Diverter pipes for rainwater butts

ComicGeek

I've got 3 rainwater butts in my garden, each connected to white square plastic down pipes with plastic diverter kits. The connecting corrugated flexible pipes between the diverter and butt just aren't robust enough, and constantly split after quickly becoming brittle. I tape them in multiple places when they do, but still find that I'm having to replace them every 1-2 years. With the recent rainfall, I'm finding some early signs of damp where rainwater is just running through multiple splits onto the ground, rather than backing up into the down pipe when the butts are full, so have to do something now.

I don't know if my mistake is buying the connector kits from Screwfix/B&Q etc - should I be buying a pond hose reel instead, or is there another product that won't become so brittle so quickly?

-taff

Where I used to work there was a lot of tubing that was used, PVC piping for the most part, so I used to use that to connect my water butts. Never split, never got brittle.  It was clear flexible tubing about 1.5cm in diameter.

My butts [ oh that sounds so funny!] were connected to each other rather than a downpipe for each, I drilled a hole in each very near the top with a wood bit and just used an 20cm length between each.

DarylWallis

You can get a metal diverter from SCP building products. This might last longer.