Hello everyone, I’m looking to build a rain barrel system. It will be similar to the plans in the first picture but we will be doing four barrels and they’re 35 gallon and we got free cinderblocks so we’re going to stack two layers of cinderblocks and it will connect to a hose. My dad is the gardener and his concerns are having to empty it in the winner because we don’t get a lot of rain here in the southwest Arizona region, but we do get snow in the winter and it gets very cold and so he’s worried about the pipes freezing. I don’t know if we could insulate the pipes or bury the pipes. Do we really need to have access to the pipes?
by Striking-Test-3857
11 Comments
You will want to drain the pipes as best you can to avoid them bursting when water freezes.
More importantly, I don’t know if I’d bother. 4 x 35 gallons is only 140 gallons total. That will water a 4×8 bed with 1″ a week for about 8 weeks. NOW… if you do just a single bed or some container? It’s fine. But it’s not going to supply most of your water for a sizeable garden for a season or anything.
So, what I’d do is build it in a modular way so you can see how effective it is to capture water period. THat is, do you barely fill them? Fill them so fast that you could have used more capture capacity? etc..Then you can decide if it’s worth building a bigger system in the future.
Keep it accessible, Better to disconnect, disassemble, and drain the pipes and barrels over winter.
This system is over complicated and a recipe for a head ache. Keep it simple. No pipes, use a valve on each container, may want to get 55 gal barrels. Then hook up a hose to the valve. You can have an overflow valve pour into another barrel. I use my barrels to water trees and such. The garden is not connected to the rain barrels. You will need to drain barrels before a freeze, I keep the valves open so they drain. Or you can turn upside down until spring.
Good idea. I am planning something similar – the thought of draining stuff every fall – I am not so sure about. I have a water pipe going to the garden already and draining and use the compressor on it every year is more than enough. Like the idea of harvesting water though instead having it going to the city sewer.
Is this relying on the weight of the water for water pressure? No pump?
It’ll work.
But here in the state I live in, it’s illegal to catch rainwater like this. So just be careful who you tell if you’re in a similar state.
I always had issues with building up enough pressure and finally caved and got a cheap sump pump attached to the inside of the barrel which made a huge difference
I’d do everything from the top and use a fountain pump (~$20). The pump and some vinyl tubing would be hella cheaper than all that PVC, you don’t have to worry about leaks, and you won’t be stuck with garbage cans you can’t reuse because they have holes in them.
Take it from someone that has learned the hard way dabbling in aquaponics. Ditch the PVC adapters on the barrels, you will constantly be trying to fix leaks on those and there is very few glues that like to work on the softer flexible plastics.
Go to a farm supply store and get yourself some bulkhead adapters. They will tighten down with a neoprene gasket and your PVC pipe can then be threaded into the bulkhead adapter.
I believe the higher up you go with your platform, the better the water pressure will be… So I’d go as high as you feel comfortable… Maybe test a couple different heights.
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