I copied your system in my previous house and it worked great. The downside is the hard connection, and after glued, it is hard to move the barrels when you want to adjust them or do maintenance even when they are empty. So in my new home, 1. I just used 1/2" connectors, garden hose cut, and metal clamps to make the soft connection between the barrels. So I can bring down individual barrel or disconnect wherever I want to to do maintenance. 2. add overflow pipe at the first barrel where the rain water comes in instead of #4.
Overall, a nice, simple system. Congrats for taking the initiative to conserve! A couple of thoughts (I've only scanned the first page of comments here, so you might already have dealt with my remarks, so...) 1) A one-inch rainfall on a one horizontal square foot area yields .62 gallons of water. If the roof area serviced by the gutter is, say, 1,000 square feet, then a one-inch rainfall will give you 620 gallons of rainwater, or a little more than eleven 55-gallon barrels worth. Having a reliable overflow system will be important, and might work better for you if it is installed on the first barrel rather than the last one, given the small pipes connecting them together. 2) You may find that a debris filter located right at the intake of the first barrel quickly gets plugged with leaves, bugs, dirt, etc. Should the filter clog at the start of a heavy rain, water could quickly back up onto the roof. Consider adding a "first flush" mechanism that grabs the first rush of water off a dry/dirty roof, then diverts (relatively cleaner) water into the collection system. Note that fine dirt will get into your system anyway, and draining the system from the very bottom of the barrels would include all that sediment which eventually could clog your pipes and hoses. Consider draining from the sides of the barrels an inch or two above the bottom to leave the sediment behind. The last barrel (from which you take water) will naturally have the least amount of sediment to contend with.
Great setup. one suggestion, put the overflow outlet in the first barrel and set that barrel higher than the others by 6-8 inches. If your overflow is cut into the last barrel, water will be coming out the top opening of the first barrel before it fills all the barrels because the reduction in flow caused by friction and pipe size diameter.
Great video. I have been thinking about having a rain barrel the last few years and this video inspired me to move forward and have one this year. You made the steps easy to follow and straight forward.
I liked your setup so much.... I made my own last year, and it has been working great! So thank you for posting the video. It was a big help! And, we save a lot of money watering the garden and flowers outside during the summer. Plus, since the water is warm from the sun, the dogs like it when we give them a bath! LOL
Thanks for taking the time to post this. We are getting ready to install our system and this gives us a great blueprint. Fabulous garden, dude! Be Blissed!
First, great video, and I think I will be building mine around this same concept that I have seen several times. One suggestion, that valve at the end is kind of wobbly. Might be worthwhile to put something in the ground and go around the end of the pipe to stabilize it, so it does not crack, break, or pull a seal from the previous barrel while you have a hose connected. ALSO - the ball valves are AWESOME. Pull a lever, and its open. No screw type to open and close with. Great system!
Great system, attention to detail and a great video describing your design and assembly. Just a few comments to help out... The bricks are called SINTERED blocks. This name means they were made by pressing small round particles of concrete. When closely examining the block you can see the round pieces still in the walls of the block. These round pieces are poured into a mold and pressed together, dried which makes a strong block without any liquid and a short drying time. Some fuel filters are sintered yet with brass instead of concrete. The brass is porous because the little round balls of brass are pressed together, not too tight, which leaves spaces between the balls that lets fluid fuel thru yet not small particulates.These blocks were created by Frank Lloyd Wright. They are the most structurally strong when placed so the thru holes run up and down so the stresses run thru the walls of the block.
System looks good. I like the bottom drain connecting the barrels. Your garden look fantastic. I live in the Texas Hill Country, with more deer than people. We must have 8 foot fences if you want to grow anything. One thing you have that we do't have is soil. We have lots of rocks and cactus. Thanks for the instruction. Jim B
@outofworkbum I found the same thing looking at other systems. They all fill one barrel then overflow to the others from the top. Then if you want to use the water from the secondary barrels you have to move the hose. This system fills all barrels at the same time and uses water from all barrels at the same time. However you do not gain more pressure no matter how many barrels you put in series. To get more pressure you would have to stack them on top of each other like a tower
Hi. You can have all your barrels full if you have your over flow coming up from the top and then going down. the down spout opening must be above the over flow, and the vents. I have a drill pump that I bought at Home Depot for $6.97. It pumps water at about 3 1/2 gal. per minute. I have a washer machine hose that I connect to the rain barrel, then to the pump that conects to a 50 ft. hose. I am pumping my water up ten feet Works great.
I have not had any leaks. I just left it full all winter. I just drain them a couple days ago to get fresher water in them for this spring. No shortage of rain here in the spring time.
You answered a nagging question for me about how to use some pvc fittings by creating the opening with your drill. I don't have the barrels with the removable lids so setting that up is a little more difficult...but I think I can make your idea work. If you want to increase your flow (next time) try using 2 inch PVC for the primary pipes and then move down to 3/4 inch PVC. I water my entire garden with a PVC system like this...but did not have the rainwater hooked up yet.
