Best rain barrels & accessories according to redditors
We found 24 Reddit comments discussing the best rain barrels & accessories. We ranked the 17 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 24 Reddit comments discussing the best rain barrels & accessories. We ranked the 17 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We've had these rain barrels (60-gal) for probably 8-10 years now, but they're on the E-NE sides of our house, and get limited sun. If yours are going to get full afternoon sun and money is no object, I would go with terracotta urns like these, or a sandstone type like these that are specifically UV-resistant. Or you could paint the plastic ones with some UV paint, maybe.
If you do go with the plastic, upgrade your spigots if they come with the cheap plastic ones like the first link has. When we purchased those, they actually came with quality brass spigots, so I'm not sure why they changed that. Also, DO NOT connect a hose to them. Build a pedestal for them to sit on, and fill watering cans/buckets from there. Yanking around a hose when connected to these, you will weaken where the spigot joins to the barrel, and it will leak and/or break. My husband had to fabricate a plate to go on the inside of the barrel and bolt it from the inside to reinforce that area on one of our barrels when that portion of the plastic got weak. It's great now, but FYI.
Lastly, get a quality diverter that will work best with your downspouts. None of them are perfect, so be sure to check out the reviews.
This fence line is just shy of 90 feet and my setup works pretty well at that length. I used pretty small diameter pvc so it’s not much weight; I can’t imagine reinforcement would be needed for the watering— maybe for the vines depending. It’s not a raging torrent of water it basically is just a steady drip but it saturates pretty well when run in cycles and not run during the heat of the day.
My initial version of this setup was a single battery and small solar panel and it ran fine for a year or more (granted I’m in SoCal so we get a lot of sun)— I’ve since expanded a bit to a 4 battery setup and larger panel but just because I added two more pumps for covering other areas.
Here’s a picture of the control box of a basic single battery system with timer and a simple solar controller
https://i.imgur.com/JOfGqdp.jpg
Here’s some of the basic gear:
Water Storage
===========================
Current Water tank
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003H9WJMI/
(Although I’ve also used smaller/cheaper tanks like this for my vegetable garden, just might mean more refills depending on how often it’s run: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BFC5NIA/ )
If you’re looking to go super cheap, I honestly started my first setup with a couple modified 5 gallon plastic water bottles I stole from my office like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B27RAA/
Power
===========================
Current solar panel for a 4 battery setup:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HFMBF3G
Previous panel for single battery system:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PFGP0EA
Solar regulator (keeps you from blowing up the battery! The smaller panel comes free with one that works fine, I just liked this one better because it had more lights!): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L37KZI6/
Batteries, one is plenty for a single pump system:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003S1RQ2S/
(obviously if you wanted to build a system on the cheap you could bypass the solar entirely and drop $20 on a second battery that you leave charging and just swap them back and forth every week or three, depending on how often/long you run the system)
Pump
===========================
Current Pump:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072BXBQGC/
Although I’ve also used cheaper ones like these for drip systems and they were fine:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07699RMVB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WYMC492
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DLKT4OO
Misc
===========================
Timer (has like 16 stop/start memories which should be plenty for any configuration):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090MTLFO
If there is some interest next weekend I could draw up a complete wiring/assembly diagram and detailed parts list and make a separate post (and include all the sundries: wire, hose, clamps, filters, waterproof project box, couplings, drip heads, etc).
There's a lot of information to learn. I don't have all of my favorite links at work with me, but having gone on that learning journey I can tell you that it's easiest to break down prepping into categories in order of importance. Then learn and address those categories in order.
For example, first would be food or water depending on your location and overall situation. Food/Water because that's one of those thing that, in an emergency situation, you either have or you don't. People hit hard by Harvey or Katrina weren't hopping into the water with a rifle and searching for squirrels. They had what they had, and in most cases where you'd need your preps that will be the case.
