Getting water into a water butt

Martin_the_Unjust

sobeitjedi said:

I guess that's the issue - I don't want water running off down a downpipe - I want all of it collected in the water butt. Is this not possible? 

Of course it’s possible but where do you want the excess water to go once the water butt is full?

twopenny

Well you have to find some way of diverting it into the waterbutt. Some imagination and random piping should do it - but it will have to be able to be disconnected during the winter and heavy downpours.

One way less efficient than a down pipe but will work is to attach a chain between a hole/end of the guttering and into the waterbutt. It's called a rain chain so a search will bring you options

https://www.gardeningetc.com/advice/what-is-a-rain-chain

Flugelhorn

sobeitjedi said:

I guess that's the issue - I don't want water running off down a downpipe - I want all of it collected in the water butt. Is this not possible? 

You can collect all of it - the diverter is purely for when the water butt is full.
you can as @ArbitraryRandom suggested just cut a hole in the lid for the down pipe - the thing about the ones near the house is that you don't want the excess overflowing so better that it diverts when the tank is full  - not such a problem with the shed. My water butt fills quickly from the roof - had about 1.5cm rain over the last couple of days which has hardly dampened the soil but made huge differenvce to the water butt

there is one here that is taking all the downpipe flow and filling 2 tanks 

ArbitraryRandom

Flugelhorn said:

sobeitjedi said:

I guess that's the issue - I don't want water running off down a downpipe - I want all of it collected in the water butt. Is this not possible? 

You can collect all of it - the diverter is purely for when the water butt is full.
you can as @ArbitraryRandom suggested just cut a hole in the lid for the down pipe - the thing about the ones near the house is that you don't want the excess overflowing so better that it diverts when the tank is full  - not such a problem with the shed. My water butt fills quickly from the roof - had about 1.5cm rain over the last couple of days which has hardly dampened the soil but made huge differenvce to the water butt

there is one here that is taking all the downpipe flow and filling 2 tanks https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1039197/water-butt-position-possibly-moving

Not sure about all, but mine came with a small hole about 2 inches from the top (for where the diverter was supposed to go in). 

So if it's full it should overflow from this - might be worth planting a damp loving plant (or just digging a hole and filling with gravel) on that side of the butt to help reduce the risk it gets swampy? 

I'm saying that because at the moment the water will flow naturally off the roof, but will be over a larger area than overflowing from a waterbutt - which is why people are talking about diverters - managing where the excess water goes when the waterbutt is full. 

Flugelhorn

ArbitraryRandom said:

 sobeitjedi said:

Yes, great - I can put a gutter along the lower end, but how does the water get into the water butt? I don't need a downpipe - is it essential?

You don't 'need' a downpipe - but if you don't then you're going to need an open top butt (which is risking lots of mozzies and the occasional dead rat/bird) and you're not going to maximise your collection as some of the water will likely miss the butt.

For the few quid it costs I'd say just get a down pipe and do it properly. 

definitely make sure that  there is a lid. Not much fun helping friend extract a dead moggy from the waterbutt 

-taff

The downpie is cut with a saw, a small piece of pipe with a reservoir area and a hole is inserted, the bottom of the pipe is then connected again. A tube or more pipework goes to the waterbutt for filling. You can chain link more waterbutts in a row if you want to. Or get something that will act as a waterbutt like an IBC container which is not pretty but will hold a thousand litres. Or you can cut a hole in the lid and stick the pipe straight in with various angled bits of pipework to facilitate that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRZdiK8mjCc

sheramber

You need to work out what happens to the water off the shed roof when the water butt is full.

It has to go somewhere. 

Normally it would  be diverted into a drain or you could make a soak away under the butt  for the overspill to go into.

droopsnoot

As this is a shed roof, won't the excess water just go where it would normally have gone prior to installing the water butt and guttering?

I have two water butts, one on each greenhouse and both installed by my parents decades ago. Neither of these have any provision for dealing with the "full" scenario, in fact the one nearest the house has been full for months, but the excess just runs off where it would have run off the roof, just about.

I have considered a drain from the top into the nearest grid, but I'm not certain that isn't a soakaway drain anyway, so not all that different.

OP, I can't see your objection to a downpipe, unless we're disagreeing about the terminology. The guttering catches the water that runs off the roof, which then runs along to the end where the downpipe takes it down into the water butt without it spraying all over the place. 

I'd never considered the possibility of fishing dead local animals out of water butts - I don't like the way the local cat(s) use my vegetable patch as a toilet, but I wouldn't wish that on them. Fortunately both mine have lids that fit well.

ArbitraryRandom

droopsnoot said:

As this is a shed roof, won't the excess water just go where it would normally have gone prior to installing the water butt and guttering?

Worth remembering this is a shed that's not previously had drainage, so these are the kinds of things that were probably thought about/sorted when your parents first installed the waterbutts on your greenhouses. 

Say the shed is maybe a standard 6x8 foot, the water landing on the roof would fall along that 8 foot length fairly evenly. What you're trying to do is capture all of that surface area of water in a gutter and feed it into the waterbutt.

When that waterbutt is full and overflowing all of that water will then be concentrated in a much smaller 2/3 foot area directly under/around the base of the butt (and depending on layout possibly by the shed door). 

If the ground is well draining, the waterbutt regularly used, and it's not right next to a footpath/door then it's not going to be much of a problem, but worth considering given the minimal effort involved in digging a hole and filling it with gravel/stones to act as a soakaway.