You are correct. I ended up putting the overflow on the first barrel after another viewer suggested it. I also changed out the main pipe connecting the barrels to 1" and changed the valve to a quater turn valve. That greatly improved the pressure. Not sure how you get them to drain if you connected them at the top.
Like the setup. Do see one flaw. You were mentioning a 2" overflow and the need for an overflow the same size as you intake. You will still be restricted by the 3/4" PVC connecting each barrel. You may want to look at a 4" 45 facing down, with a drain hose, on the inlet. Once all the barrels fill it will backup the pipe and the 45 will allow for drain off.
Charles Kiplinger That's probably the best practical approach to the overflow problem. During a heavy downpour, the pressure developed by a column of water that high could cause water to enter the barrel much more quickly than a simple 4 inch hole near the top of the barrel would drain. This would create pressure inside the barrel. Having a t shaped, or tee wye fitting on the actual downpipe, right above the barrel will allow pressure to escape before it gets to the barrel. You don't want the lid popping off.
I'm not saying my method is right or wrong,but I installed tire valve stems in the tops of mine. I wasn't getting enough pressure to expelled the water as I needed from my 220 gal barrel. I keep the piece that screws into the tip of the valve stem out until I need to water my garden (no pressure build up like you stated). Then I screw that piece in,attach a small 12v air compressor,and I then have enough pressure to spray my garden. I plan on adding a pressure gauge so to indicate the amount of pressure,but thought it might be something worth sharing. By the way,great setup you have.
Having an overflow the same size as the inflow makes sense, however, having a hole on the last barrel bigger than the pipes connecting the barrels together isn't going to do you any good.
One suggestion on water pressure. If you put in an air manifold in the lid, just like the water manifold in the bottom, you can pump air into the tops of the drums and really increase the flow of the water out of the drums. It doesn't have to be very much pressure either. We use that technique to increase the flow of ink out of big totes. I would use a foot bicycle tire pump with it and just pump it a few times when the pressure drops.
@stymye Ul listing...Schedule 40 rigid PVC conduit and fittings are for aboveground use indoors or outdoors exposed to sunlight and weather, and for underground use by direct burial or encasement in concrete. Look it up.
@18wheeler76 Glad it will help. It is not in the video but I decided to put the overflow spout on the first barrel instead of the last. Got a suggestion from a youtuber that mentioned the overflow would be restricted by the pipe down below. Also going to but a larger 1/4 turn valve to increase waterflow.
Nice system. I'm looking to invest in rain barrels. We live on a farm and our well went out yesterday. Now I'm thinking we need to be prepared for anything especially since we have animals that need water, no matter what. Nothing like the well going out to motivate me to get the ball rolling but I'm working towards having a back up system in place. In addition, if I set it up at the barn and install gutters, we will reduce mud. Win win.
no issues with sediment collecting at the dead bottom of the barrels entering the spigot? Most put their spigot 2 inches up to allow sediment to drop to bottom... that's my only question
Nice setup, I think I would connect all the barrels at the top so a leak would not empty the whole system, but that's a personal preference. One bit of advice though, your 2" overflow at the last barrel would be choked by the 3/4 pipe connecting the first barrel to the fourth.
What I would suggest is putting the rain barrels up higher to store kinetic energy. You can use the fall of the water coming down the pipes to generate greater pressure. Put the barrels closer to your garden, use a battery powered garden timer valve like you would have on your hose, run wet hoses through your garden and you can water your garden automatically using your rain water. Works flawlessly and all the parts are available and cheap at your local hardware store. PM me for details...
What is the GPM of your inflow (water coming from the roof) compared to the GPM of the connection pipes? The reason why I asked is because I was wondering if you ever ran into a problem where the first barrel filled up much *faster* than it was able to output the water to the other barrels.
I have same setup but closed lids barrels running on solar powered water pump. I goes with water pump because I want to use it on my irrigation system since running back and forward with a bucket of water will get tired. The pump was quite expensive since it was 80$ and the solar power system with deep cycle battery, but it wasn't just for my irrigation and rain barrel, but it was also powering my flood lights around the house
Like your system, if it's raining hard do they fill up fast. Thinking that's a lot of water in the downspout. I used the ones with the solid tops and ran 3" into the barrels using 3" tees across six of them and will be using a hand pump to empty them. Nice job,
If you ever need to do any kind of maintenance to the barrels it might be handy to have your screen fence mounted on some type of hinge system for ease of access. Also, your overflow could've been incorporated into your inlet if you prefer to keep the works all together. Very nice, neat project. I'm gathering data for my own system. I was thinking about going horizontal with the barrels, but I like what you've done here. Thanks for sharing : )
I switched out the lower pipe to a 1" and a 1/4 turn valve and the water pressure is much greater than in the video. The water will flow out as long as the water level is higher than where you need to water. I have not tried to run a sprinkler though.
@dsmith1122 you do not gain more pressure no matter how many barrels you put in series. To get more pressure you would have to stack them on top of each other like a tower.
