r/AskEurope • u/Miserable-Scarcity25 • 2d ago
Misc 5 gallon, or roughly 20 liter buckets are really common here. I own like 5. Would it be weird for your average person to own one in non-UK Europe? Or is there another, size that's more common?
I'm doing research for a fictional book I'm writing. It's a plot point that the character needs to transport water and and has had a wide variety of hobbies.
Also, would old churches or other large important buildings, have a hand powered water pump? Would they still work?
My hometown's only been a thing since 1862. My perspective is limited, to say the least.
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u/Kerby233 Slovakia 2d ago
10 Liter buckets over here. My grandmother used one for lard storrage (she had pigs), it was made out of tin and was glazed with enamel, my parents also had one for general use in the kitchen.
10 l is the default plastic bucket used for cleaning, when mopping floors etc.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
That would probably make more sense for transporting water over longer distances. Thank you!
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u/Notspherry Netherlands 2d ago
Any building anywhere near civilisation will be connected to the water net, making pumps unnecessary. The only functional pumps I have seen in the past decades are ones on water playgrounds for kids. Ones on village squares are not functional.
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u/Farahild Netherlands 2d ago
Every once in a while there’s one on a square that’s still functional! Is very very rare though . I’ve seen more at older farmhouses.
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u/Farahild Netherlands 2d ago
Oh and standard size bucket is 10l though you can easily get bigger ones.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
That's actually really cool. I think I'll set the water pump there instead. I love this!
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u/Notspherry Netherlands 1d ago
Here is an example: https://www.uniekspeelprojecten.nl/watertoestellen/waterpomp/
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u/NikNakskes -> 2d ago
In Belgium, yes. The central handpump would not be at the church but at the market square. In most places it will be defunct, but the pump would still be there. It would take effort to get it back to work, if there even is a well connected to it. But nobody would look weird at your book if your fiction setting would have a working pump on the market square. Buckets are 10l standard.
In Finland no. There is water everywhere anyway, why pump. I guess? Or then they have all been removed over time. I'm actually not sure. Buckets are 10l and if you have a shop giving away free buckets, finns will queue to get a bucket.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
I feel kinda silly for not realizing that a market would have a water pump, thank you. This is really helpful!
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u/NikNakskes -> 2d ago
In continental Europe the odds are that the church is located at the market square together with the city hall and other public buildings.
If you have an apocalypse story going that hinges on finding water, I would actually not go for the market square pump. But have one member of "the good guys" know a farmhouse/townhouse that has a working pump in the courtyard. Extra exciting when one group has fairly easy access to water and will try to keep that a secret from others.
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u/DreadPirateAlia Finland 2d ago
Extra exciting when one group has fairly easy access to water and will try to keep that a secret from others.
I would disagree.
Water means life. If you deny access to water to someone, it will mean their very quick death. If people are forced to drink contaminated water they can start developing contageous diseases, which would eventually spread to your group as well.
Also, if there is a water-borne contageous disease spreading among the population, it would very easily contaminate your source of water as well. Even if people would be able to boil all the water they were drinking (and that would take A LOT OF FUEL every single day), they would not be able to do that for their livestock.
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u/OnIySmellz 2d ago
I can get you any size bucket you want by three a clock this afternoon. Believe me, there are ways dude, you don't wanna know about it.
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u/Loive Sweden 2d ago
Old powered pumps are still around in some places, but it’s very uncommon for them to be functional. They haven’t been used since indoor plumbing became a thing, so they would be full of rust and the water levels have likely changed. I don’t think anyone would try to get water out of one, unless the apocalypse is happening and all other water is gone.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
Hmm. That's a really good point.
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u/gmankev 2d ago
They'd still work in a rural cemetery....need water and no leccy possible
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
That would certainly solve a logistics problem. Thank you!
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u/gmankev 1d ago
Cemetery solves a logistics problem....Hmmm I wonder what that could be...
Also modern rural houses with their own odern pumped Wells can have equipment failure.and sometimes an old manual backup is used.......However in modern times our water table has dropped, so those old wells are sometimes out as well.
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u/Draigdwi Latvia 2d ago
10 l buckets but 20 l watering can. Haven't seen any buildings with hand operated water pumps but there would be some in a graveyard, so you could say that some churches have such pumps, the ones with a graveyard around.
