Great question....in addition I always wonder if the barrel would offer enough PSI for a 100' run of hose.

We bought one during the drought a few years ago. Haven't had a drought since - in fact, we get more rain than Seattle. Guess it was worth the price since it seemed to have ended the drought! :-)

My husband came up with a new idea the other day since we've been having risks for power outages - use the captured water to flush the toilets if the power (hence, the well pump) goes out!

As to your question - since ours hasn't been needed, I don't have much feedback for you. Ours came from Ace Hardware, has screen mesh on top to keep out the critters and a spigot at the bottom.

Cameron

Rain barrels for those of you who can expect rain to be a weekly event, seems reasonable. For those of us who live in the far west, who routinely go for 5 months between summer rains, even ten rain barrels would not be sufficient. Anyone thinking of water storage should first research how much would need to be stored. Maybe it would be better to adapt our garden to those plants programed to flourish on the water nature provides. Al

my local soil conservation dist had them in the brochure that came a week or so back... its along shot.. but see link ...

i used real whiskey barrels [canadian club is across the river from detroit] ... a full barrel did not have enough 'head' pressure to force the water thru a cheap drip hose ... i installed a regular spigot near the bottom.. raising the barrel a foot had little effect ...

i then used it for gold fish .... simple pump to circulate the water .... had it for about 5 years ... until the barrel started leaking ... winter was tough... but it worked with a heater ... if you want to try this.. find a GOOD fish store .... for the stuff you need for a 100 gal aquarium .......

a barrel without fish or a pump.. is a mosquito pond .... lol ... a few oz of bleach can fix that ... so using it simply as a dunk tank for a watering can may be problematic ... if you are adverse to bleach ...

since it works on simple gravity .. if you try a 100 foot hose.. it must be completely downhill [which usually is NOT the case] ... and yes.. it will drain ... how fast is the issue ....

frankly... its a nice dream ... it was a fun project.. especially the fish part [kids loved that] ... and a total failure as a garden tool ...

if budget is an issue.. forget it ... barrel.. $100.. spigot $5?? ... electric for pumps.. etc ... bottom line.. spend hundreds to save $10's ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Well, it's like this: want something fancy, you pay for it. I LOVE my rainbarrels and they were inexpensive, they're recycled plastic food barrels. This link will give you an idea of what it looks like and how it works, it's shown towards to bottom of the page.

The diverter is actually produced by someone locally in Richmond, B.C. and he lists a ton of information on his website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rainbarrel diverter

Al, rain barrels for people who get rain weekly seems to be unnecessary to me. If it rains on a weekly basis, your plants will get all the water they need for free from Mother Nature. Rain barrels seem to make more sense for those people who go long periods of time with infrequent rain during those periods. Those infrequent rains will allow the water collected to supplement what is required for plants to survive. I do agree however that planting those plants that will thrive in one's zone with minimal supplemental water is better, but then again how many times have you seen a plant you just had to have that required more care, time, fertilizer, water, etc. than what you normally give your other plants. Rain barrels make perfect sense in that case so that you have the extra water to give to those special plants without using the city water supply to do so.

As to whether it is worth it Ken, there are plenty of reasons other than just the immediate dollars you save. You also save the natural resource known as water and help prevent runoff from your roof washing undesirables (either from your roof or the impervious surfaces they run cross) into the watershed.

Rain barrels are not a mosquito breeding ground either if they are properly equipped with screening which prevents the mosquitos from getting into the water and breeding in the first place thereby negating the need for bleach or dunks!

Rain barrels need a lot of thought. I have several- 2 real ones and 5 plain metal barrels. One problem is getting the water to the plant and another problem is storing or planning for the excess. One of my plastic rain barrels has split. Both of them have spigots at the bottom but they are not the right item to hook to a garden hose. I collect lots of water in mine and it helps w/ the erosion problem I have, but the barrels fill up and run over even w/ a 2nd barrel beside them. I could use all the water in the summer if I had a storage tank- it is all sand here and the water runs right through making it crucial to water deeply. I would suggest starting small - one barrel just to try it out. If you pick the corner of the house or shed near your potted plants, you could start w/ that. It is much easier to use a bucket to water potted plants and they appreciate water that does not contain chlorine. Give it a try and see how it goes. Brandyray

I have a rain barrel I made in a workshop sponsored by my local soil conservation district. The barrel itself is a recycled plastic food barrel, and the spigot at the bottom will fit a garden hose. You can probably find info online how to make one. The barrel is completely closed other than the spigot and the overflow spout (no dipping watering can - but also no mosquito worries). I think it cost me $30 - which included the workshop and all supplies.

We had so much rain in 2009 I hardly even used it, but I did use it in 2008 for watering things like roses and potted plants by hand. It does save some water, and I always feel like the plants prefer rainwater to chlorinated water from the hose.