Useful video. Why no first flush / wash system in place? Since you're using the water on edibles, shouldn't there be a first flush so remove the heavier contaminates?
Great system. You may have a pressure problem. Average person waters with a garden hose at waist high about 36". Your spigot comes out with water looks like about 12" off the ground? U need to raise the barrels. Maybe look into a pump.
Nice set up, only thing I would add is some small mobile jet pump with quick connectors...it would be nice to have little bit of pressure on garden hose...
Good points! I'm trying to figure out how to improve my set up compared to yours. I just added a second barrel, after seeing how well using rain water in PDX works. Last year I got a barrel, and the Grady Barrel diverter, and been pretty happy with it, last week I added a second barrel, but I just ran the outlet from the diverter to a pvc "T" to fill the second barrel and have a 1.5" outlet. I put ball valves on the barrels, but haven't connected them, so they empty independently.
@haroldt101 To allow more water to drain out of the barrels. The coupler is about an inch high so it will always leave one ince of water in the bottom of the barrel. With the hole there I only have a 1/4" of water left in.
Good looking system. I normally work best with metal, so cutting a hole in my barrell$ had me nervous. Nothing an hour of youtube tutorials can't cure though.
That could work but each lid has to have a vent to prevent a vacuum when draining. You could make those vents taller than the drain pipe but all that work is really only getting you a few extra gallons. My drain pipe is and 1.25" Dont really need a whole 2" in most cases but the 3/4" was to much restriction and cause overflow out the inlet pipe on heavy rain days. We get a lot of those here in WA.
Nice job! With our drought conditions in CA, I'm goona use your system with a couple of modifications. I have a long corridor to store these into so i'm gna align them shoulder to shoulder like you mentioned. And then I'm gna run the bottom common PVC line directly beneath the barrels btwn the cinder blocks arranged at 90 degrees from the way you did it. Thanks for your help! I also thought about using a valve under each barrel to be able to isolate each barrel from the others in case I need to wash one out or something like that.
Hey great video, I just made my system and my first barrel overflows before my other two fills up. Does yours do that? My first barrel may be off just a little, I mean leveling with the others
@brianmeff Easy to find out. Take a glass and turn it upside down. Now lower it into a sink full of water. No water will fill up the glass. There will be an air pocket that will keep that barrel from filling without a hole to let the air out. The opposite test would be to take a 2 liter bottle and fill it with water. Turn it over and you will get a glug glug as air tries to rush back into the bottle to fill the void. Now do it again with a big hole in the bottom. It should poor right out
Thanks for the info - I looked but did not see the following question. What is the puprpose of the some hole you show drilled into the coupling attached to the bottom of the barrel?
Did you consider just an overflow from barrel to barrel rather then the manifold system? I am researching how to connect 5 barrels and rather confused which route to utilize. Thank you
Ah I see. This is just convenient not to have to change out the hose to each a different barrel and stores a lot more water. You are correct about the pressure though. I full barrel will have more pressure than 4 1/4 barrels but will also lose pressure much faster than using more than one. If I use 55 gallons I have almost no pressure from one barrel. If I use 55 gallons from 4 I still have the pressure of a 3/4 full barrel.
Nice, actually better than some others I've seen before but one thing I think you need; a bigger hole for letting in air, those are too small with bigger holes the water will spill out much faster. that water should be shooting...
@KainanRa I'm designing one now and I will be going with flexible hose, the last time I used pvc like this it became brittle and kept leaking , one day after a strong wind one of the pipes actually shattered into 3-4 pieces. If the pipe was attached ridged onr encased somehow it may have helped , but the movement of the pipes and flexing of the barrels was causing problems.
This system is fantastic!! My senior year project for a geography course at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada involves presenting a project about rainbarrel water harvesting techniques. My group and I came across your video and thought it would be helpful to our project to use a few clips from your video. With your permission, we would love to be able to do this!
if you could give an answer. really like your fill system at the bottom, I plan to use for micro irrigation and hydroponics. can I put a submersible pump somewhere to drive the water system tubing. if you can give thoughts thank you
great post. Two thoughts, first put a U-shape trap into your inflow system (aka the guttering) I would use large diameter pvc and make each side of the U long so sediment will settle to the bottom and have no chance of making it up the other side. Build a cleanout into the bottom of the U, and there you go, easy sediment filter that is also easy to clean. second, put a slant on your manifold towards the hose fitting so that it will completely drain.
@kenskyfish exactly what i was going to say. nice system. i had hoped to make mine back in april but then went trekking in bolivia. just got home the other day, so now will take care of the 10 barrels ive had sitting here since then! . thanks for sharing
thats pretty cool. I'm in the process of designing an off the grid project with 2 shipping containers and solar/wind powered generators. Hopefully I can get the whole thing done under $20,000 in materials.
looks awesome. All of the systems I have looked at fill a barrel then spill into the next, from the top. have you tried this manifold system filling all four barrels yet? and if so do have the pressure of all 4 barrels at once pushing out the hose? If this works for sure it will definately be how I set mine up, thanks for posting
@creatvlgic3 you know,im still pondering it,i did acuire a 55gal drum,my house is small tho,i dont think it would fit right(take up to muh room)but im still looking into either that or i have been looking at wood stoves on craigslist.i may do both and put the barrel in the basement.preps are goin great,as far as food.i have tons of water in plastic jugs,no 55 gal plastics yet,i call coca cola they never called back yet.but i have alot of preps i reall have piece of mind.thanks for askin.
