Do any of you have any experience with this? Also, it strikes me that the point of rain barrels and drip irrigation is two-fold: to save rainwater, and to save money. So should I try to find used wooden barrels somewhere so as not to create more plastic waste? And how do I do this under say, 50 bucks?
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大 芒果
recycled plastic barrels will do well….I use them in Texas saves big $$$$
zhena gogolia
There really was a lady who went over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel when she was 62 years old. The NYT had a fascinating article about her yesterday. She lived another 20 years and died in poverty and obscurity.
MomSense
Make sure you get some diatomaceous earthto put in the barrels so you don’t become a mosquito breeder.
Jerzy Russian
I don’t have any rain barrels.
Long ago I did install a few drip irrigation lines to an area near the house. I extended an existing sprinkler system, and it was relatively easy. Home Depot had all of the parts. That area has mostly succulents, and the rest of the yard has been replaced with native plants, so we hardly water anymore.
There are other houses nearby with drip systems that seem to work well. These systems target shrubs and the like. I don’t know of any houses around here (San Diego) with full grass lawns and drip systems.
Booger
Hey John…a couple of things about this:
1. Get used food grade plastic barrels; they’re less likely to have nasty residue in them. Not like there would be any used plastic barrels in WV with nasty residue in them, but you can never be too careful.
2. If you’re planning on adding a spigot, get something with a large bore…the low pressure from a barrel makes small fittings near useless.
3. Fix screening over the top (if completely open) or over the bungholes (if closed). That way, when mosquitoes hatch, they can’t get out.
4. Add those BT dunks or granules to the barrel to supress mosquitoes anyway.
5. Put a single layer of limestone chips (like those decorative chips from the garden shop) in. They keep the water from getting sour and stinky.
6. Don’t try and combine rainbarrels with drip irrigation…the inevitable debris from a rain barrel will immediately clog any kind of drip system, and the low pressure will only make things worse.
Bobby Thomson
Use plastic. Energy has to be used to replace the wooden barrels. I would also worry about leaking that close to the house.
Jerzy Russian
@MomSense: The neighbor across the street has a rain barrel, and as I recall the top is closed. Mosquitoes are not a huge problem here, but large open containers of water can attract them. The county gives out free mosquito fish to help stop the spread of bugs.
wvng
A lot of plastic rain barrels are repurposed from some previous use, so it is actually a very good use of plastic.
dr. bloor
Go plastic. Cheaper, more ecologically sound. We also had wooden barrels for a few years and the water got really skunky if it sat too long.
Eric U.
I got a 55 gallon drum that had been used hold fruit punch concentrate. I don’t know if they ever reuse those things, but I haven’t been able to get another one. I expected it to smell funky, but I guess fruit punch concentrate is close to being inert.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I’ve been to Niagara Falls several times since my husband is from that area and still has family there to visit. It blows my mind that someone would voluntarily get into a barrel and go over those falls! One lady took her cat along for the ride, which seems unfair — the cat had no say in it!
My father in law told me that in the 1960s, two kids (a brother and sister) and an adult got thrown into the river upstream after their boat capsized. Bystanders on the banks managed to fish the sister out before the other two went over the falls. The boy lived, and the man was killed. Father-in-law says they interview the survivor every now and then on local TV.
Ken
@dr. bloor: Connoisseurs prefer “rich with earthy undertones and floral hints”.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: So you’re saying Cole should buy her barrel?
Gelfling 545
I have a very fancy rain barrel provided free by the city in the hopes of keeping some excess water out of the ancient storm drains. It is connected directly to the downspout and I’ve added a short connector hose and a length of drip hose. This works nicely I think because there is a slight downward incline between the tap and where the drip hose is located. I don’t think it would be as useful on an upward slope or over any great distance but my yard is small so no problem. Saves me hauling the hose around the yard.
chopper
@Booger:
heh. the guy named ‘booger’ said ‘bunghole’.
MelissaM
Look into something like the Rain Bird system https://www.rainbird.com/ I got a starter set at Menards and was able to set it up and configure it myself pretty easy. You can mess around to get it into raised beds, add a timer, all that jazz. When I needed to reconfigure, I found out that some other system parts are compatible.
