Rain Water Catch

[nkbish]

I set up a system to catch rain water. My hope is to be able to water my vegetable garden and potted palms all year with this system. I found the how too on youtube. It is simple to make and only cost about $100.

[nkbish]

I chose an area by my garden and potted palms to put the barrels.

Edited March 1, 2012 by nkbish

[nkbish]

Next I but some blocks down to set the barrels on. I used some old garden border blocks I had and put some cinder blocks on top of that. Then I put some 2x6 boards on top of that. This will raise the barrels up to create more pressure.

Here are my helpers for the project. They were not very motivated!

[nkbish]

I then set the 55 gallon barrels on top of the forms.

Then I used 3/4" PVC to connect them together and put a hose connection and valve on it.

[nkbish]

My house did not have rain gutters on it, so I installed a do it yourself rain gutter from HD.

I put a down spout from the gutter into the barrels.

[nkbish]

With one inch of rain water I should be able to water the garden and potted palms for 1-2 months. If this system works good it could be expanded to water other areas as well. The best water for plants is rainwater and now I am able to save it a little longer into our dry season.

If this is something you would want to install there are many ways of doing it. Just go on you tube and check it out.

[Harry]

Great idea!

Wish I had space to apply this in my yard.

[Tomw]

Wow great job! How do you accommodate overflow?

I have been using rainwater for a lot of my potted plants and all of my orchids for about a year and they all love it! I don’t have the room for large capacity system such as yours, but I wish did. My system uses an in gutter rain diverter so when the barrel is full the water continues down the gutter. I also put a hose outlet at the top of my barrel but below the rain diverter and attached a hose to it, this way I can water a tree with overflow.

The type of rain barrel that I got; it’s a nice out of the box solution.

rain barrels

[BS Man about Palms]

I was looking at your set-up.. pretty cool. 2 questions. Do you have a filter screen for the incoming water for debris, etc?

And I'm assuming the other barrels are vented , thus allowing water to rise between them all equally? (with no "air- lock" as such)

[Mandrew968]

I don't know if Cali has them, but here, those barrels would fill up with mosquitoes in two seconds! Good luck with your set up--does Cali get enough rain for it to work for you?

[nkbish]

Wow great job! How do you accommodate overflow?

I have been using rainwater for a lot of my potted plants and all of my orchids for about a year and they all love it! I don't have the room for large capacity system such as yours, but I wish did. My system uses an in gutter rain diverter so when the barrel is full the water continues down the gutter. I also put a hose outlet at the top of my barrel but below the rain diverter and attached a hose to it, this way I can water a tree with overflow.

The type of rain barrel that I got; it's a nice out of the box solution.

rain barrels

Tom,

I have not put an overflow in yet. Im not sure on where I want to sent it. So for now the overflow is the intake. The other thing is when I put the hole in for the overflow I want to be sure I find some way to put a one way valve in to keep out the bugs and skeeters like Mandrew said. The link you sent has some high end set ups. The area I put these is on the side of my house and it is out of site. So for the price I got more bang for the buck. More barrels can be added to it in the future. If my set up was in site I would have went with the high end set up.

Edited March 1, 2012 by nkbish

[nkbish]

I was looking at your set-up.. pretty cool. 2 questions. Do you have a filter screen for the incoming water for debris, etc?

And I'm assuming the other barrels are vented , thus allowing water to rise between them all equally? (with no "air- lock" as such)

BS Man

To answer the second question first, yes I put a siphon hole in the top of the barrels. I used a very small drill bit ( less than 1/8"). It kind of whistles when the water is comming in, so it must be working. My secondary filter is kind of a recycled mess, its an old window screen taped to a small pot. Im sure you could buy something nice but my goal was to keep the cost down. There is also a filter at the top of the down spout mainly to keep the large debris out.

Here are a few photos of it:

[nkbish]

I don't know if Cali has them, but here, those barrels would fill up with mosquitoes in two seconds! Good luck with your set up--does Cali get enough rain for it to work for you?

