Tank Frequently Asked Questions

All tank dimensions are listed on our website next to each available tank model. Dimensions are approximate as the shrinkage rate does vary slightly depending on the conditions when manufactured. As the tanks are roto-moulded using a mould, the dimensions cannot be changed but there are several other options available.

To read more about delivery of your water tank, please click below:

Poly Tank and Steel Tank delivery information

The ‘New Generation’ design features are what make Duraplas tanks really stand out. The quality really is second to none! Much heavier shot weights and strict quality control measures ensure you are buying the best. Duraplas Tanks have proven the test of time in the harsh Australian environment.

Duraplas Industries is an “Australian, family owned business which has been manufacturing locally since 1984.” That’s right, the same owners since the early eighties. This is unique in the tank industry and ensures you peace of mind that you are dealing with people that really care. Your tank is covered by a warranty you can TRUST!

The Tank Factory has a wide range of stylish colours available to suit your property. To view our range of tank colours available, please refer to our tank colour range here.

In most cases, a pump will be necessary for your rainwater tank setup unless the tank is positioned high enough to allow for “gravity feeding.” To successfully “Gravity Feed” the tank will need many meters of vertical height advantage above where the water needs to be supplied too. This is often impractical in urban settings.

Choosing the right Pressure Pump with Your Rainwater tank Purchase:

Supplying an Urban House or Dwelling
Supply a house with Rainwater to comply with Building Development Conditions (toilets and laundry for example), then you will require a Pump system with an automatic mains water backup supply, We have 2 pump bundles that will suit.

Pump Bundle with Rain to mains Valve (external pump) Suitable for all slimline and round poly tanks.

Pump Bundle with Rain to mains Valve (Submersible pump) Suitable for underground tanks but can also be used with slimline and round tanks.

Garden Watering
We offer a pump bundle for the primary Purpose of providing Convenient Supply to 1 or 2 garden hoses with handheld nozzles:

Garden pump Bundle.

For properties with Reticulated irrigation systems, we can have additional pump options available.

Rural Properties without Mains Water Supply.
We can provide advice on correct sizes for the size and expanse of the household, to ensure reliable pressure.

Our experienced team will manufacture and deliver your new rainwater tank. The best trades-person to provide installation services in your area, is a qualified plumber (however quite a number of our clients install the tank themselves). Unfortunately we are not directly able to provide installation services at this time, but with numerous plumbers to choose from, installation help isn’t far away. Certainly if you have a plumber you have used before and are happy with, that is the best place to start. We have an installation guide on our website detailing the base requirements for our different types of tanks. It is best practice for any trades-person or self-installer to follow these directions for warranty purposes.

Our tanks are always very competitively priced. Tank pricing is included on our website next to each tank model. Click to browse our range of tanks and see our tank pricing. These pages along with the tank specials page will reveal the best possible deals available in the industry.

For poly Tanks, We offer 23 colours, 22 different Round poly tank sizes, 11 different slimline poly tanks sizes, making 759 different size and colour combinations, to enable us to offer this much choice….tanks are make to your specific order. Similar story for steel tanks, there are literally thousands of different size ad colour combinations, All Steel tanks are made to order.

We accept the following payment methods:

 Completing an EFT Transfer (bank deposit) into our account using your online banking system (or at a Commonwealth Bank Branch). EFT payment details can be provided once a tax invoice has been generated.

 BPAY Payment is available. BPAY payment details can be provided once a tax invoice has been generated.

 Visa or Mastercard. Phone us during business hours to have a payment securely processed using your Visa or Mastercard on 1300 TANK FACTORY (1300 826 532). Please note: payments made using either Visa or Mastercard will incur a 1% merchant fee surcharge.

Duraplas Industries is an “Australian, family owned business which has been manufacturing locally since 1984.” That’s right the same owners since the early eighties. This is unique in the tank industry and ensures you peace of mind that you are dealing with people that really care. Your tank is covered by a warranty you can TRUST.

Duraplas Poly Water Tanks are warranted to perform the function for which they were designed, namely holding potable water at ambient rainwater temperatures for a period of 20 years, backed by a 20-year guarantee.

What’s more, our tanks lead the industry with New Generation™ Poly Tank Technology, meaning careful computer aided rib design, no vertical join lines, no centre pole, and dome self-supporting roof providing extra tank strength and rigidity. Guaranteed heavy-duty ‘shot weights’ mean thicker walls and more rigidity than other makes, and ensuring your quality tank will serve you faithfully year upon year.

