Looking for help with a DIY / household engineering project - hanging a water reservoir from my bed frame
I have a Platypus Hoser water reservoir. And I have a metal canopy bed. Awhile back, I realized that I can hang the water reservoir from one of the top rails of the bed, and it gives me a way of drinking water in bed, with no risk of spilling it on myself or my bed, and without even needing to sit up.
The only problem is, it leaks. It's a very slow leak, but it's dripping onto my bed or the carpet next to it, which obviously I'd like to avoid. And occasionally a droplet will fall on my outstretched hand or arm as I'm falling asleep, which tends to jerk me awake.
You can see from the picture of the water reservoir above, the hole for hanging it is at the top, and the outlet for the hose is at the bottom. The way I'm hanging it now is just by threading a short length of "velcro tape" (tape without adhesive, but with velcro on each side so that it can stick to itself) through the hole and then around the top rail.
So the way I have it now, all the water pressure concentrates on the spot where the hose screws on to the reservoir, and no matter how hard I tighten it, it still finds a way to leak.
What I'd like to do is find an alternate way of hanging it, so that it's laying flat and there's much less water pressure on the outlet. Ideally I could also wrap the reservoir in a hand towel or something to absorb any leaks rather than letting them drip onto my bed.
What I vaguely have in mind is that I'd like to build a "sling" of sorts that I could hang from the rail, and then lay the reservoir inside that sling. If I could find a very small plastic tarp (say 18 inches square) with metal grommets on each corner, that would more or less do what I want. But for understandable reasons, no one seems to make tarps that small.
I'm sure there's something along those lines that I can assemble from inexpensive / easy-to-find parts. But...I can't think of what it might be.
First I'd contact Platypus and ask if they have a solution/replacement or new seal that goes under the cap.
If not, my suggestion for ready made item to lay the bag on it's side, therefore releasing pressure on the leaking cap, would be to pick yourself up a cheap cat hammock. Shouldn't cost you more than $10 at a pet store, or I've seen them as little as $6 on Bezos' site.
Before you try messing with water pressure and different mounting solutions, can you just get a cap or something? Or maybe squeeze it shut with like a rubber band or clothes pin when you're not using it? I'm not sure of how thick the tube is. And you would want to use a method that doesn't damage the tube.
Their big zip version appears to come with a valve. Which you would have to buy, but it's only $40 and you're likely to spend more than that in parts+(time equivalent) trying to design a solution.
Or you could try drilling holes in a medium-sized plastic bin or maybe a 2-liter bottle you cut in half. Add some heavy string or nylon cord for the actual mounting. And be wary of the sharp plastic, both for yourself and the cord. It'll look janky as shit, but I don't think that's avoidable given this is essentially a hamster bottle.
As I'm understanding it, it's not dripping from the tube, but the cap to the reservoir itself.
Ah that makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out!
It looks like your connection is 1/4", so that's pretty small. Maybe you could put an O-ring in there to help seal it? But it doesn't look like that connector gives you much room to work with in terms of depth.
Edit: Essentially linked to 2 O-rings the first time
Edit 2: I was thinking you could put another connector in there in the form of a male-to-female hose fitting with longer threading. That might let you get a better seal, but it also introduces more points of failure. And I'm not sure how to tell if the threading would even match up
You could try thread seal tape (aka teflon tape). A few wraps tightly around the threads before screwing on the next part. I've been able to fix a number of leaky connections with it.
This is literally what plumbers use to seal pipe fittings and would solve the problem, but given that you need to remove the cap to refill, might mean you have to keep replacing the tape if it comes off when unscrewing or gets damaged otherwise. It's very cheap stuff.
An O-ring or refitting different connectors on each piece with a better union piece that actually seals would be a much better long term solution on the cheap.