Does anyone use rain barrels? I found a good way to use them were I don't have guttering.

Most of the back of my house does not have guttering, but that is exactly where I need the most water. I was going to install guttering back there, but I did not want to spend the money. Then I read about "Yankee gutters," or rain diverters. I spent $6 and 30 min this morning and now I have increased the catchment for a rain barrel out back from the width of the barrel mouth to over 10 ft! Maybe you can see it here:
 

And here is a close-up:

 


I probably going to install a couple more of these catchments when I have time.

Although the site is not about using them for rain barrels, you can see the general idea at this website,
http://www.todayshomeowner.com/installing-a-rain-diverter/

Hope that helps someone.

I've never seen that.  You'll be amazed how quickly a rain barrel fills up after one good rainy episode.  I have 4 barrels and it's astonishing how many gallons of water our plants/veggies use during the summer.  My well pump thanks me, as does my wallet.  :)

On the front of my house I have guttering. Those are 32 gal barrels and they fill-up with about 1/10 in rain. Of course the catchment on them is 40 ft long. But I have calculated that this new idea, with an 11ft catchment should fill the barrel with a little over a 1/4 of rain. We a few showers tonight so I can compare how the barrel fills to the rain gauge. Then if it works as well as I think it will, I have two more spots for the same idea.

I need to add another rain barrel, haven't done so yet. This is a neat idea. 
Frank - definitely a quick thunderstorm fills up my 40 gallon tank. My parents' town sold them a few years ago pretty inexpensively, I should've bought multiple.

I've been considering rain barrels but had some concerns.  Primarily regarding how fast the water comes out.  Do you all have rain barrels that are resting on the ground, or are they elevated?  How do you water a potted plant that is at the same level as the rain barrel?  Unless there is a pump involved, water won't flow out of the barrel unless the end of the hose you are using to water the plants is below the water level in the barrel.  Even if you are very careful and keep the end of the hose very low (even though my trees are taller than a rain barrel), it seems like the rate of flow would decrease as the water level decreases.  And it seems like elevating the rain barrel would be a nuisance. 

My other concern is with the temperature of the water.  If a black rain barrel is in direct sunlight all day, won't the water get hot, to the point where it would be harmful to water the fig trees with it?  All my fig trees are against a south facing wall.  So if I put the rain barrel there, it would just cook all day long. 

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. 

I don't have automatic watering systems, I use a watering can. My trees and berries are 40-80 ft away from my house. As for temp, my barrels are all in shade after 4 or 5 PM, so whether I water in the evenings or mornings the water is not too hot. On a really hot day the barrel water is tepid at worst.

If you need to elevate the rain barrel, just use a stack of bricks or cylinder blocks topped off with a piece of board to make it nice and level. I used to have one of my barrels 2ft up from the ground and used a spigot in the bottom to draw water, but I found it was too much trouble. Simpler and faster to just dip my can in the barrel.

I use 2 40 or 50 gallon barrels, the blue kind. Mine are homemade/jury rigged from free barrels, they work well as long as the silicone holding the spigot in doesn't fail. They are under a downspout on each corner of my garage; it only takes about 1/10" of rain to fill them up! I'm on municipal water, so it's a moneysaver to almost never pay for garden watering.

Rob: I have mine elevated about 1' each on top of bricks. I don't hook up a hose since the flow tends to be rather slow and I live on a hillside. I fill up 5 gallon buckets and carry them where water is needed, which tends to be all over the place. On the hottest summer days the water gets lukewarm, but never hot enough to be a concern. They receive full afternoon sun from 12 til sunset.

Mine is elevated on cinder block, sits at the corner of my house. It's tan and I've never had an issue with warm water. I plan to get another and set it up right next to this one and have the overflow from that barrel run into the next. Down spouts were only set up at two corners of my house - front and back - and the front has a slope to it, so it's easier in the back.

how do you plan to do the overflow? In a big storm I have LOTS of overflow and would love to capture it.

  got this 400 gal. cube from a food product company for under $100. use a gravity feed hose and its on the south side, water never really gets that warm and the figs do well

I've got about 15 barrels 30 to 60 gal each used only to water blueberry. Figs do fine on well water.

I hand water so want them at ground level. The ones in morning sun can get pretty warm but I don't think the water gets hot enough to hurt figs or blueberry. I'm more concerned about 32F water in winter on actively growing, greenhouse blueberries.

I've not seen any ill effects from warm or cold water.

The rain diverter worked exactly as I had hoped! We had 1/4 of rain last night and my new barrel was full. Before, without the diverter, that barrel just caught normal runoff and a 1/4 rain would only put a 5-6 inches of water in the barrel. That was a simple, easy (30 min), and cheap ($6) way to increase my rainwater collection at the back of the house where I need it the most. I plan to install a couple more as soon as I have time.

I've used that kind of diverter the other way around, to keep water from dripping off the roof right where a door was. I'm not on county water and use roof catchment. There is quite a learning curve to catching water.

If you want to install a faucet at the bottom of a plastic bucket, barrel, or tank get one with a 3/4 inch male threaded end, drill a 3/4 inch hole, slide the faucet in, put a o-ring on it, and use a nut from a 3/4" electrical fitting (one that runs wire or emt into a metal box) to tighten it. The local feed and seed makes these up as kits because so many farmers use them for pesticide or fertilizer tanks.

We aren't supposed to have them here. Biggest campaign of BS I have ever heard of. Basically, the idea is that the rain water is supposed to go to the aquifer, and not into storage to be used for whatever. Ridiculous part is that if you water your property with it, then it is sort of going to the aquifer anyhow, your just delaying it, which could be a good thing.
I have two 50 gal barrels in my back yard. My house does have gutters. I cut a ~2ft section out of the middle portion of the down spout and inserted one of those flexible water diverters that are designed to go on the end of the down spout and extend/direct the water away from the foundation. My barrels set next to the down spout, after it has been raining for a bit I go out and open the barrel and divert the water until they are full.


I use it primarily for my blueberries.
The first barrel just sits flat on the ground, I also thought that the hydrostatic pressure would be enough in the barrel to make the water flow well. Live and learn. I have a short hose to fill the watering can but it is slow to fill. My second barrel, I built a stand about 18" tall out of 4x4" cedar timbers. I hand water my blueberry bushes with a 2 gal watering can, so the second barrel is nice because the can sits about 4" below the spigot.