As for rain barrels, I bought a couple of food-grade barrels from a local home preservation store. I bought kits to make them into rain barrels, but there are easy ways to do this without a kit and minimal effort, and also not turn it into a skeeter breeding ground. Also, my town regularly offers commercial rain barrels for sale in the spring.
Ceci7
Check with the city or local utility re free or subsidized barrels. If possible, rig it so it’s elevated (mine is on a platform) to get better pressure.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
The description in the Times of what she went through is hair-raising. I always thought it was just a joke in cartoons.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, there was a picture of her next to her barrel and it was a very nice one. I guess that’s what brought it to mind. I could see it next to John’s deck.
geg6
@Ceci7:
This is what my sister did. Her township’s local conservation office had them. She also put it on a platform off her deck. Her garden is on a slight downhill slope from the platform and it all works great for her.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@zhena gogolia: Yep, I remember seeing the exhibit at the Niagara Falls Museum many years ago. Pretty much every exhibit was “broke X number of bones, spent Y months in hospital”. And that was all the people who’d tried to scientifically design their craft.
She just hopped in a barrel and went, as I recall. And suffered ridiculously minor injuries.
MomSense
I’ve been thinking of installing a diy drip irrigation system with a timer but I’ve been seeing all these warnings on the irrigation kits about not being sold in CA because of titanium dioxide regs. Anyone know what that’s about? Is it the tubing material? Now I’m wondering if I should look for some kind of special tubing.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
A third benefit of rain barrels is keeping the water that collects off your house out of the sewers, which probably isn’t a big deal on your homestead but it makes a huge difference in urban areas. There are cities such as Mumbai where you’re not allowed to erect new buildings unless you have a rain water management plan to go along with it.
uila
https://mde.state.md.us/programs/Water/WaterConservation/Documents/www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/water_cons/rainbarrel.pdf
Cheryl Rofer
I use porous hoses on the surface. The previous owner of the house had an underground drip system installed, and it looks like it failed. I pull out pieces when I can.
Butch
If you’re talking about a surface drip system, I had one in the garden and took it out because I couldn’t use a rototiller with it in place.
jon
I see that the local cola distributors have plastic drums on craigslist now and then, so that could be a source for your area, too.
I think they usually go for $5 or $15 each, as they have a bunch of them. Not like pallets that they often give away, but cheap.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: Some of the more arid locales ban the collecting of rain water because it belongs to only those with water rights, especially places with high irrigation ag industries. That might be the reason.
NC Soder
We installed one several years ago. Because we are not engineer-minded, we put it on a concrete slab and we don’t get enough water pressure to get out more than drips at a time. On the other hand, it is plastic and has a 6″ well at the top to put flowers in so that water doesn’t accumulate in the vessel and attract mosquitoes. I have a nice 4′ tall flower pot.
One day I’ll get the gutter guys out to put me a new downspout in so I can raise the barrel up. Unless one of you engineer-minded people have a better suggestion.
bookdragon
We have recycled plastic barrels with closed tops that connect directly to the downspouts. 4 of those catch enough to provide a nice drip for the garden, flower bed and hedges when it gets dry.
OzarkHillbilly
@NC Soder: Installing a new downspout requires little more than a ladder, a tape measure, a saw to cut it with, and common sense. I assure you, a trip to Lowe’s or it’s like and a look at the parts is all you will need to figure it out and get reasonable results.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: DOH! and screws to hold it together,
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly:
The common sense is needed to ignore your grammar and realize the saw is used to cut the downspout and not the tape measure. correct?
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: No no no, when you get done and it looks like something the Mario brothers put together you can use the saw to cut up the tape measure out of frustration!
DRickard
The This Old House folks have done multiple segments on drip irrigation: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/site-search?keyword=drip%20irrigation
Ryan
I thought WV was a rain forest now.
Another Scott
@MomSense: TiO2 is used in pigments. I don’t know why it would be handled differently for water usage than for any other use in California. Water and TiO2 information from Wikipedia. Note that it’s listed in California’s Prop 65, but that mainly means that you should be aware of what you’re working with. (I don’t know if it means that you can only use TiO2-free plumbing parts in California.)
