Hydro-Ground rod driving

[k4kyv]

If you have never tried this or seen it done for driving a rod into the ground, you may be sceptical, but it works.

Some people do this for installing ground rods, but I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose, since it leaves the rod loosely dangling in a hole that is larger than the rod, and you probably don't get good electrical contact.  But it does work for other purposes such as drilling a pilot hole for a larger ground rod.

Scoop out a small hole in the topsoil, about the size of a beer can, at the spot where the rod is to be driven. Fill this hole with water. Insert the rod into the bottom of the hole. Work the ground rod up and down, easy with minimal force. After a few strokes there will be a noticeable hole into which the rod will go down. It is important to pull the ground rod out of the hole completely from time to time, letting the hole fill back up with water since it is the water that makes the hole.

After a few more strokes, you will need to add more water to the hole. Pretty soon the rod will go all the way into the earth. It is possible to easily drive in an 8 ft. ground rod this way, but as I said before, I wouldn't recommend this for direct installation of ground rods. What I have found it useful for is driving larger poles or pipes into the ground, particularly in mid-summer when the soil is so dry that it is like concrete.  Drive the smaller rod to the desired depth, then remove it, and set a 5-gallon plastic bucket such as a paint can over the hole. Before setting the bucket in place, drill a small hole in the bottom.  Fill the bucket with water.  It will drip out slowly and soak into the ground and into the hole you just made.  Refill and  repeat a time or two. Next day, a water pipe or a steel tee-post will drive into the wet soil like hot butter.  You can drive the rod at an angle to guide the way for a screw-in guy anchor when the soil is so hard that the screw-in anchor would twist in two before it would go in dry.

This method will probably be OK for a ground rod if you use a smaller size rod to make the pilot hole, and then pound in the larger ground rod, as described above. In that case, a metal fence post driver works much better than a sledge hammer.

No joke, this really works.  See attached photos. See next post for the final result.

[k4kyv]

Here is the final photo.  Notice that the rod is fully inserted into the ground, in this case, 3 feet deep.  The tee-post will be ready to be driven into the ground to-morrow after more water is allowed to soak in.

[W3SLK]

Makes sense. Liquids don't compress.

[KB5MD]

Another method for setting a ground rod is to solder or braze a water hose fitting to the end of an 8' joint of 1/2" conduit.  Place the conduit where you want the ground rod, turn on the water and the conduit will wash itself down into the ground with only minimal hand force.  When the correct depth is reached, remove the conduit from the hole and replace with the ground rod.  The hole will tighten around the ground rod in a day or two.

[KM1H]

When I lived in places that actually permitted using water for a ground rod I dit it 2 ways.

Use a 10' 3/4" L grade copper pipe with a hose adaptor on the top. Remove the adaptor and use the pipe as the ground rod. There is plenty of earth to copper contact already and the earth will compress when the water drains away.

Use the same 3/4" pipe and water to get down as far as possible. Drop a standard 9/16" ground rod down the pipe and remove the pipe. Then beat on the pipe until it wont go down any more. You still have good contact as the slurry will fill in any voids.

In both the above you can keep adding mud and tamping down untill there is full contact for the 8-10'. With the pipe you can always add water if needed to get thru the dry seasons.

Carl

[WA1GFZ]

a little wiz helps

[KF1Z]

Soil yes.   Rocks.... not so much.   

[w1vtp]

Soil yes.   Rocks.... not so much.  

Try that in NH granite  Just kidding

[WA1GFZ]

Rocks are just baby soil

[k4kyv]

When I lived in places that actually permitted using water for a ground rod...

Local electrical code?

[KM1H]

When I lived in places that actually permitted using water for a ground rod...

Local electrical code?

Water as used per this threads line of discussion. Where I live now the ground rods are almost horizontal.

[k4kyv]

You would be better off just laying down radials.

[WBear2GCR]

Doubt that this method will work in things other than clay or sandy soils... you guys who live on ancient ocean beaches and ocean bottoms can do it, but we true mountain men live on carp that masquerades as "soil" and runs as high as 75% rock and stone... ya gotta blast ur way through!

                        _-_-bear