I like the Idea you have there thumbs up, I'm making a set up for my 14 X 30 pond I have, I've been checking diff ways to do something like this where I can fill up like 600 gal pond.
I’ve got a question for you sir I’m thinking about building a similar system For a similar purpose Do all four barrels ever get filled up? I’m trying to figure out my optimal capacity
Just a thought...plumb your AC's drip pan to flow in to the rain barrels. I don't know how much condensation is created from a wall AC unit but I do know that 3.5 ton creates a lot water.
Question: do you get more pressure from your rainbarrel system because they are all connected? For instance, I currently have two rainbarrels that are connected by an overflow hose at the top of the barrel. They both have spickets at the bottom. If I connected the two spickets to one outlet (like you did), would I get more pressure than individually?
Did you build your overflow yet? If you do your overflow at the last barrel couldn't it could be as small as the diameter of the pipe that feeds the barrel since it is already constricted at that point?
Nice system, hope to complete mine this weekend. What do you do with the barrels in the winter? Not sure where you are, but I'm in upstate NY and the winters here get pretty cold. I'm thinking that you'd have to disconnect the system or the water in the barrels would freeze and the barrels would split,
How can I make this can u please type all datails and complete so I can buy things very difficult in my province I want to make like this hope u can teach me
I hope you reconsidered where you located the overflow, because if you put it in the side, that limits how full all the barrels get. If you put the overflow in the top, the barrels can fill to the top.
I am also in the process of making this same type of system. I noticed in your video you stated that you used an o ring on your fitting and had a slow leak before you puttied it. I was wondering, what if you were to double up the o rings, putting one on the outside of the drum and one on the inside. Do you think this would garuntee a sealed hole? Thanks for sharing this video!
pretty cool, im makin plans for a tinyhouse and something like this will help alot for my water storage (although i wont get as much from the rain) but it looks like a 200Gal system and that id only have to fill like once a month if there was zero rain, and i live in washington so theres only three months of zero rain usually :) thnx
Sort of. I located the overflow to the first barrel because locating on the last barrel in the line would make in limited by the size of the manifold pipe. I did not want the overflow on the top because I dont have a sealed fitting for the rain gutter. I want the overflow carried away from the barrels not just flowing out the inlet from the rain gutter and flooding out my patio.
@davettalashley I do see algae in the water but it has a reall hard time growing insid e the barrel because there in no sunlight. Smells fine to me but I never left it in there for very long. As for washing with it that is up to you. I collect it from my roof which then flows through my gutter and is collected in the barrels. I guess you just have to decide if you would wash with gutter water.
This is awesome. Where can you possibly get those big BLUE BARRELS like the ones you are using in this video? Did you buy them or you can get them for free somewhere? Thanks for this helpful advise, very neat system
If you hooked a Water Heater to the end with a shut off valve to stop water after the W/H tank is full , changing the electical of the W/H to a three prong plug to go to a generator you could have hot water if need if a long power outage attaching the electrical
You could always get an inline water pump to go on the outlet and run an hosepipe ... but as you know you'll have to make them holes a bit bigger on the lids... great set up though...Happy Days
Try to find the video by 1oldarmyguy. He made some very nice improvement to this design. watch?v=QXvlVVKeFVg
I copied your system in my previous house and it worked great. The downside is the hard connection, and after glued, it is hard to move the barrels when you want to adjust them or do maintenance even when they are empty. So in my new home, 1. I just used 1/2" connectors, garden hose cut, and metal clamps to make the soft connection between the barrels. So I can bring down individual barrel or disconnect wherever I want to to do maintenance. 2. add overflow pipe at the first barrel where the rain water comes in instead of #4.
Do you have a picture and more details, please and thank you
@@donnabauerofbrilliancebyde1178 photos.app.goo.gl/Vf6fTnDRHPETKXdVA
Overall, a nice, simple system. Congrats for taking the initiative to conserve! A couple of thoughts (I've only scanned the first page of comments here, so you might already have dealt with my remarks, so...) 1) A one-inch rainfall on a one horizontal square foot area yields .62 gallons of water. If the roof area serviced by the gutter is, say, 1,000 square feet, then a one-inch rainfall will give you 620 gallons of rainwater, or a little more than eleven 55-gallon barrels worth. Having a reliable overflow system will be important, and might work better for you if it is installed on the first barrel rather than the last one, given the small pipes connecting them together. 2) You may find that a debris filter located right at the intake of the first barrel quickly gets plugged with leaves, bugs, dirt, etc. Should the filter clog at the start of a heavy rain, water could quickly back up onto the roof. Consider adding a "first flush" mechanism that grabs the first rush of water off a dry/dirty roof, then diverts (relatively cleaner) water into the collection system. Note that fine dirt will get into your system anyway, and draining the system from the very bottom of the barrels would include all that sediment which eventually could clog your pipes and hoses. Consider draining from the sides of the barrels an inch or two above the bottom to leave the sediment behind. The last barrel (from which you take water) will naturally have the least amount of sediment to contend with.
