It's a good time to brush & clean the bottom dirt & slime out of them. I have 7 barrels & I empty them! Last winter, I had a hard time getting the hoses off the fittings - (the hoses harden up on the fitting barbs and when I mess with the fittings trying to get the hoses off, the fittings start to leak) This year, I emptied them, cut the hoses between each barrel, then installed a male and female hose mender on the hose between each barrel, so that I can just unscrew the hose coupling and move the barrel for cleaning and/or storage. Don't leave the water in them! It can crack the barrels and it is not worth it! It is also nice to start out the season with nice clean barrels! Paul

Actually, the more I think about it, it definitely is a siphoning effect. The water level always drops to around 1/3 when this happens, and I have 3 rain barrels all connected together. Too much of a coincidence for it to ALWAYS drop to 1/3, with me having 3 rain barrels. I have my overflow pipe coming up from the bottom of the middle barrel in the configuration, with a hose connected at the bottom and running into the yard. Ideally, as the water level rises, it hits the upper level of that pipe (inside the barrel) and starts draining out the overflow right down the center of the barrel and into the yard. HOWEVER, my center barrel also happens to be a closed system. Other than the overflow pipe, there is no outlet to exchange air for the water coming into the barrel (the outside barrels both are vented - one with downspout entry, the other with a nail-sized hole on the top). So, when that middle barrel completely fills up (like it does in a downpour), it then completely fills up the overflow pipe and siphoning effect occurs. It then siphons ALL the water out of the outside 2 barrels, until enough water is siphoned out so that the level drops to the top of the overflow pipe in the middle barrel. It then slowly levels out the water from that 1 full barrel to all 3 barrels. That's why it's always roughly 1/3 full after this phenomenon occurs. To fix this, I need to get some air exchange happening in that middle barrel. To do so, I have to eliminate the "closed system" aspect of my middle barrel. I can do that by simply putting a nail-sized hole in the top like I did in the other. I think I'll try that first. Oh, and the reason I didn't see this happen when I tested this before, is that I didn't let the water completely fill high enough and long enough for the siphoning effect to start. It would have been a period of time AFTER the barrels all appeared full. I obviously didn't wait long enough. I think that makes sense to me. Make sense to anybody else?

I brought all mine including the big container ones in garage Saturday evening just dont have enough items to cover them with unless i group them together then i figure if i do that i just might as well put them in the garage. Today knowing that tonight the temps will drop down around 32 to 34 with clear night and no cloud cover i left them in garage with the overhead door open for fresh air today. Tomorrow i may bring them onto driveway after i see the extented forcast. I did notice yesterday that some leaves were torn and a few leaf stems broken from the hail we previously had. Im glad i dont have as many 30 gallon containers anymore cause there heavy to move especially over the rocks then over the cobblestone walkway then over a little grassy area where they sit for the season. I had thought the 30s temps were not coming back and had moved them all to the yard from the driveway (sigh). Martin

Last winter we emptied the rainbarrel more than halfway, figuring there was plenty of room for expansion even if it did freeze. Problem was, the expansion went downwards as well as upwards, resulting in a bowed bottom when it froze. Come spring, the rainbarrel was shot because it no longer holds water. Best to empty it and prevent it from filling again before hard freeze sets in.