Rain Barrels - Page 2

gasstingy · 11-03-10, 07:29 AM

From the first post: "and the barrels up high enough to get slight water pressure and on a slope to be sure that my valve to the hose was at the lowest point".

I went back and measured the distance from the top of the barrels to the rain gutter and the rack is built with the barrel on the far left of the picture raised a bit higher than the barrel on the far right. I believe this increases the pressure coming out of the water spigot on the barrel at the right side, but I don't know that it would be a lot of difference until the barrels were running low on water.

Still, this setup is on my to-do list after I finish my garage / workshop project as my better half and I both like the idea of capturing rainwater to use in the garden.

Ryland · 11-03-10, 08:27 AM

The barrels are indeed on a slope, about 4" of rise, the vent tubes allow air to escape without loosing any water so that the barrel that is at the highest point can fill without having the barrel at the lowest point over flowing, water can get as high as my over flow on the 4" fill pipe without any of the barrels leaking.

OutbackAuzz · 11-03-10, 08:20 PM

Arhh now I see why the high riser pipes,,(re: slopeing) my wife allways said my mouth opened before thinking. Nice one,, now I'll just check the Patent list before changing mine.

Ryland · 07-02-11, 05:37 PM

Today I set up some more rain barrels for a lady down the street, on my garage I just ran the down spout straight down in to the filler, my filler has a dirt screen to keep leaves out of the barrel and it's set up at an angle so it's self cleaning, for this ladies house that would not work unless I wanted to haul a ladder down there and redo her down spouts, it would also cause the down spouts to be out from the building and could cause problems over time as they could flop around in the wind so I wanted a better solution.

The tee has a screen glued in so leaves can not fall down in to the barrel, but a flood of water or a build up of dirt will wash the screen making it self cleaning.

The black over flow pipe can handle a full down poor coming down the down spout, unlike garden hose over flows, the only bottle neck is the opening going in to the barrel, that is a 2" opening where the rest of it is 3" but without cutting a larger hole I would be unable to fill the barrel any faster and I figure if it's raining hard enough the barrel is going to be full anyway.
If someone wanted to the over flow could go to another barrel, otherwise I tend to connect my barrels together at the bottom so they all fill at once.

Daox · 07-03-11, 07:47 AM

Do you have any pictures of how you made the screen?

Ryland · 07-03-11, 08:19 AM

No I don't have any photos of the screen, but the screen is just a chunk of window screen glued with polyurethane calk over the opening of the leg of the tee that connects to the barrel, the screen is inside of that tee.

The hurdles with this design were first off keeping the cost low as this lady wanted this done to three barrels, so it also had to be something I could reproduce, also on my personal rain barrels I used 3" down spout, most gutter installers use 4" down spout and the opening to the barrel is 2" threaded, so on a budget I had to go from the 2" threaded to 2" PVC and it just so happens that there are tee's for 3" PVC that have a 2" leg coming off of them (common for connecting a tub or shower drain to a main soil stack) but for some reason 4" tee's with a 2" leg coming off are less common and much more costly when I did find them, but I needed to turn 90 degrees to catch water anyway and the 90 elbow that goes from 3" to 4" was just a few bucks so it gives it almost this funnel shape, 4" down spout fits the opening of the 4" elbow just fine as well.
Although with the lower flange and the brass garden hose adapter, the total hard ware cost per barrel came to nearly $15 each and that is why I like to daisy chain them together at the bottom instead of the top is that those larger fittings add up in cost.

07-03-11, 07:47 AM	#15
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Do you have any pictures of how you made the screen? __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

07-03-11, 08:19 AM	#16
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	No I don't have any photos of the screen, but the screen is just a chunk of window screen glued with polyurethane calk over the opening of the leg of the tee that connects to the barrel, the screen is inside of that tee. The hurdles with this design were first off keeping the cost low as this lady wanted this done to three barrels, so it also had to be something I could reproduce, also on my personal rain barrels I used 3" down spout, most gutter installers use 4" down spout and the opening to the barrel is 2" threaded, so on a budget I had to go from the 2" threaded to 2" PVC and it just so happens that there are tee's for 3" PVC that have a 2" leg coming off of them (common for connecting a tub or shower drain to a main soil stack) but for some reason 4" tee's with a 2" leg coming off are less common and much more costly when I did find them, but I needed to turn 90 degrees to catch water anyway and the 90 elbow that goes from 3" to 4" was just a few bucks so it gives it almost this funnel shape, 4" down spout fits the opening of the 4" elbow just fine as well. Although with the lower flange and the brass garden hose adapter, the total hard ware cost per barrel came to nearly $15 each and that is why I like to daisy chain them together at the bottom instead of the top is that those larger fittings add up in cost. Last edited by Ryland; 07-03-11 at 08:32 AM..

11-03-10, 07:29 AM	#11
gasstingy Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Arab, AL Posts: 491 Thanks: 109 Thanked 49 Times in 43 Posts	From the first post: "and the barrels up high enough to get slight water pressure and on a slope to be sure that my valve to the hose was at the lowest point". I went back and measured the distance from the top of the barrels to the rain gutter and the rack is built with the barrel on the far left of the picture raised a bit higher than the barrel on the far right. I believe this increases the pressure coming out of the water spigot on the barrel at the right side, but I don't know that it would be a lot of difference until the barrels were running low on water. Still, this setup is on my to-do list after I finish my garage / workshop project as my better half and I both like the idea of capturing rainwater to use in the garden.

11-03-10, 08:27 AM	#12
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	The barrels are indeed on a slope, about 4" of rise, the vent tubes allow air to escape without loosing any water so that the barrel that is at the highest point can fill without having the barrel at the lowest point over flowing, water can get as high as my over flow on the 4" fill pipe without any of the barrels leaking.

11-03-10, 08:20 PM	#13
OutbackAuzz Lurking Renovator Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 16 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Arhh now I see why the high riser pipes,,(re: slopeing) my wife allways said my mouth opened before thinking. Nice one,, now I'll just check the Patent list before changing mine.

07-02-11, 05:37 PM	#14
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	Today I set up some more rain barrels for a lady down the street, on my garage I just ran the down spout straight down in to the filler, my filler has a dirt screen to keep leaves out of the barrel and it's set up at an angle so it's self cleaning, for this ladies house that would not work unless I wanted to haul a ladder down there and redo her down spouts, it would also cause the down spouts to be out from the building and could cause problems over time as they could flop around in the wind so I wanted a better solution. The tee has a screen glued in so leaves can not fall down in to the barrel, but a flood of water or a build up of dirt will wash the screen making it self cleaning. The black over flow pipe can handle a full down poor coming down the down spout, unlike garden hose over flows, the only bottle neck is the opening going in to the barrel, that is a 2" opening where the rest of it is 3" but without cutting a larger hole I would be unable to fill the barrel any faster and I figure if it's raining hard enough the barrel is going to be full anyway. If someone wanted to the over flow could go to another barrel, otherwise I tend to connect my barrels together at the bottom so they all fill at once.