Upcycle 55 Gallon Gray Rain Barrel

Living in WV we get a lot of rain (50 inches plus), and having a well with high iron content, a rain barrel seems the obvious way for watering our plants and garden, so we decided to try one of these out.There are several different types and price ranges, some purpose built and others reclaimed from standard non food grade barrels. We opted for the latter.The materials used here to convert it are all plastic and seems OK. The fittings weren't tightened too well, and time will show if they leak.I do like the design of the screen part, and think it will hold up well, and if it doesn't it seems easy to replace the screen if it rips.If we like this rain barrel we will order three more, but time will tell.It isn't a very complicated thing to re-fit a normal barrel into a rain barrel, and I guess there is no more than $35 in it, including the barrel, but it is made better than I could do myself with parts from Home Depot or Lowes.Update:Yes, the plastic valve didn't last long. It had a slight leak and I tried to tighten it and it snapped in two.Bought a brass valve at Lowes that screwed right in.The plastic parts are definitely the weak par of this setup.

The seller of his rain barrel was very good at communicating and tracking my delayed delivery. I will definitely buy from them again. this gray rain barrel came with most everything you would need although we are using it to divert water to some pots so we had to make some modifications. I purchased a diverter kit also so that the rainwater could go in toward the side at the top rather than using the lid. It is thick and sturdy and I am very pleased so far.

As others here have may have said these barrels are likely recycled olive barrels. With that being said, do they even try to clean them out? If you are planning to get one, I recommend you have some warm soapy water on hand and and be prepared to give it a scrub and a good rinsing. I would even recommend giving it a disinfection while you're at it. Other than that though, I like the design. I like the location of the the access spouts. Having two built-in hose ports is very nice.

Very sturdy and pressed I’m going to buy more this will make three

Used with my leaf filter system. Water runs right in to the barrel and barrel waters my raised garden beds with the hose you have to attach.

Very sturdy and completed with garden hose bib. Smart re-use of food containers. I pumped water from the lake into this barrel. The screen on top filters a lot of the dirt/algae and the water is then pumped into sprinklers without clogging up the sprinkler heads.

I ordered two barrels to check quality, and then ordered four more right away. The primary barrel is directly below the rain gutter down spout, with 5 barrels connected via short garden hose segments to and from the outlets at the base of each barrel. The lids are convenient: there is a screened area cut out in the center of each lid, allowing for overflow during the El Nino deluges. (However: the screen is NOT well-secured with 4 screws, so I additionally use a 35 G Trash can lid on each barrel to block leaf drop into the water.) On the primary barrel, a piece of window screen draped over the top secured with a bungee cord filters out debris from the down spout. Hose connectors with shut-off valves (not provided with barrels) at every port of each barrel allows easy control of water flow in and out of each barrel. Barrels are seated on 8x8x16 cinderblock stacks: Eight blocks per barrel. I am really happy with these barrels.

This is my third purchase of rain barrels for my yard & garden. They are easy to set up, very sturdy, and can be connected to one another with additional hose & fittings purchased separately. My plants get rain water vs chemical laden city water and I don't have to take out a loan to pay the water bill!