Simple Technology: Watering your Christmas tree

Technology tends to focus on creating new products using the most complex science of the day.  During the industrial revolution, many new inventions used steam to power them.  During the electronics age, everything we powered with tiny motors and relays.  In the computer age, every new "thing" either has a computer, is a computer, or runs on a computer.  Although I love the latest and greatest, I love it even more when something new comes out that uses older technology, and it works better than another other fancier device.

Christmas trees tend to consume a lot of water.  You tend to bend over a lot adding more water once or twice a day.  It can be hard to reach that far to add water.  What happens if you have to travel for the holidays?  Last year, I started to research a watering system for the Christmas tree.  I heard of funnel systems with tubes, but they were unsightly.  I saw electronic systems that notified you that the water level was low.  That doesn't exactly water the tree when it needs it, it just notified you when it needs to be watered.  The next thing I saw was a box with a tube.  The box looked like a Christmas present.  The tube went from the bottom of the box to the water reservoir of a standard Christmas tree stand.

The device was a Siphon pump.  You fill the box with water.  As the Christmas tree uses the water in the stand's reservoir, the box automatically fills the reservoir up to the top.  It is "smart" enough to NEVER overfill the reservoir!  The box essentially triples the effective reservoir size for the tree.  The fact that old technology can be so great seems seems so counter intuitive.  How can a device with no moving parts be better than a device with a speaker and moisture sensor?  How does a device with no sensor automatically know when to stop filling?  How does the water get pumped to the tree stand?

This device uses technology that is 3500 years old.  The box siphons water into the tree stand.  Once the pump is primed, the water level inside of the box matches the water level of the stand.  As you add more water to one, the siphoning action pumps the water to the other end.  If you remove water from one end, then the siphon moves water from the end that has more water to the end that has less water.  When you first set up the system, you add water until the water level in the tree stand is at its highest.  That tells you the max fill level in the box.  The tree uses the water in both reservoirs.  When it gets low, you fill the box back up to the fill level.

The beauty of this technology is that it fills a need perfectly.  It automatically waters the tree.  There is very little that can go wrong with the box.  Since it looks like a Christmas present, it is aesthetically pleasing.  Due to the simple design, it is cheap to produce.  It just works.

Christmas Tree Watering System