With climate change meaning more heat stress for plants and water restrictions, it is a great idea to capture and store rainwater off your roof to use to water your yard. Choosing the right rain barrel means that rainwater storage will be adequate for your watering needs, straightforward to set up, and easy to maintain.

Here I share what I have learned over my 18 years of landscaping experience about the best rain barrels to buy and how best to set them up. I received some input from my colleague Colleen Cyca who has permaculture training in rainwater harvesting.

If you decide you want rain barrels and want someone else to set them up for you, Eco-Friendly Landscapes offers a Rain barrel/Rain tank Installation Service. To make it easy for you to use your rainwater. We have four types of rain barrels/tanks we install.

Please note that the rain tanks in this post’s featured image were designed by Colleen Cyca and installed by the client.

What to look for in a rain barrel

Look for ones that are large enough to store lots of water, or that can be set up in a sequence. The standard rain barrel is 50-55 gallons or 200 litres. I find that one is not enough for watering my veggies or my annual pots on my deck if there is a long stretch of time without rain.

Look for a sturdy tap that is at least 4-6 inches above the bottom of the barrel to which you can easily attach a hose – so a threaded tap. This tap height allows the internal bacterial biofilm build-up at the sides and bottom of the barrel/tank to continually clean the rainwater. A lower tap will drain the biofilm that rests on the bottom of your barrel and affect the whole self-cleaning system in your barrel. A high enough tap, along with good filters means that you should never have to clean your barrel/tank. And depending on where it is located, you only have to drain it for winter and can just leave it in place.

Look for an overflow hose that will function well – usually those that come out the side are best. It is best if it can be made long enough to direct rainwater into your garden when the barrel is full. Below I will share how you can add to the overflow to do this.

Look for filters, or an easy way to add filters, so that debris does not enter your barrel. The cleaner the water that goes into the barrel, the better so the water stays clean in the barrel.

Look for a good system to divert water from your downspouts to the rain barrel.

Look for a barrel made of recycled materials or mostly so. It pains me to see new plastic rain barrels when plastic causes environmental problems.

Enviroworld Free Garden Rain Barrels best match the criteria for a good rain barrel

Few rain barrels out there have all these features. Enviroworld (https://enviroworld.ca/environmental-products/freegarden-rain) is a Canadian company that makes rain barrels that are the best match to these criteria that I have found. 

They:

– are made of recycled plastic with just enough new resin to make them very sturdy

– have a filter on the top of the barrel. Note that I have found that the way the top of the barrel is made and the filter placed it makes it easy to fill the barrel from the top.  During the recent stretch of no rain and water restrictions in Calgary, we filled the barrels with bathwater using 5 gallon pails.

– have a 4 foot overflow hose that can easily be added to

– have a sturdy, threaded tap that is 8.5 inches from the bottom of the barrel

– are 55 gallons (208 litres) and can be set up in a sequence for more capacity

For fun, they come in orange, lime green, beige, and black. Enviroworld Free Garden Rain Barrels are now available for pick-up at Canadian Tire and Lee Valley Tools in Calgary. If you order them online from Home Depot they will ship to your door for a small additional fee.

For lots of rainwater storage, buy one or more food grade totes

If you have the room and are willing to do some work, you can get one or more 1000 litre (320 gallon) food grade totes and add filters and taps to set them up for rain storage. These have been used for food storage and cleaned for re-use. You can buy parts from an irrigation supply store for the top opening, overflows and taps. For filtration at the top opening, we import a rain cistern tank filter from the US for our rain tote installations. Colleagues have made their own filters from kitchenwares. You can build your own stand.

 I suggest you get a really clean food grade tote. Bulk Direct in Calgary supplies and can deliver these. You can also add some wood cladding if you want less of an industrial look. Eco-Friendly Landscapes can install one or more of these for you too.

How to set up your rain barrel for the best function and the least maintenance

For good water pressure, a stand to raise the height of your rain barrels is helpful. The higher the stand, the higher your water pressure. So if you can make it fit under your eaves and are fine with going up a ladder once in a while, make the stand as high as you can. A good compromise is a two foot high stand. That is what we build for most of the rain barrels we install for clients. Placing the stand on a level concrete block will make the rain barrel more stable. At least make sure the stand is level and stable, as the rain barrel will be heavy when full.

A downspout filter will keep your rain barrel more clean, even with Enviroworld rain barrels that have a filter on top. A two filter system works even better to keep debris out of your rain barrel. Plastic downspout filters that fit on the end of your downspout are readily available at hardware stores now. For our EFL installations for clients, we add a piece of one mm mesh onto the screen for even better filtration. This will filter out fine particulates that will get past the screen on the top of the barrel. We buy the one mm mesh on-line. 

Diverting rainwater into your rain barrel from your downspout is best with a y-diverter.  A y-diverter has a lever that you move to have the rainwater go into your rain barrel in summer and into your downspout that runs onto the ground in winter. With a y-diverter you can leave the rain barrel up in the winter and simply drain it to the tap level. Without a diverter, you will have to move your rain barrel, or do more work to re-configure your downspouts for the winter.  I have tried other diversion systems that fit into the downspout to divert water into the rain barrel and found that it was finicky to get them at the correct level to fill. They often spilled over.  I have heard others tell me that many systems that fit in the downspout clog up and the rainwater backs up, again spilling. With a y-diverter, nothing clogs because there are no internal parts. The tricky thing is finding a y-diverter. Wayne’s Building Products https://waynebuildingproducts.com/?avada_portfolio=cut-off-diverter-splitter&portfolioCats=116 in Calgary carries them and is often out of stock. We import them from the United States now for our rain barrel installations.

A long overflow hose means you can direct rainwater into many parts of your yard. We add 20 foot long sump pump hoses to the rain barrels we install. These hoses can easily be found at hardware stores. They can be cut shorter too if you do not need or want the length. The sump pump hose just slips inside the Enviroworld Rain Barrel overflow hose to extend the length. If your rain barrel does not have an overflow, you can cut a hole in the rain barrel near the top and get the fittings at an irrigation supply store to hook up an overflow hose. 
Protecting your eavestroughs helps with keeping your rain barrel clean. Having a gutter guard or leaf filter system on/in your eavestroughs will be an extra step to prevent debris from coming into your rain barrels.

You may need to reconfigure your eavestroughs and downspouts to best use your rainwater

Over my years of working with homeowners, I have seen some very interesting situations regarding where downspouts are placed on houses. Sometimes the downspouts run right onto sidewalks or driveways causing icing challenges in winter. Sometimes they run into places that cause too much puddling in areas.  I am most happy when homeowners involve me while they are designing their houses about where to place rain barrels and how best to direct the eavestroughs and downspouts to fill them. Eavestroughing companies can re-direct your eavestroughs and downspouts so that the downspouts will fill rain barrels best placed for you to water your yard. 

What to do with your old rain barrels?

We have replaced a couple of old rain barrels at our house- one that was old and leaking and one to have a better barrel. The City of Calgary will not take these in their recycling program. They recommend a private company  to recycle them: https://www.friendlyearth.com/recycling. there are other companies too.

We sawed off the top of the barrels and use them as potato and vegetable planters. They work really well as they are so deep. We have two five gallon pails we fill with bath water nearby to water them.

We have 4 barrels set up at our house and are able to water most of the yard with hoses attached to the barrels. It takes some initial work to set up rain barrels. If you follow the steps above, it will mean simply switching the lever on the y-diverter and disconnecting and storing the overflow hoses for the winter. You will be glad you invested in rainwater storage and so will your plants.