How long to fill a 500 gallon tank with a garden hose?

A typical hose delivers 6–10 GPM, so 50–83 minutes per 500 gallons. Measure your real flow by timing a 5-gallon bucket.

Does this work for draining?

Yes — fill and drain are the same arithmetic if your flow rate is constant. Gravity drains slow down as head drops, so treat the result as a lower bound.

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Tank fill time calculator

Volume ÷ flow rate, with the unit handling done for you. Get the tank volume from any calculator on this site, measure your flow, and read the time.

Tank volume (gal)

Flow rate (GPM)

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Common tank sizes

55 GAL

5,000 gallon tank

Real-world tip: pump and hose ratings are optimistic. The honest way to get GPM is a bucket test — time how long a 5-gallon bucket takes to fill and divide. A 30-second fill is 10 GPM.

FAQ

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Tank fill time calculator

Common tank sizes

55 gallon tank

100 gallon tank

275 gallon tank

330 gallon tank

500 gallon tank

1,000 gallon tank

1,500 gallon tank

2,000 gallon tank

2,500 gallon tank

5,000 gallon tank

FAQ