Rain barrels are a great way to collect and store rain water for later use in your garden. This will help you do your part to reduce water consumption
during the drought, while saving money while watering your garden.
Things that I think are important in a rain barrel:
- over 50 gallons
- spigot as low on the barrel as possible
- large overflow tube
- overflow tube as high on the barrel as possible
- fine screen on input from downspout
- less than $50
I'm picky; so, I made my own barrel. I used a barrel that was used for diet coke; any kind of barrel will work as long as it is water tight and did not contain chemicals. My course of action meant spending time on the plumbing isle of the hardware store. Thank you Lord for helpful employees. It cost me roughly $30 to build a barrel.
Things that I think are important in a rain barrel:
- over 50 gallons
- spigot as low on the barrel as possible
- large overflow tube
- overflow tube as high on the barrel as possible
- fine screen on input from downspout
- less than $50
I'm picky; so, I made my own barrel. I used a barrel that was used for diet coke; any kind of barrel will work as long as it is water tight and did not contain chemicals. My course of action meant spending time on the plumbing isle of the hardware store. Thank you Lord for helpful employees. It cost me roughly $30 to build a barrel.
The filter is a fine mesh metal colander from the dollar store; a side benefit is that the hole in
the barrel doesn't have to be precise. Note the use of a flexible downspout adapter.
Overflow tube should be at least 2" to be able to keep up with the flow from a heavy rain.
There is a threaded PVC fitting on the inside and outside of the barrel that screw together. I
used plumbers putty to prevent leakage. The overflow pipe should take the water well away
from your house foundation.
This photo shows the spigot at the bottom of the barrel. The next time I build a rainbarrel,
I will have the spigot plumbed to the very bottom of the barrel; but, this works well. I use
gravity to feed the water to the targets; but, pumps can be added. Also, the barrel must be
high enough to allow access to the spigot. The land is sloped next to this barrel; the bricks
are used to level the barrel. If you need to significantly raise the barrel, retaining wall
blocks do a good job. I've put one barrel up on clay flower pots. Be careful when elevating
barrels; when they are full, they are very, very heavy.