Now that Labor day is almost here, and I have a full summer's use to reflect on, I thought I'd share my rain barrel experience. I had planned to just get a couple of those blue 55 gallon food barrels and make my own, but my wife HATED that idea,
so I ended up finding these on sale at my local Tractor Supply, and picked up a couple. I put one at the downspout on the side of my house, another in the back.
I liked the look of these a lot, and mine looked even nicer after I used some Krylon Fusion and painted the bands black. I also built a base for mine, out of PT 2x12 and decking ( the pict above is from the TSC website)This gives me some room to get a water can under the spigot, and gives me a little added pressure when i hook up a hose.
i use mine primarily for watering landscaping, since we have had yeild problems with our well, and it's been GREAT. I have been amazed at how quickly these fill up and it's been great having the water for irrigation, or anything else that can be done with gray water.
These barrels seem to be well made, but not well thought out. I have yet to be able to find an automatic diverter that will work with this style barrel. the problem is the way the connectors near the top point toward the back. This is where you would hook up a hose to connect multiple barrels together, or hook up a divertor, but because they face back, and back of the barrel is flat, there is really no usable room to hook up an autodiverter. The only diverter I have been able to find is the one that looks like a Y shaped downspout, with a manual lever. The problem with these is they cost almost as much as the barrel, and require you to remember to go out in the pouring rain to flip it once the barrels fill ( they do fill fast at my house)
If anyone has one of these, I'd love to hear what you are doing for a diverter
so I ended up finding these on sale at my local Tractor Supply, and picked up a couple. I put one at the downspout on the side of my house, another in the back.
I liked the look of these a lot, and mine looked even nicer after I used some Krylon Fusion and painted the bands black. I also built a base for mine, out of PT 2x12 and decking ( the pict above is from the TSC website)This gives me some room to get a water can under the spigot, and gives me a little added pressure when i hook up a hose.
i use mine primarily for watering landscaping, since we have had yeild problems with our well, and it's been GREAT. I have been amazed at how quickly these fill up and it's been great having the water for irrigation, or anything else that can be done with gray water.
These barrels seem to be well made, but not well thought out. I have yet to be able to find an automatic diverter that will work with this style barrel. the problem is the way the connectors near the top point toward the back. This is where you would hook up a hose to connect multiple barrels together, or hook up a divertor, but because they face back, and back of the barrel is flat, there is really no usable room to hook up an autodiverter. The only diverter I have been able to find is the one that looks like a Y shaped downspout, with a manual lever. The problem with these is they cost almost as much as the barrel, and require you to remember to go out in the pouring rain to flip it once the barrels fill ( they do fill fast at my house)
If anyone has one of these, I'd love to hear what you are doing for a diverter