Great setup. one suggestion, put the overflow outlet in the first barrel and set that barrel higher than the others by 6-8 inches. If your overflow is cut into the last barrel, water will be coming out the top opening of the first barrel before it fills all the barrels because the reduction in flow caused by friction and pipe size diameter.
Great video. I have been thinking about having a rain barrel the last few years and this video inspired me to move forward and have one this year. You made the steps easy to follow and straight forward.
I liked your setup so much.... I made my own last year, and it has been working great! So thank you for posting the video. It was a big help!
And, we save a lot of money watering the garden and flowers outside during the summer. Plus, since the water is warm from the sun, the dogs like it when we give them a bath! LOL
Thanks for taking the time to post this. We are getting ready to install our system and this gives us a great blueprint. Fabulous garden, dude! Be Blissed!
First, great video, and I think I will be building mine around this same concept that I have seen several times. One suggestion, that valve at the end is kind of wobbly. Might be worthwhile to put something in the ground and go around the end of the pipe to stabilize it, so it does not crack, break, or pull a seal from the previous barrel while you have a hose connected.
ALSO - the ball valves are AWESOME. Pull a lever, and its open. No screw type to open and close with. Great system!
Cool! I've struggled with my two barrel system for years and no amount of tweaking was getting results. Your video is awesome!! thanks
Great system, attention to detail and a great video describing your design and assembly.
Just a few comments to help out...
The bricks are called SINTERED blocks. This name means they were made by pressing small round particles of concrete. When closely examining the block you can see the round pieces still in the walls of the block. These round pieces are poured into a mold and pressed together, dried which makes a strong block without any liquid and a short drying time. Some fuel filters are sintered yet with brass instead of concrete. The brass is porous because the little round balls of brass are pressed together, not too tight, which leaves spaces between the balls that lets fluid fuel thru yet not small particulates.These blocks were created by Frank Lloyd Wright. They are the most structurally strong when placed so the thru holes run up and down so the stresses run thru the walls of the block.
Nobody listen to this guy please. Incorrect.
System looks good. I like the bottom drain connecting the barrels. Your garden look fantastic. I live in the Texas Hill Country, with more deer than people. We must have 8 foot fences if you want to grow anything. One thing you have that we do't have is soil. We have lots
of rocks and cactus. Thanks for the instruction. Jim B
@outofworkbum I found the same thing looking at other systems. They all fill one barrel then overflow to the others from the top. Then if you want to use the water from the secondary barrels you have to move the hose. This system fills all barrels at the same time and uses water from all barrels at the same time. However you do not gain more pressure no matter how many barrels you put in series. To get more pressure you would have to stack them on top of each other like a tower
Hi. You can have all your barrels full if you have your over flow coming up from the top and then going down. the down spout opening must be above the over flow, and the vents.
I have a drill pump that I bought at Home Depot for $6.97. It pumps water at about 3 1/2 gal. per minute. I have a washer machine hose that I connect to the rain barrel, then to the pump that conects to a 50 ft. hose. I am pumping my water up ten feet Works great.
I have not had any leaks. I just left it full all winter. I just drain them a couple days ago to get fresher water in them for this spring. No shortage of rain here in the spring time.
You answered a nagging question for me about how to use some pvc fittings by creating the opening with your drill. I don't have the barrels with the removable lids so setting that up is a little more difficult...but I think I can make your idea work.
If you want to increase your flow (next time) try using 2 inch PVC for the primary pipes and then move down to 3/4 inch PVC. I water my entire garden with a PVC system like this...but did not have the rainwater hooked up yet.
You are correct. I ended up putting the overflow on the first barrel after another viewer suggested it. I also changed out the main pipe connecting the barrels to 1" and changed the valve to a quater turn valve. That greatly improved the pressure. Not sure how you get them to drain if you connected them at the top.
Like the setup. Do see one flaw. You were mentioning a 2" overflow and the need for an overflow the same size as you intake. You will still be restricted by the 3/4" PVC connecting each barrel. You may want to look at a 4" 45 facing down, with a drain hose, on the inlet. Once all the barrels fill it will backup the pipe and the 45 will allow for drain off.
Charles Kiplinger I thought the same thing.
Charles Kiplinger That's probably the best practical approach to the overflow problem. During a heavy downpour, the pressure developed by a column of water that high could cause water to enter the barrel much more quickly than a simple 4 inch hole near the top of the barrel would drain. This would create pressure inside the barrel. Having a t shaped, or tee wye fitting on the actual downpipe, right above the barrel will allow pressure to escape before it gets to the barrel. You don't want the lid popping off.
the overflow should be on first barrel
@MrNativeTexan Thanks. I glad you finally got to see it. How is your system working?