Lattice Poly Underground & Poly Underdeck tanks are warranted for a period of 5 years. Industrial, chemical, molasses tanks, troughing are warranted for a period of 5 years.

Kingspan steel tank range is backed by a 20 year corrosion warranty on the BlueScope Aquaplate® steel material and a 10 year construction/workmanship guarantee.

Read more about your tank warranty,

Water tanks come standard with one stainless steel mesh Inlet leaf strainer, a Watermark approved brass outlet and ball valve (25mm) and a 90mm overflow Spout/flange complete with a stainless steel mesh cap.

A comprehensive range of rain harvesting fittings and accessories are available and can be viewed on in tank accessories.

All Duraplas tanks supplied by The Tank Factory have shot weights which exceed industry standards. This ensures that your tank has thicker walls and is more robust. Computer aided production programmes and unique moulding techniques produces thicker wall sections down low – where the strength is required. All shot weights are guaranteed and can be viewed for each tank size under the tank descriptions. Ultra sound testing of the tanks ensures that they all meet the strict guidelines of AS/NZ4766 standard.

Duraplas Tanks are designed for above ground installations but can easily handle partial back filling for either one side or partial all round submersion. Please see our installation guide for more info. If you have any further questions please contact our friendly staff.

Both poly and steel tanks are great products with a number of key strengths:

Poly Tank Strengths:

 Very cost effective
 Robust, durable and easy to handle and install
 Wide array of colours to match most colorbond colours
 20 year manufacturer’s warranty

Steel tank Strengths:

 Traditional architectural look
 Massive array of size combinations with made to measure options available on request
 Meets bushfire water storage standards without the need for a cinder shield
 Aquaplate tanks carry 10 year manufactures construction warranty, 20 year bluescope corrosion warranty. Rural Panel Tanks carry a 20 year pro-rata manufacturer’s warranty

Certainly Poly Tanks provide the best value-for-money, whereas steel tanks have more options available for those unique situations. When Looking at the warranty for either steel or poly,  the life expectancy is very similar. Our experienced team are happy to discuss the various options and assist with any queries you might have, contact us here.

Unfortunately existing rainwater tank removal is not a service we can provide, often old rainwater tanks are being replaced because of structural problems and thus are too risky to transport on the road. We suggest cutting the tank up into smaller, more manageable sections and disposing of the tank via a recycling service.

Both our Steel and Poly Tanks are made from food grade materials, safe for potable grade drinking water.

Neither our Poly or Steel tanks will give drinking water an unpleasant ‘plastic’ taste.
We would suggest that all our clients ensure that all pipework (downpipes and supply lines) be checked to ensure they are made from food grade material. The great water from a food grade tank can be tainted by cheap non-food grade pipework.

Our Poly Tanks are manufactured on the North Coast of NSW, centrally located to service areas as far south as Canberra ACT and as far north as Rockhampton QLD (and even areas beyond that upon request).

Kingspan (formally Tankworks, our Steel Tank supplier) have manufacturing facilities in Victoria, NSW and QLD. providing a massive delivery scope up and down the eastern states.

A few key points to think about or check before your new tank arrives:
 Check your invoice to ensure the tank you will receive is correct including dimension, colour and fitting layout.
 Check for overhead clearance, depending on the size of the tank(s) on the truck, our trucks can sometimes be up to 4.8 meters tall
 Check for access obstructions to the ‘tank site’ or ‘pad’
 We suggest for the smoothest possible placement of the tank that the ‘tank site’ or ‘pad’ be prepared (to our recommendations as per our guide) prior to the delivery date. For steel tanks it is a must that the tank site is already prepared prior to the arrival of the delivery truck.

State Government approval is not needed, however depending on your land zone and Local Government laws some Local Government approval may be needed.
In most cases tanks of a volume less than 10,000 litres may not need approval, however the best way to clarify this is with a quick phone call to your local council. While you are on the phone with them, ask whether they have rebates available for rainwater tanks. There are still quite a number of councils and water companies providing rebates in local areas.

We offer excellent A1 quality 1st grade tanks at excellent prices. We do not offer second grade products for sale.
2nd grade tanks are less than 1% of total production for Duraplas Poly tanks, maybe some other companies have a higher rate of producing these, but Realistically no company aims to produce 2nd grade products. Most Companies do whatever they can to avoid their production.