I’m no expert, and IANAL, but that seems to say that if you’re not creating TiO2 dust then you should be Ok.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
Adapted a rain barrel to my koi pond aboveground filters, which are intermittently drained into the barrel then run to various yard areas that have no irrigation. The barrel has a hosebib and I would guess holds fifty or so gallons.
There’s no point having them on downspouts in our area due to the lack of rain when you’d actually want the water. They’re rather prominent and whether I’d run downspouts to some would depend on how discreet the location is or whether they can be screened from view.
Fifty gallons isn’t all that much water and pressure at the spout is feeble, so delivering it where you want requires a yard that’s flat or a downhill slope. Suspect the usefulness is very location-dependent.
Doug R
@MomSense:
Commercial rain barrels have screens to keep you from becoming skeeter central.
JMS
Had a rain barrel for years. A few years in, my husband added a fine screen over the top and raised the barrel on blocks, both of which were helpful. The screen keeps our plant matter, pollen, and bugs for the most part, although I have some anti mosquito stuff to throw in if I see any larvae swimming around. Definitely fewer after the screen, though. Raising the barrel allows me to get a full size watering can under the spigot. The last few years here (PA) have been rainy enough that I can use the one 60 gal barrel exclusively for watering, but it’s not convenient to rig up drip irrigation because the barrel is far from what needs watering, so I fill multiple watering cans and water the plants myself.
J R in WV
Saw this and was full of advice for John… but you Jackals have it pretty well covered.
Friends in Colorado, when we asked why they didn’t have rain barrels, told us that their rain all belongs to a farmer in Kansas. I think now they would be allowed to use rain barrels for lawn and garden irrigation, as that water hits the same ground the rain would hit, just at a different time… seems strange to an Eastern person, tho.
coloradoblue
Make sure it’s legal, it isn’t some places.
chopper
@Another Scott:
what’s funny about titanium oxide is, bill mollison (the founder of permaculture) figured out that you could use a bit in something like a rainwater catchment system to create nitrogen fertilizer.
NotMax
Irrigation = putting out a welcome mat for willow’s roots
Aleta
Q about plumbing tubing and California
The flexible ‘pipes’ that connect sinks to metal pipes are labeled as not OK with CA regs. Does anyone know what is in them that CA hates?
(A carpenter putting in a new bathroom floor cut the brass pipes under our sink and tossed them. We said we didn’t want him to install the flexible tubes (which are used because easier to fit between sink and floor pipe). Said we’d like metal pipes put in again.
Turned out the narrow size pipe for that sink weren’t sold anymore, he found. But his plumber friend said he’d work on a fix (prob. scavaging old parts) and we said great. They laughed ‘oh, all the plumbing supplies say that about CA now’ (so the flex stuff is no big deal).
‘We’ll wait, don’t use the flex. pipes please.’ When we came home the carpenter had put in the flex tubes “for now” he texted, and his plumber friend would come around later. They haven’t been in touch. (Nice guys, but that’s how it seems to go, new jobs beckon).
So (a year later) I either have to pressure them or let it go, and I’m still wondering what is in the flex pipes. (Household members who’re renting have thyroid and kidney disease and a cat who scratches things in the bathroom. And babies come over and it’s said that dust from fireproofing materials and some plastics is bad for children, etc.)
Anyone know what materials in plumbing supplies are labelled by CA as possible hazard?
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Willows are known to exhibit barreltropism. You could look it up.
trollhattan
@Aleta:
Water supply or drain lines?
Aleta
When we had a rain barrel for roof runoff (an old plastic pickle barrel I think) we had screens over it, but (after winters away) we checked for mosqu. larvae; if we saw some we put in a little hydrogen peroxide or a couple drops of bleach.
Aleta
@trollhattan: water supply — intake to the sink faucets
Origuy
Colorado legalized rain barrels three years ago.
trollhattan
@Aleta:
In my corner of CA water supply lines from the faucet to the shutoff valves at the wall can be flex and most of my sinks have just that. So in Sacramento County at least they’re up to code.
ETA the others are connected using soft copper lines (1/4 inch i.d.?) that bend easily on install.
Another ETA Is it possible some brands don’t meet CA lead regulations?
Could your county have different codes?