I'm not saying my method is right or wrong,but I installed tire valve stems in the tops of mine. I wasn't getting enough pressure to expelled the water as I needed from my 220 gal barrel. I keep the piece that screws into the tip of the valve stem out until I need to water my garden (no pressure build up like you stated). Then I screw that piece in,attach a small 12v air compressor,and I then have enough pressure to spray my garden. I plan on adding a pressure gauge so to indicate the amount of pressure,but thought it might be something worth sharing. By the way,great setup you have.
Having an overflow the same size as the inflow makes sense, however, having a hole on the last barrel bigger than the pipes connecting the barrels together isn't going to do you any good.
Ten years later - still a great idea!! Thanks!
One of the clearest and most informative videos i have seen,a great help,thanks.
I think the pacing on the text was great, personally. :) Thanks for such a wonderfully informative video!
One suggestion on water pressure. If you put in an air manifold in the lid, just like the water manifold in the bottom, you can pump air into the tops of the drums and really increase the flow of the water out of the drums. It doesn't have to be very much pressure either. We use that technique to increase the flow of ink out of big totes. I would use a foot bicycle tire pump with it and just pump it a few times when the pressure drops.
@stymye Ul listing...Schedule 40 rigid PVC conduit and fittings are for aboveground use indoors or outdoors exposed to sunlight and weather, and for underground use by direct burial or encasement in concrete. Look it up.
@18wheeler76 Glad it will help. It is not in the video but I decided to put the overflow spout on the first barrel instead of the last. Got a suggestion from a youtuber that mentioned the overflow would be restricted by the pipe down below. Also going to but a larger 1/4 turn valve to increase waterflow.
Nice system. I'm looking to invest in rain barrels. We live on a farm and our well went out yesterday. Now I'm thinking we need to be prepared for anything especially since we have animals that need water, no matter what. Nothing like the well going out to motivate me to get the ball rolling but I'm working towards having a back up system in place. In addition, if I set it up at the barn and install gutters, we will reduce mud. Win win.
no issues with sediment collecting at the dead bottom of the barrels entering the spigot? Most put their spigot 2 inches up to allow sediment to drop to bottom... that's my only question
Nice setup, I think I would connect all the barrels at the top so a leak would not empty the whole system, but that's a personal preference. One bit of advice though, your 2" overflow at the last barrel would be choked by the 3/4 pipe connecting the first barrel to the fourth.
What I would suggest is putting the rain barrels up higher to store kinetic energy. You can use the fall of the water coming down the pipes to generate greater pressure. Put the barrels closer to your garden, use a battery powered garden timer valve like you would have on your hose, run wet hoses through your garden and you can water your garden automatically using your rain water. Works flawlessly and all the parts are available and cheap at your local hardware store. PM me for details...
What is the GPM of your inflow (water coming from the roof) compared to the GPM of the connection pipes? The reason why I asked is because I was wondering if you ever ran into a problem where the first barrel filled up much *faster* than it was able to output the water to the other barrels.
I have same setup but closed lids barrels running on solar powered water pump. I goes with water pump because I want to use it on my irrigation system since running back and forward with a bucket of water will get tired. The pump was quite expensive since it was 80$ and the solar power system with deep cycle battery, but it wasn't just for my irrigation and rain barrel, but it was also powering my flood lights around the house
Like your system, if it's raining hard do they fill up fast. Thinking that's a lot of water in the downspout. I used the ones with the solid tops and ran 3" into the barrels using 3" tees across six of them and will be using a hand pump to empty them. Nice job,
If you ever need to do any kind of maintenance to the barrels it might be handy to have your screen fence mounted on some type of hinge system for ease of access. Also, your overflow could've been incorporated into your inlet if you prefer to keep the works all together. Very nice, neat project. I'm gathering data for my own system. I was thinking about going horizontal with the barrels, but I like what you've done here. Thanks for sharing : )
I switched out the lower pipe to a 1" and a 1/4 turn valve and the water pressure is much greater than in the video. The water will flow out as long as the water level is higher than where you need to water. I have not tried to run a sprinkler though.
@dsmith1122 you do not gain more pressure no matter how many barrels you put in series. To get more pressure you would have to stack them on top of each other like a tower.
@marthale7 Great point thanks for the suggestion. Good thing Im so slow as I have not put the overflow in yet.
Useful video. Why no first flush / wash system in place? Since you're using the water on edibles, shouldn't there be a first flush so remove the heavier contaminates?
Great system. You may have a pressure problem. Average person waters with a garden hose at waist high about 36". Your spigot comes out with water looks like about 12" off the ground? U need to raise the barrels. Maybe look into a pump.
Nice set up, only thing I would add is some small mobile jet pump with quick connectors...it would be nice to have little bit of pressure on garden hose...
I got 2-55 gallon drums and will definitely use what you showed me to fix them up.