Keeping the production of 2nd grade tanks low helps us offer great prices on A1 Quality tanks Duraplas are known for.

Unfortunately we are not in a position to be able to assist with requests for onsite consultation. The Tank Factory is a web based business operating from Alstonville on the NSW far North Coast, as such we do not have field representatives to consult with, nor quote on site. Whilst we are certainly happy to arrange for the sale and delivery of rainwater tanks, if a site visit is required we recommend you engage the services of a licensed plumber local to your area, who will be able to offer guidance on the best place to install your new tank.

Our website displays not only our range of tanks (both poly and steel), but also our heavily discounted prices, tank dimensions, colours available etc.

Our prices are as currently advertised for all of our customers. As our pricing is already heavily discounted, we do not offer separate wholesale pricing to other businesses for the purpose of resale to their customers. We are a web business and offer excellent prices direct to the public, whether they be private individuals or trading companies.

Quite a few people make this request of us so it’s not that unusual an idea. The major problem you will encounter in cutting down a poly tank is that once the lid has been cut off, the tanks lose their structure (support) and even when filled with water the tank will continue to collapse in on itself rendering the idea of using as a plunge pool worthless.
We do however offer specially designed plunge pools with a rolled top edge to provide strength. These plunge pools can be viewed here.

There are 3 main factors to consider when choosing a rainwater tanks:

1. Space available

This is simply the amount of room there is for a tank within the chosen area. We rate this as the most important factor for urban situations.

2. Supply available

For every 1 square meter of roof space, for every 1mm of rainfall, 1 litre of catchment into the tank is produced. (Roof space (m2) X rainfall (mm) = catchment in litres)

So by that we can estimate the average monthly supply.

For example the average rainfall per month for Coffs Harbour is about 95mm. (less in winter and much more during the summer months)

So for example, the roof catchment space is 250 square meters

250 x 95 = 23,750 litres of catchment per month.

3. Demand for water

Now if the tank was supplying water for all your needs (which is unlikely in an urban situation), the average adult uses about 220 litres per day.

If there were say for example 3 adult people living in the home, the average DAILY usage would be 660 litres. Worked out monthly that would equate to about 19,800 litres of average usage.

However if the water was just being used for watering the gardens, the average 1/2″ garden tap delivers water at a rate of approximately 12-15 litres per minute. For example, watering for 30 mins a day from one garden tap would use approximately 405 litres. Do that every day for a month and you would use 12,150 litres.

So really it’s a balancing act between supply, demand and available space.

We have a Great Catchment and Usage Calculator on our website to help you see how this would apply to your project.

Round tanks have a naturally strong shape and are more efficient to manufacture. The oblong upright shape of slimline tanks requires more material and structural support when compared with round tanks. The extra material and the extra care required to produce a slimline tank add to the costs of the tank itself (i.e. The Round 5,000 litre poly tank needs 125 kg of material whereas a slimline tank of the same volume requires 250kg). With steel slimline and modline tanks, the same need for extra support is required Steel slimline tanks have stainless steel support rods to provide extra strength, this adds to the material and constructions costs of a steel slimline or modline tank.

There is a very important difference between underground tanks and underdeck tanks. Underdeck tanks are tanks that will not be buried and as such do not need to be as heavy duty as underground tanks. While some models of our underdeck tank range may look similar to our underground tanks, the thickness of the tank wall is much greater for the underground variants. It is crucially important that the correct model tank is ordered for the specific purpose. If the tank is going to be backfilled with soil-fill or buried, then an underground tank will be needed. As underground tanks are heavier and require more materials to manufacture, they are more expensive to produce than their underdeck counterparts.

Depending on the type of tank, there are a number of fitting position options we provide to assist with installation. Having the outlet or overflow pointing in the right direct off the tank can really make the plumbing look very neat and professional.

Each tank installation is different, and as such, there is no ‘recommended’ or ‘standard’ tank layout. We would recommend (in consultation with a plumber, if required) sketching out the potential layout. Consider the available options for each tank type and the plumbing connections; filling the tank from the roof, overflowing to the stormwater service and the outlet to the pump.

Please refer to the tank outlet and overflow locations diagram which is included along with each tank listing, which will help you identify the best setup, or feel free to contact our friendly staff if you need assistance with this.