Roger Moore
@Eric U.:
Those barrels are almost certainly not intended to be washed and reused. You only want to reuse food containers if you’re very confident you can get them clean when you’re done. For transporting food on an industrial scale, that pretty much limits you to food grade stainless. I guess there are a few cases where they still clean and re-use glass containers, and the 5 gallon water jugs are also reused, but just about everything else is intended to be recycled or thrown away.
Aleta
@trollhattan: Thanks. I’ll look for the copper.
The flex lines that he bought have a woven material of colored threads, on the outside. They were labelled with a CA warning tag on them. (Seeing that, we had asked him to return them and use metal pipes. The warning label was discarded when they installed them.)
I don’t remember the exact wording of the CA warning. Some of those labels say ‘CA has determined may be cancer-causing’ (like formaldehyde in pressed wood ornaments). Others just say something like ‘hazardous.’ It was more like the latter.
I think the code in northern Maine towns is closer to “why worry about tomorrow.” (I don’t think these flex pipes are prohibited here. I think they are accepted and in common use.)
Roger Moore
@OzarkHillbilly:
California has recently revamped its laws on that to encourage rain barrel use. This makes sense in most California cities, because most Californians live close enough to the coast that nobody downstream is trying too hard to use our water. Collecting and using it locally beats watching it flow out to sea.
trollhattan
@Aleta:
Could have been just a standard Prop 65 warning like at the gas pump.
Roger Moore
@Aleta:
Most likely lead. A lot of water pipes still have a little bit of it, and California is famously strict about stuff like that.
WhatsMyNym
@Aleta: Not much water would be held in that part of the line anyway. Just run the tap for a few seconds to flush if you have concerns before drinking. There is tons of info on the internet, but I’m not sure what type of material yours are made of it?
chopper
@Aleta:
those accordion-style pipes connecting a sink tailpiece to the trap arm are supposed to be used temporarily if those are to what you’re referring. they aren’t code compliant as a permanent fitting. they get gunked up too quickly.
chopper
@chopper:
oh, water line, never mind. i’d assume something similar, braided metal lines are the standard.
rikyrah
Um…can we get an Afternoon Thread?
Pretty please?
Gvg
Don’t use roof run off water on food plants. Possible chemicals from the shingles should not be on your food. Ornamental flowers or lawns should be fine. You can also look into a greywater system to reuse your laundry water to water your lawn.
Rain is not reliable enough to be an all the time irrigator. Have a drip system that can connect to hose or rain barrel.
cindy
I haven’t seen this mentioned: the master gardener program in baltimore recommends against using rainbarrel water to irrigate anything you plan to eat, due to risk of salmonella (bird poop washing off the roof in the rainwater). Best to use collected water for ornamental plants, shrubs, etc.
Raven
Join us for the 9th Annual Roll Out the Barrels event on Thursday, May 23 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Foundry. Bid on 16 unique rain barrels that have been painted by local artists while enjoying music, appetizers, and drinks. Participating artists include:
currants
Here’s the WV link for rain barrels (probably someone’s done this already). I am using recycled olive and pepperoncini barrels, and yes, they smelled like vinegar when I picked them up. They were drilled and came with gear –spigot, drain, hose to connect to a second rainbarrel. I put mine up on cinder blocks to gain a little pressure coming out. Most of mine goes for flowers, herbs, strawberry bed (a below-surface drip) and the asparagus bed (but fruit/veg only in the summer after spring rain stops).
Jay Noble
@Origuy: Thanks for the link! I had missed this. Colorado and Nebraska have had to pay Kansas some hefty fines when the rain didn’t make down the rivers. I think where the “no rain barrels” came from was the fear of people going the whole off the grid route and replacing their municpal supplied water with rainwater in cisterns.
Klaus
During torrential rain storms, many barrels overfill and the gush water into unwanted places. Make sure you have a place for extra water to go. A neighbor’s basement flooded from her neighbor’s rain barrel.
Tim in SF
I saw a TinyHome youtube video the other day. They used wine barrels for rainwater collection off the small roof. Very attractive. But, from what I’m reading here, not the best choice. My mother in San Diego has four rainwater collection barrels, all plastic. There’s a whole water distribution system laid just under the ground. Very little water use – important in San Diego.