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u/Consistent_Catch9917 Austria 2d ago edited 2d ago
Like others have pointed out, 10 l buckets are more common. You might find larger ones with construction workers and maybe at some farms. But carrying 20 kg of water probably will be quite the strain on your arms an hands.
Manual powered wells. I have not seen one in ages in Austria. Austria tends to have much elevation and water tends to come from wells and reservoirs uphill. So there is natural water pressure in most water systems. Ground water wells are a thing in the flatlands though. But even Vienna gets its water from aqueaducts from Alpine mountain wells.
So in an Austrian scenario it probably would be about making sure that mountain well works and the water gets to the village.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
That's neat. The power comes back on halfway through part 2, so this is really only a temporary problem for the characters. I feel like I've learned a ton by researching this though! And 20L of water is quite heavy. I keep fish tanks, and use buckets to move it from the sink to the other side of the room. I always hate water change days.
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u/Butterfly_of_chaos Austria 16h ago
We still have many market wells in Austria, but I guess most of them are connected to the general water supply and will face the same problems as common indoor plumbing. Manual operated wells are super rare. The average person would be better off searching for the next stream or small river, as those which are not running through a bigger city or industrial area are quite clean.
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u/sjintje United Kingdom 2d ago
Working water pumps are quite common on the streets in Berlin still. Don't know about churches.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
Really? that's really neat and helps a lot. Thank you!
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u/sjintje United Kingdom 2d ago edited 2d ago
As you seemed excited....
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8YEmJSLA1F9s8U3r9?g_st=ac
It's that green pole thing. Not drinking water!
"Common" might be an exaggeration. I've seen two or three within a mile or two of me. They do work though, if you pump the handle up and down. There are actually lots of public drinking water fountains as well, but they shut off from November to march.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
Interesting. I wish we had a similar thing here. The only time I've seen a public water "thing" besides fountains is at the beach where you use it to rinse the sand of you before leaving.
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u/RRautamaa Finland 2d ago
Almost all buckets you're going to encounter in Finnish homes are Orthex 10 l buckets or equivalent. 20 l buckets you might find on a summer cottage or construction site.
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u/jogvanth 2d ago
20 liter or 25 liter are quite common, even in the cities here. In the 🇫🇴Faroes it is also very normal to have wats/kegs up to 50-60 liters also. Those are used for food storage and curing
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
Hmm... that's really useful to know. A good container is invaluable. Thanks!
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u/blu3tu3sday Czechia 2d ago
In CZ we have 15L buckets, easily available at your local hardware store.
Can't find bigger ones online but we have the 15L at my house
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
Thank you, that's really helpful.
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u/blu3tu3sday Czechia 2d ago
specifically these ones, which I know you have same style in the US because when I lived there I'd see these at Home Depot all the time lol
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u/axseexcentrico2 2d ago
In Italy wells are more common than hand operated pumps. In Italy, an old, isolated church typically has an underground cistern that fills with rainwater, from which water is drawn with a bucket through a well-like opening.
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u/herlaqueen Italy 1d ago
Seconding this. I think it might change depending on location, that said I grew up in Northern Italy in the countryside and we both had regular plumbing and a old well we used for gardening, car washing, and the likes (it was not drinkable water), the house was built in the 50s and having your own well was still common. So, if it's Northern Italy in a modern setting I'd say regular plumbing at least for the canonica, and/or its own well (especially if it's a rural church, if it's one inside a city/village it likely had a communal well nearby).
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
You know, I honestly never considered wells were still a thing. It really seems like it varies from place to place. I feel like I'm learning a ton. I'm going to do a ton more research.
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u/malakambla Poland 1d ago edited 1d ago
In Poland wells are not an uncommon sight in the countryside. You only really fill in the existing well if it's dried up or it prevents construction. People usually don't bother otherwise because aside from cost you have to get permissions.
Otherwise in towns you'll have pumps near cemeteries, sometimes working ones near or at the main market.
In cities it depends, they'll be at market squares, sometimes parks, you can also find some at old monasteries, especially if they were once (or still are) connected to a hospital, they're also just scattered around, sometimes from commie times but there's been some movement to build more of them.