Food:
Water:
After that, things like security, weather preparedness, communications, power, transportation, bug out bags, get home bags, everyday carry kits, etc can all come as you learn and can squeeze them in. Focus on the things that will most realistically be needed in events that are most likely to occur to you as an individual. If that's flooding, maybe life jackets are high on your list. If that's riots, maybe guns and excess fire extinguishers are. If it's job loss, maybe you really want to focus on getting bills paid down and having a hearty backstock of food that you can rely on during the job hunt. If it's a cold weather are, maybe secondary heating sources should be high on the priority list. Once you've covered yourself on the most likely scenarios that you'll have to deal with, usually you'll find that it's not too many more steps to cover the next most likely, and so on. If you want some reading links let me know and I'll try to remember to drop some of my favorites when I get home.
https://www.mwrd.org/irj/portal/anonymous/rainbarrel
Or you can buy one on Amazon, $66 delivered for free with Prime.
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Ideas-RB55-BLUE-Recycled-55-Gallon/dp/B003BE2BV8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469147752&sr=8-2&keywords=rain+barrel
Amazon Prime
Enviro World 55 Gallon Rain Barrel with Brass Spigot https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FWN9QK0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_iNcFwb0R2PEZE
Of course when I bought them last summer they were $65
I have 55 gallon water drums, but it might not be feasible for apartments. Do you have a garage you can store it in?
https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Essentials-Water-Barrel-Gallon/dp/B006KAAUSQ
Whenever I had looked into doing so with a house I was living in, a lot of people recommended using something like this to filter out all the bad stuff. The idea being the first few gallons of runoff collected would be full of carcinogens and other toxins (bird shit, like the other poster alluded to), and would fill up the diverter tube. Once the tube is full, it would overflow into your rain barrel, which should be mostly clean water. The diverter tube would have an adjustable drain rate so you would be able to collect enough dirty water to be able to overflow based off your local weather patterns, and as it drains you should then have enough clean water to be used by the time it has filled up and overflows into your rain barrel.
I was thinking about using something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Harvesting-Pty-Ltd-Advanced/dp/B004VM9CMK
or
https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Harvesting-Pty-Ltd-RHUL99/dp/B004VMG13S/
or a simple mod on a generic flex gate like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6v-8r2jBsE
Will there be issues using these with copper downspouts?
Got the starter kit
and resevoir
This will make life so much easier
Hi, I'm currently using Blumat stakes, which take about 45min to set up and are then good. I opted to use their customized 5-gal bucket for convenience.
You could also create your own setup with any 5-gal bucket:
What about a storage barrel or two. You can link them via a system hoses and place them where ever you want..
https://www.amazon.com/55-Gallon-Water-Barrel-Combo/dp/B0007YR6XI/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_tr_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RNXC2QMDTX54HKWDJCEZ
you could do something like this
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sacrainwaterpresentation-121024151409-phpapp01/95/steve-clyburn-rainwater-presentation-37-638.jpg?cb=1351091907
I personally haven't used this but based on the review and Amazon's reputation of having awesome customer service, it's a small risk
edit: there are several more products that have more customer reviews although they're a bit more expensive
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Ideas-RW50-KHA-Wizard-50-Gallon/dp/B002GJ7FMY/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1370016343&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Ideas-RW50ST-GRN-Wizard-Stand/dp/B00343KOMY/ref=sr_1_9?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1370016343&sr=1-9
http://www.amazon.com/Suncast-RB50D-50-Gallon-Rain-Barrel/dp/B001P5HMAK/ref=sr_1_23?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1370016343&sr=1-23
I have had a rain barrel for several years now with no problems, though the one the city is offering doesn't look as good quality - I spent a bit more on a Koolatron that looks like a huge brown pot with feet - it has a spigot for a hose connection, a bottom plug for emptying, and an overflow chute at the top.
edit - this is it
http://www.amazon.com/Shelf-Reliance-52521-55-Gallon-Barrel/dp/B003Y2T8SG