when you take the tree down... THANKS SO VERY MUCH! Jim
Dec 16, 2009. 1:31 PMaarone says:
I put together a system like this for my own tree this past week. The idea of using a siphon had occurred to me, so I started looking around and found this instructable. Putting a fake gift over the bucket is Brilliant! Makes all the difference in the world, and I'm glad I found this.

Instead of putting weights on the ends of the tube, I used some copper wire I had lying around to create "clips" that attach to the edges of the bucket and tree stand respectively. The tubes are held to the edges. My tree watering system has been a resounding success!

Details about my build are here.
Dec 22, 2008. 7:07 PMmadhatter1138 says:
Worked like a charm! Siphon worked first time! Awesome one man,thanks!
Dec 22, 2008. 6:36 PMzahnarzt says:
Great instructable! I had some trouble getting the siphon working and figuring out the water levels, but once it was all set it was perfect!
Dec 15, 2008. 5:15 PMzgystardst says:
Disguising the reservoir as a package is VERY clever! Great idea!
Dec 13, 2008. 5:56 PMcodongolev says:
that ornament's hot.
Dec 14, 2008. 10:49 AMcodongolev says:
yoda's HEAD? are you MAD?!
Dec 13, 2008. 6:55 PMSkor459 says:
"Thanks! You know what's hotter? My wife-"
Dec 14, 2008. 6:40 AMfalcotheimpaler says:
Saw that too. but honestly, this is awesome. Why didn't I think of this?
Dec 14, 2008. 9:23 AMslientbob says:
man i wish i could have cool ornaments like that i only get tinsel
Dec 13, 2008. 7:29 PMplace name here- says:
sweet I wanna do it PS. nice instructable!

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Author:rickyspears
I am: * A frequent public speaker and writer on productivity, organization, motivation, and technology * President of Spears Technologies, Inc. * Author and instructor for Microsoft's S...
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