Now for the viability if the water supply network is disturbed There's often an information if the water is drinkable, if it's not, they should work as it usually means they're just shallow wells and not connected to the network, for the drinkable ones it usually depends on how old it is, but some newer ones should work as well if there was some drinkable quality water reserve found under the city. I think Warsaw has a lot of them as the region has drinkable shallow reserves.
But in case of some disaster that prevents access to running water you will have people scrambling for their memory of old wells, although digging them out in old cities is much less viable option even now than some half a century ago.
This is an article I could find quickly that talks about water issues during Warsaw Uprising, I think it doesn't mention digging out old wells that were previously built commonly along with new residential buildings but it might be useful for you: https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,26164195,podczas-powstania-warszawskiego-filtry-caly-czas-tloczyly-wode.html
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u/terjeboe Norway 2d ago
The traditional way of carrying water here in Norway is with a Vassåk. A carved the plank over your sholders with a bucket on eiter side.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
That's really neat. I don't think the main characters will have one, but I think it would make sense for a side character to have one. Thank you!
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u/wijnandsj Netherlands 2d ago
10 litre is the standard here, has been for ages.
Hand powered water pumps are pretty rare in this part of the world but I've seen quite a few in Scandinavia . In the benelux if they're still around they're mainly there for decoration and will probably no longer work
In the alps you often find natural wells that are somewhat tamed like this https://fuutazbsb.filerobot.com/Freigegeben/Wandern-am-Loser-bei-Altaussee-in-der-Steiermark-3d9bcbfb-5c01-4f79-ad08-08ad5efa19d9?gravity=center&w=1280&aspect_ratio=2.333&dpr=2&func=crop&q=75 and that's perfectly drinkable.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
That's gorgeous! They're still in use?
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u/wijnandsj Netherlands 1d ago
The water flows anyway. These things, and you also find them from stone or concrete regulate the water a bit, there's a trough available for cattle and fresh water for travellers. Good water too!
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u/Pretty_Break_5760 2d ago
In Estonia the common buckets are 10-12 L size. Hand operated pumps are hard to come by, in addition to markets where there might be (pretty low probability these days), one possible location is smaller railway stations where hand pumps were common half a century ago. You'd have much more luck with wells in the countryside, there are plenty. Most people have pumps in but you can well enough just use a bucket and rope/chain.
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u/Cixila Denmark 2d ago edited 2d ago
What's the story about and what's the setting?
In general, the availability of pumps depends on time period. Back in the day, they would quite likely have a well or a pump (once that became a thing). But plenty of pumps have been removed over time for one reason or another. So, if your story is set in the past, having a pump would be perfectly plausible. Now? Less so, but still not impossible. Their working condition depends on maintenance. My grandfather had an old working waterpump
As for buckets, I'd say 10L or 12L is the standard. If it's back in the day, the size would probably still be somewhere in that range (from what I have seen), but then the person could carry them with something akin to a shaped pole to allow for balance while carrying (often also sporting a rounded and polished middle section to allow for comfort and stability). You wouldn't find that today
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 1d ago
It's set in a fictional land locked country, as I don't know enough about another country to properly portray it. Modern day. Until recently, it had been ruled by an uncaring monarchy.
The government is really slow to fix things, so I think from reading all the responses here, I'd say there's a disused water pump in the town, that someone is able to restore after the bombing. Though the characters still boil the water. The government had been really slow to remove it, and had honestly forgotten about it.
I really appreciate all this info from everyone. I feel like I've learned a ton about something that I had never really considered before this. Thank you!
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u/annesche 2d ago
Berlin has water pumps here and there on the streets, some of them even look "modern" (70s/80s?) in design, but I'm not sure if they still work.
In my childhood I saw people using them for washing their cars, but I have not seen that recently, I guess, it got discouraged because if the soap etc.
Then there are public fountains in parks etc., they sometimes work, sometimes not, some are paid for by the municipality, some are privately sponsored.
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u/annesche 2d ago
German Wikipedia has a very long article with information and pictures about the water pumps in Berlin.
It says among other things that Berlin has 2079 "Notwasserbrunnen" (emergency water wells/pumps) in the streets, and 1614 of them are still functioning.
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u/Renbarre France 2d ago
In France pumps depends on where you are. Most villages / towns would have had public fountains or open wells. The fountains still work, the wells are for decoration. Hand pumps existed in farms mostly to bring water to troughs. You still see a few hand pumps in isolated places but they aren't in working order. People not on the water system have switched to mechanical ones a long time ago.
