Because I’m paying even more attention to my yard (and the yards of people in the neighborhood as I’m walking the neighborhood so much) I’m thinking about getting a smallish (as in not a tall giant one) rain barrel. I was looking at one around 50 gallons. I have a good sized yard, lots of plants and pots that I am watering on a regular basis.
Any tips? Brands/styles you would recommend? Definitely look for two spouts (lower and higher)? Hose attachment - helpful or not? Material composition?
I am vain about my yard so I would like one that looks decent - the terra cotta ones are pretty but if they are truly terra cotta I think that sounds like potential for cracking, etc.
I looked up our 50 gallon we got on amazon exactly a year ago for passive gravity watering. It doubled in price from $80 to $160! Its nice with one spigot though that attaches to a hose. It has tolerated the harsh sun here.
Classic whiskey barrel look; Made of the industry’s strongest UV-resistant polyethylene resin
Collect water that’s great for plants and save money on water bills
50-gallon capacity, oak colored - BPA Free
Will not rust, mold, or rot
Child and pet safe
Brass spigot
Debris and bug screen
Nothing useful to add except my observation that my next door neighbor has a big terra cotta rain barrel and her dog likes to lick it and can turn on the spigot with her teeth. My neighbor says the dog has plenty of fresh water but for some reason prefers the rain barrel.
Rocky, how long did it take to fill up 50 gallons? I live in Denver and wondering whether to get one. And – hope this isn’t a dumb question – what about in the winter? Can you fill it with snow and use it that way?
How do you transport the water from the barrel to plants? Do you have a pump? Is the barrel at a high point and water lower yard only? Do you have to worry about algae form in the barrel? Do you have to clean out stuff to unclog the spigot?
We have more than a few. Here’s some answers based on my experience; note, however that I live in California near the beach, so no snow, but rust is a concern.
How fast to fill up 50 gallons? Not a long time, but depends on how much roof surface feeds the downspout. We have one that takes quite a few rainstorms to fill, but it is fed by a tiny bit of the roof ( that one is where it is due to a drainage hole and supporting piping not being created in the concrete during construction.). Others it can be quite quick. Note that we’ve found it critical to have built in overflow management- there are a few where overflow just spills over the top front. With ours on concrete that is not a good option. Haven’t figured out where it would be.
Snow? While I have no first hand experience, most rain barrels seem to say to empty and turn upside down during “winter”. I think I get why: freezing water will expand and crack even the best barrel.
@abasket one to look at is the Madison (try Camarillo if you can’t find Madison - they are the same product) by the Algreen company. Wayfair has them on back order and on sale. We have these in our front yard and they clearly do not look like rain barrels. We have rain chains that feed them - in the front yard in particular, downspouts were not an option. Early June is when they’re anticipated to be back in stock. These come with only a bottom of the barrel hose attachment, but the hose is included. The also have two overflow/barrel linking attachment points. It does not come with the overflow connectors/hoses. Don’t by the “rain barrel “ connector kit - $$$ - we use a generic hose kit ($ 8.99 for 24 feet of hose, includes one adapter)
These are made of some form of plastic/resin, but don’t look like plastic due to the texture. While there isn’t a spout high enough to put a watering can under, the hose works well.
Oh, the Algreen barrel mentioned in part I holds 49 gallons.
For our back/side yards, we were more price conscious, and less focused on them being decorative. We found a deal on recycled plastic barrels, again about 59 gallons each, but they do look like rain barrels. What I like about these is that the overflow connection is to a standard hose (well, it doesn’t come threaded, but with an adapter, a standard hose fits).
Oh, and we have rain chains, so my experience with downspout adapters is severely limited.
One thing that we’ve done is to get inline turnoff valves (in our case, plastic from Walmart) to put at the hose end for filling the watering can. And plastic caps for the end of that. This helps us a lot with rusting issues - spigots have a nasty way of rusting tight due to our weather. The caps keep tiny critters from moving into the hoses.
We transport water using a watering can - and I have a 3 gallon water bottle that I use to fill a drink dispenser (think ice tea) that I use to water indoor plants.
I believe pumps are available we haven’t used them.
Algae growth seems to depend on where the barrel is relative to how much sun and color of barrel. The lighter color barrels in the sun seems to grow more algae. We have not had problems with that affecting the discharge of water through the spout(s). We really do need to get to cleaning our barrels - probably In August when we’ve used all the water. We haven’t been the best at taking full advantage of what we collect.
We use the water from our rain barrels mainly to water potted plants, and we’re on mostly level land, so I have no input there.
I’m in Ohio so I would plan to move it in the winter. My main purpose would be to use it for watering the many plants I have when the water is available. This time of year until probably October or so. I like the resin ones that look like stone.
I would like one that I could open the spout/spigot and fill my large watering can. A hose thingy could be ok too.
We live in the desert side. We use a hose to fill it up, then attach a hose to gravity the water by timer to a garden when we are gone. It is a very low 2 pressure. A drip 11 feet above the garden. We cover the top in the winter and not use it. No snow here either. I never thought of turning it over I the winter- great idea.
Things I like - it has a scoop that goes inside your downspout so it doesn’t get ALL the water coming down. We have really heavy rain sometimes so that helps. (so no need for overflow)(ETA - it actually comes with a big drill bit to make a hole in your downspout. It took me a little while to figure out but I got it done).
The top piece you can have like a flattened dome, or you can make it concave and plant some plants in it. We have plants. Maidenhair fern that stays green all year and some sweet potato vine or other add-ons for summer. It’s in mostly shade and pretty low maintenance as a planter.
It hasn’t warped or cracked or sprung any leaks in the 4-5 years I’ve had it. It gets water from a 20 x 20 garage roof and one good rain will fill it up.
I have a knee high stocking on the connection piece that goes from the downspout to the barrel. I call it my rain barrel condom, lol, and use it to catch fine debris. Every month or two and I shift the stocking a little to find a fresh spot.
We have it sitting on a couple of concrete blocks but I would put it higher if I could. Maybe 2 concrete blocks high. I mainly use it to fill my fountain which used to have goldfish in it and they appreciated the rain water.
I have a spigot and hose attached to the higher attachment. It’s one of those springy spiral hoses which are pretty annoying but work well here. I pull the hose out over to the fountain, put the opening over the edge, and hold it down with a brick. Gravity does the trick with the water, but it can be a bit slow so I’ll just leave it for a while.
I should put a spigot on the bottom opening. I never get that lower foot of water in the barrel. I’m not worried about algae. I’ve never seen anything weird come out of the hose and it’s a sealed environment. I remember pulling the scoop out of the downspout once because I was sure it would be clogged with leaves but it was empty.