Good points! I'm trying to figure out how to improve my set up compared to yours. I just added a second barrel, after seeing how well using rain water in PDX works. Last year I got a barrel, and the Grady Barrel diverter, and been pretty happy with it, last week I added a second barrel, but I just ran the outlet from the diverter to a pvc "T" to fill the second barrel and have a 1.5" outlet. I put ball valves on the barrels, but haven't connected them, so they empty independently.
Nice. Any legal issues. If your neighbours house is right next door to the house?
thank you for the Great video. can I use 6 cinder blocks instead of 4 to give it more elevation and get better water pressure?
@haroldt101 To allow more water to drain out of the barrels. The coupler is about an inch high so it will always leave one ince of water in the bottom of the barrel. With the hole there I only have a 1/4" of water left in.
Good looking system. I normally work best with metal, so cutting a hole in my barrell$ had me nervous. Nothing an hour of youtube tutorials can't cure though.
That could work but each lid has to have a vent to prevent a vacuum when draining. You could make those vents taller than the drain pipe but all that work is really only getting you a few extra gallons. My drain pipe is and 1.25" Dont really need a whole 2" in most cases but the 3/4" was to much restriction and cause overflow out the inlet pipe on heavy rain days. We get a lot of those here in WA.
@chiqnlips Not without a pump or putting them really high up.
Does it create enough pressure to use a hose on your garden
Nice job! With our drought conditions in CA, I'm goona use your system with a couple of modifications. I have a long corridor to store these into so i'm gna align them shoulder to shoulder like you mentioned. And then I'm gna run the bottom common PVC line directly beneath the barrels btwn the cinder blocks arranged at 90 degrees from the way you did it. Thanks for your help! I also thought about using a valve under each barrel to be able to isolate each barrel from the others in case I need to wash one out or something like that.
Hey great video, I just made my system and my first barrel overflows before my other two fills up. Does yours do that? My first barrel may be off just a little, I mean leveling with the others
@brianmeff Easy to find out. Take a glass and turn it upside down. Now lower it into a sink full of water. No water will fill up the glass. There will be an air pocket that will keep that barrel from filling without a hole to let the air out. The opposite test would be to take a 2 liter bottle and fill it with water. Turn it over and you will get a glug glug as air tries to rush back into the bottle to fill the void. Now do it again with a big hole in the bottom. It should poor right out
Thanks for the info - I looked but did not see the following question. What is the puprpose of the some hole you show drilled into the coupling attached to the bottom of the barrel?
Great to see that inplix has new instructions to save my money and energy to build it.
Did you consider just an overflow from barrel to barrel rather then the manifold system? I am researching how to connect 5 barrels and rather confused which route to utilize. Thank you
Ah I see. This is just convenient not to have to change out the hose to each a different barrel and stores a lot more water. You are correct about the pressure though. I full barrel will have more pressure than 4 1/4 barrels but will also lose pressure much faster than using more than one. If I use 55 gallons I have almost no pressure from one barrel. If I use 55 gallons from 4 I still have the pressure of a 3/4 full barrel.
Nice, actually better than some others I've seen before but one thing I think you need; a bigger hole for letting in air, those are too small with bigger holes the water will spill out much faster. that water should be shooting...
I'd like to see how you made these blend into the garden, they are an eyesore.
@KainanRa I'm designing one now and I will be going with flexible hose, the last time I used pvc like this it became brittle and kept leaking , one day after a strong wind one of the pipes actually shattered into 3-4 pieces. If the pipe was attached ridged onr encased somehow it may have helped , but the movement of the pipes and flexing of the barrels was causing problems.
This system is fantastic!! My senior year project for a geography course at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada involves presenting a project about rainbarrel water harvesting techniques. My group and I came across your video and thought it would be helpful to our project to use a few clips from your video. With your permission, we would love to be able to do this!
if you could give an answer. really like your fill system at the bottom, I plan to use for micro irrigation and hydroponics.
can I put a submersible pump somewhere to drive the water system tubing. if you can give thoughts thank you
great post. Two thoughts, first put a U-shape trap into your inflow system (aka the guttering) I would use large diameter pvc and make each side of the U long so sediment will settle to the bottom and have no chance of making it up the other side. Build a cleanout into the bottom of the U, and there you go, easy sediment filter that is also easy to clean.
second, put a slant on your manifold towards the hose fitting so that it will completely drain.
@kenskyfish exactly what i was going to say.
nice system. i had hoped to make mine back in april but then went trekking in bolivia. just got home the other day, so now will take care of the 10 barrels ive had sitting here since then! . thanks for sharing
thats pretty cool. I'm in the process of designing an off the grid project with 2 shipping containers and solar/wind powered generators. Hopefully I can get the whole thing done under $20,000 in materials.
I love it! Would be very handy for the gardens. Hoping dh can set some up for us someday to.
looks awesome. All of the systems I have looked at fill a barrel then spill into the next, from the top. have you tried this manifold system filling all four barrels yet? and if so do have the pressure of all 4 barrels at once pushing out the hose? If this works for sure it will definately be how I set mine up, thanks for posting
I also installed the pvc pipes underneath of the barrels soit won't be in the way or accidental that might cause it to leak or break.