There were some skeeter solutions if it becomes a problem. I would also like to put a one way valve on the intake side to make it more of a closed system.

[Tomw]

Wow great job! How do you accommodate overflow?

I have been using rainwater for a lot of my potted plants and all of my orchids for about a year and they all love it! I don't have the room for large capacity system such as yours, but I wish did. My system uses an in gutter rain diverter so when the barrel is full the water continues down the gutter. I also put a hose outlet at the top of my barrel but below the rain diverter and attached a hose to it, this way I can water a tree with overflow.

The type of rain barrel that I got; it's a nice out of the box solution.

rain barrels

Tom,

I have not put an overflow in yet. Im not sure on where I want to sent it. So for now the overflow is the intake. The other thing is when I put the hole in for the overflow I want to be sure I find some way to put a one way valve in to keep out the bugs and skeeters like Mandrew said. The link you sent has some high end set ups. The area I put these is on the side of my house and it is out of site. So for the price I got more bang for the buck. More barrels can be added to it in the future. If my set up was in site I would have went with the high end set up.

I like the fact that you can easily add anther barrel to your system, again good job! I added the link for those people like me that are limited on the allotted space for a rain barrel system. It feels good to be doing something green; doesnt it?

Edited March 1, 2012 by Tomw

[palmmermaid]

I have 1 rain barrel but want to add a few more. I have 2 more down spouts on my gutters. I want to put gutters all around my barn and route all the water into one of the large square tanks.

I've never had a problem with mosquitos in mine. It has a filter on the top. It also has an overflow made from PVC pipe that is routed to a tree in the front garden. I use the water for the plants on my porch and entryway. I don't usually run out, even during the dry season.

This is such a wonderful idea.

I did read in our local paper a while back that some states (Colorado among them) are making it illegal to catch and hold rainwater on your property! That's almost as bad as declaring pregnancy a disability - another brilliant Washington idea.

[nkbish]

Wow great job! How do you accommodate overflow?

I have been using rainwater for a lot of my potted plants and all of my orchids for about a year and they all love it! I don't have the room for large capacity system such as yours, but I wish did. My system uses an in gutter rain diverter so when the barrel is full the water continues down the gutter. I also put a hose outlet at the top of my barrel but below the rain diverter and attached a hose to it, this way I can water a tree with overflow.

The type of rain barrel that I got; it's a nice out of the box solution.

rain barrels

Tom,

I have not put an overflow in yet. Im not sure on where I want to sent it. So for now the overflow is the intake. The other thing is when I put the hole in for the overflow I want to be sure I find some way to put a one way valve in to keep out the bugs and skeeters like Mandrew said. The link you sent has some high end set ups. The area I put these is on the side of my house and it is out of site. So for the price I got more bang for the buck. More barrels can be added to it in the future. If my set up was in site I would have went with the high end set up.

I like the fact that you can easily add anther barrel to your system, again good job! I added the link for those people like me that are limited on the allotted space for a rain barrel system. It feels good to be doing something green; doesn’t it?

Thanks for adding the link. I think these are great and might get one some day to put on my patio. I don't think my wife would like the look of the 55 gallon green agave barrels from the kitchen window. For me my goal was to save a little $ in watering and provide natural water to the plants and vegetables. So if it means going green it does feel good!

[BigFrond]

Cool. Good Job. I always think about the giant container everytime I go out to Ramona.

[MattyB]

Way cool man! I started collecting those 55 gal plastic barrels when I moved to my new place but I just never came up with a good design and never got around to setting anything up so I gave them away. Makes me wanna start thinking about it again. But by the time Summer comes around I just see how dry it is and give up hope.

[nkbish]

Way cool man! I started collecting those 55 gal plastic barrels when I moved to my new place but I just never came up with a good design and never got around to setting anything up so I gave them away. Makes me wanna start thinking about it again. But by the time Summer comes around I just see how dry it is and give up hope.

Do you have any more to give away?

[MattyB]

No sorry