Does anyone use rain barrels? I bought one from Arid Solutions in 2008 to both water landscaping and control downspout flow at a corner of the house. It was great the first year but lately I haven't been able to clean the inside of it well enough. It's essentially sealed save for several hose ports around the sides and the inlet at the top. The inlet at the top is just large enough to almost get my forearm through but I can't reach all of the internal surfaces to clean everything.

I'm concerned that any algea or bacteria growing inside could damage my plants if I use the water inside, so now it is only a glorified downspout. The inside is becoming slightly green and discolored. Do I have valid concerns that something harmful could grow? Any ideas what to neutralize it with?

Hmm, I guess I should have tried a quick internet search first. A few sites claim whatever grows is not harmful for gardens but the barrel should be cleaned yearly with a diluted bleach mixture. I'll give that a shot and then rinse it well to remove any bleach residue that may be harmful.

I just use a nose-test: if the water doesn't stink, it's probably fine for watering the gardens.

Thanks guys!

I have a question, I was looking at rain barrels to water the side of my yard. When the spiggots are located at the bottom of the barrel can you actually hook up a hose/sprinkler and will it have enough pressure to run a srpinkler for a side yard to be sprinklered?

You can hook up a hose with a open end. As long as the hose is lower then the water hight the water will come out. In other words you can't run a sprinkler.

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Depends on barrel design. I think most would need to be lifted up off the ground a bit for easy access. I don't think you would ever ge enough pressure to run a sprinkler, at least nit one with moving parts.

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Whats the intended usage on them mainly?

I water all of flowers with mine.

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so does it have enough pressure to use a wand or hose sprayer attachements? what about drip irrigation would it do that?

You could just drop an inexpensive sump/fountain pump in the barrel connected to a hose to provide water pressure sufficient to supply a sprinkler or garden nozzle!

the main problem with these rain barrels is they do not hold much water, most only hold 40-85 gallons,when potentially hundreds to a thousand gallons are collected off a good size roof during a good rainfall. What we need is a few thousand gallon tank buried in the yards of houses during construction to collect and save this water.......its coming,and sooner rather than later, with the continual increase in the price and conservation of water.

I, and I am sure many others,would rather have and pay for a huge underground water storage tank,filled by roof runoff than an inground swimming pool!

This would be a good start, I'll take one for the front yard,and one for the back please Click here for more information

Jc it does not have the pressure to run hose end sprayed or attachments. It is great for drip irrigation.

I would love to have that big of a tank in my back yard. The only problem is if you are not getting rain then it would only last two weeks for my small front yard. And when you are getting rain then you don't need to irrigate.

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simple,get a bigger tank, or multiple tanks! With my 1500 ft2 size lawn,2 2500 gal tanks could get me through 5 weeks worth of watering til empty without a rainfall refilling them.....long enough to get through most periods of inadequate rainfall around here......it is already on my list for the must haves if/when i build my next house!

I looked into building my own tank. They use a rubber membrane around milk crates. Its easy to do and you can make any shape or size tank you want. You would just need someone to dig out the hole and take most of the dirt away.

If I ever have a chance to build a house its going to have something to help with watering.

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