@creatvlgic3 you know,im still pondering it,i did acuire a 55gal drum,my house is small tho,i dont think it would fit right(take up to muh room)but im still looking into either that or i have been looking at wood stoves on craigslist.i may do both and put the barrel in the basement.preps are goin great,as far as food.i have tons of water in plastic jugs,no 55 gal plastics yet,i call coca cola they never called back yet.but i have alot of preps i reall have piece of mind.thanks for askin.
I like the Idea you have there thumbs up, I'm making a set up for my 14 X 30 pond I have,
I've been checking diff ways to do something like this where I can fill up like 600 gal pond.
I’ve got a question for you sir
I’m thinking about building a similar system
For a similar purpose
Do all four barrels ever get filled up?
I’m trying to figure out my optimal capacity
Clever! I like this system -- one of the best I've seen.
Just a thought...plumb your AC's drip pan to flow in to the rain barrels. I don't know how much condensation is created from a wall AC unit but I do know that 3.5 ton creates a lot water.
Question: do you get more pressure from your rainbarrel system because they are all connected? For instance, I currently have two rainbarrels that are connected by an overflow hose at the top of the barrel. They both have spickets at the bottom. If I connected the two spickets to one outlet (like you did), would I get more pressure than individually?
very impressive system...thank you for the idea...love your garden
Did you build your overflow yet? If you do your overflow at the last barrel couldn't it could be as small as the diameter of the pipe that feeds the barrel since it is already constricted at that point?
Only question is what about the pre-spout (name)? that's supposed to drain away the leaves and debris BEFORE it gets to the barrels?
Nice system, hope to complete mine this weekend. What do you do with the barrels in the winter? Not sure where you are, but I'm in upstate NY and the winters here get pretty cold. I'm thinking that you'd have to disconnect the system or the water in the barrels would freeze and the barrels would split,
How can I make this can u please type all datails and complete so I can buy things very difficult in my province I want to make like this hope u can teach me
Thanks for this video. I love your garden too! How is the pressure when hooking up a water hose to it?
I hope you reconsidered where you located the overflow, because if you put it in the side, that limits how full all the barrels get. If you put the overflow in the top, the barrels can fill to the top.
I am also in the process of making this same type of system. I noticed in your video you stated that you used an o ring on your fitting and had a slow leak before you puttied it. I was wondering, what if you were to double up the o rings, putting one on the outside of the drum and one on the inside. Do you think this would garuntee a sealed hole? Thanks for sharing this video!
pretty cool, im makin plans for a tinyhouse and something like this will help alot for my water storage (although i wont get as much from the rain) but it looks like a 200Gal system and that id only have to fill like once a month if there was zero rain, and i live in washington so theres only three months of zero rain usually :) thnx
Nice. Might want to make the manifold system with disconnects in case you ever want to relocate.
Sort of. I located the overflow to the first barrel because locating on the last barrel in the line would make in limited by the size of the manifold pipe. I did not want the overflow on the top because I dont have a sealed fitting for the rain gutter. I want the overflow carried away from the barrels not just flowing out the inlet from the rain gutter and flooding out my patio.
You really thought this out... so do you have good enough pressure for garden hose to water garden?
What do you do with the other downspouts around the other corners of the house? we have 4, but I don't want to set up tanks at all of them.
Mine siphoned itself dry yesterday. Had to remove diverter and make adjustments for overflow situations
what do you do with the water?
how do you prevent the barrels from over flowing? There a cut of system for the drain to direct an to an alternate rout when barrels are full?
How has the sand base held up?
@davettalashley I do see algae in the water but it has a reall hard time growing insid e the barrel because there in no sunlight. Smells fine to me but I never left it in there for very long. As for washing with it that is up to you. I collect it from my roof which then flows through my gutter and is collected in the barrels. I guess you just have to decide if you would wash with gutter water.
This is awesome. Where can you possibly get those big BLUE BARRELS like the ones you are using in this video? Did you buy them or you can get them for free somewhere? Thanks for this helpful advise, very neat system
HAHA! Love the system, man! Glad I could give you an idea on where to go with the manifold! Nice video, too!!
Yeah I was wondering the same thing were can u get them at a hard ware store or on the Internet
Nice video. Did you attach a hose to the spigot. I'm wondering if you have enough water pressure to water your veggies that way.
Hi there, just wondering how long t he rain water in those barrels last before going rotten in there? Thanks
If you hooked a Water Heater to the end with a shut off valve to stop water after the W/H tank is full , changing the electical of the W/H to a three prong plug to go to a generator you could have hot water if need if a long power outage attaching the electrical
@NESurvivalPrep Yep. You can do a search on RUclips for "Collecting Rain Water Illegal" and there is a news story about it.
I did this set up with just 2 barrels. Is there a reason my 1st barrel is about halfway and second barrel has just a tad in it?
You could always get an inline water pump to go on the outlet and run an hosepipe ... but as you know you'll have to make them holes a bit bigger on the lids... great set up though...Happy Days