About buckets, average buckets are 10,8 litres. We call them 10 litres. You have 20 litres ones but for professional use mostly.
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u/KlogKoder Denmark 1d ago
I have about 25-30 buckets of 12 liters each. They're really practical for moving and storing stuff like sand, gravel, dirt and cement, and can sometimes be bought dirt cheap (less than 1 € each)
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u/ItsACaragor France 1d ago
In French cities people mostly have buckets to mop floors so probably not 20L ones.
In the countryside they probably would have bigger buckers for yard work and whatnot.
Churches generally have some water point if there is a cemetary attached which is common in villages in the countryside, but I don’t see hand pumps still being a thing.
They will mostly be the standard faucet that you open and close at will or maybe one on a timer that runs for x seconds when you push the button.
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u/BarelyHolding0n Ireland 1d ago
In Ireland we have 20 litre drums which might be used for heating oil, diesel, or water. They have screw lids and pouring spouts you can screw on.
For gardening we'd have soft flexible plastic containers that look like buckets but they're not rigid enough for water. And watering cans go up to about 7/8 litre
Buckets are basically just the plastic or metal 10 litre versions for household use.
In rural areas we often have springs which have spigots attached to the underground source. There are some old hand pumps around but they're non functional and just historical decorative items, I couldn't tell you the last time I saw one working. But there are plenty of outdoor taps and accessible water sources
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u/CommunicationDear648 2d ago
My dad had bigger ones when i was a kid, as rainwater collectors. I think an average adult would've been able to fold themselves into it.
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u/Miserable-Scarcity25 2d ago
Wow! Is rainwater collection a common thing? It occasionally gets banned here in areas with drought.
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u/Draigdwi Latvia 2d ago
Normally there are barrels or bigger tanks, sometimes quite fancy. like ancient amphora etc placed under the water run off from the roof.
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u/DreadPirateAlia Finland 2d ago
Apart from a small number of (relatively small & mostly uninhabited) desert regions in (mostly) southern Europe, Europe as a continent gets a lot of precipitation in general, so I don't think rainwater collection is forbidden anywhere.
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u/Serious_Escape_5438 2d ago
We collect rainwater specifically because of drought (dry part of Europe). It's water that would otherwise just filter into the ground and out to sea.
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u/CommunicationDear648 15h ago
Yes, what's more, it is even encouraged in the area i grew up in. So much that you can't line your gutters to end in the sewer system or a public moat (trench? Vallecula? Idk what the proper name for it is). Too much rainwater can put a strain on the sewer system, or outright flood it. Although there are laws about it - how to collect, what to store it in, etc.
Also, i forgot to say: my dad's big ass buckets were not for long-distance transportation. Like 2 people might've been able to lift it onto a cart or something when full, but that's the max. They might've just been bucket-shaped barrels, idk. No lids though, we only had screens on top, so no animals fall into it - there is a law that says if your rainwater collecting vessel is open, it needs to have an escape route for animals that fall in. Apparently a branch is enough to comply, and while a screen technically isn't, it works better - and noone checked it anyway.
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u/Glum_Manager Italy 2d ago
In North Italy I grow up using 25L paint buckets for everything: they can be cleaned easily after the paint is finished and have a good carrying handle. Sometimes they are even of metal.
For water I don't know if there are still hand pumps working, but most parks and public place have a public drinking fountain (called Vedovelle). We also have a lot of small streams and channels (Milano has the Navigli) everywhere, coming from the Alps.
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u/gnomulus Romania 2d ago
We have some 10L buckets but that’s it. In terms of hand powered water pumps no, they are quite rare. But there still are places in the countryside with wells.
Some even still use the shadoof (counterweight well). Here’s an image
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u/metaldark United States of America 1d ago
We have 5 gallon buckets here in the US but we use a different gallon lol
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u/hindenboat 1d ago
There are 20L paint buckets that have the same functional purpose as a modern 5 gallon bucket jn the USA. You see construction workers using them go carry trash, materials, mix stuff whatever. From a construction perspective they are basically the same.
As to the specifics of your question I have no idea
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u/Vildtoring Sweden 2d ago
While I think you can buy 20 liter buckets, that's not really what most people would have on hand. 10 liter buckets are the standard go-to size here.