As far as saving money - well, not hardly! My whole water bill is only about $35 a month. Most of my plants don't get (or require) supplemental watering in this area unless there's a major drought anyway. But the plus is that for containers or those that do require extra water, the 50-gallon barrel will last me quite awhile after a rain. It does at least save a bit of water, if not much money.

Before I got the rain barrels, my water bill ran about 100.00 (!) per month in the summer, since the rain barrels it has been about half of that- however, using the rain barrels is very time consuming, so I hope you can get a better set up than what I have. The barrel kit mentioned above sounds like an excellent plan. Brandyray

This is great. I knew you all would give me good food for thought: hadn't thought about mosquitoes or water pressure or the advantage of rainwater to plant health. My lot, at least the back, is on a pretty good slope, so that would help...

As far as the money savings, believe it or not, my water bills in the summer are always in excess of $100, and last June was $200 (not a drop of water with highs well above 90 all month). And no, I didn't water everyday by any means. And yes, I do have ALOT of garden. Neverthless, water here is outrageous. It's doubly hard because our old house had a well and we didn't pay a water bill for fifteen years!!

Anyway, I am going to continue to look and ponder. My roof is large enough that I could probably store several hundred gallons, maybe more. Hmmm...What I probably really need is a cistern. :0)

That is exactly what I was thinking donna. A cistern that was buried in the ground would be a great way to save a large quantity of water although you would need a pump of some sort to get the water out. That would sure beat having to depend on gravity to get the water out of a rain barrel.

The highest my water bill has ever been in the summer was around $100 but that was my combined water and sewer bill which I get every two months. I do have quite a few pots I water and use soaker hoses and drip irrigation for other plants. No watering of the lawn for me and since overseeding the grass with white clover, the white clover seems to take the summer drought better than the fescue and also tends to come back after a good rain in the fall.

You should check with your city or your county and see if they have any reduced price rain barrel programs. My city has a rain barrel and composter sale every spring and it is much cheaper than buying retail. But you have to know when it is as it is only one day and gets very busy.

I haven't bought one myself. Last year was very rainy all summer and I wouldn't have used it except for maybe a week in fall. Also, my main gardens are up the hill from the house so I'd only use it on the vegetable garden. I still am considering getting one since the water would be better for the plants (no chlorine, more nitrates).

Even though I live in an area of the country where rain barrels would be the most useful, the use of rainbarrels is illegal here. Apparently, the rainwater is part of the water rights of those downstream, so collecting it is considered stealing! The law just recently changed to allow for some rainwater collection, but there are a lot of rules, and it only applies to well owners.

See the link below for more info on the subject.

Bonnie

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain barrels in Colorado

my rain barrels ended up being goldfish barrels with the addition of a submersible aquarium pump ...

i got more joy out of that.. than use as a watering system ...

the problem is what they call head pressure ... how much pressure the column of water produces.. and at the height of the barrel ... it AINT much ... and a pump can help that ...

BUT ... the issue is how much pressure you need for what you are moving the water thru .... the common bigboxstore drip hose requires a lot of pressure .... and IMHO.. that is where the failure usually is ...

now.. if you were to go toward proper irrigation fittings ... which are engineered for usage at lower pressure.. you might be all set ...

also.. lifting and setting the barrel higher will increase pressure ...

anyway.. have fun with the concept ...

ken

We bought two rain barrels when the city had a sale....unfortunately, they both developed cracks before the end of the first season. We repaired the cracks and are planning to line the bottoms with a spray-on truck bed liner to keep them from leaking in the future. But that said, I love them! We watered all our outdoor potted plants daily all summer with them, as well as keeping birdbaths full and watering any newly planted things in the gardens when we had a really hot dry summer.

I love my rain barrels when the Washington DC area has a summer drought , about every other year. Plus I have my rain barrels on the downspout at the end of the house furthest from my regular outside faucets so this saves the hose dragging.

The things I'd do different if I was buying new?

1) Get a closed barrel system to reduce the mosquito problems. Even with screens I found I ended up with mosquitoes in my rain barrels if I didn't put dunks in.

2) Use an automatic downspout diverter so that when the barrel(s) are full the water flows down the downspout without you moving anything.

3) Even if your barrel comes with a faucet that will fit to a hose, install a bigger faucet so that the water will fill a watering can in a reasonable length of time.

4) Test fit your water cans under the faucet to see if you need to raise the rain barrel more than just one cinderblock in height (which I will be doing this year after last summer's tilting game.

I thought about rain barrels but I decided to try to get more rainwater to soak into the ground instead. My plan is for a dry stream bed that is sort of a deep gravel trench that will hold runoff and let it soak in, and hope that will even out watering needs.