Rainwater diverter - how?

Sapindus

When the water butt is stood on its stand, the level of the inlet hose is exactly where the collar on the downpipe is.  The butt will be stood on a paving slab on concrete - without the slab the level is still where the collar/bracket is.  I can't work out what to do.  Do I sacrifice a couple of gallons of water and drill the hole lower?  The screws holding the bracket to the wall are rusted.  Should I hack them off, and buy another section of downpipe and a couple of new brackets/collars so I can have a clear section of downpipe to put the diverter into?  Or would the slab take the weight of a full butt if I lifted it up on some (how many?) bricks to get it above the current collar?
And should it even be possible to undo the downpipe from the collar?  How are they fixed?  It won't move.
My last water butt had a very unsatisfactory arrangement and I want to get it right this time.
Any suggestions welcome. 

Robin9

I've got a similar issue - an existing set up  - with two water butts side by side both on slabs.  Hoping that when the left one is full the flow goes into the right. It does when the right is full the butt itself overflows

Should the one on the right be higher than the left ? or vice versa.  It's a cast iron down pipe -  altering the diverter is not really very practical

Beeblebr0x

I have two butts side by side at the same height. I can't see anything obviously wrong in your photo, although when both butts are full, the excess water should be channelled down the drainpipe.

twopenny

Concrete slabs on a concrete path should be fine.
What you may (or may not) need to fiddle with is if water from the butt will fall neatly into your watering can. If not you can just get a half width slab to stand the can on. That should stop any chance of tripping on it as you walk the path.

I've found watering can spouts fit neatly behind a downpipe and if firmly done won't blow around if a wind gets up during the night.

Spikeygran

What exactly was "the unsatisfactory arrangement" previously, what was wrong??

Was it overflowing, not filling?

Plastic parts are standard and readily available, so all replaceable.  Once youve freed the bracket, if the downpipe is over a drain you should be able to lower the bottom section down the drain a few inches so you can trim the upper section to fit the diverter.  If you decide to move the waterbutt later you  can simple fit a new full length section. 

Sapindus

Spikeygran said:

What exactly was "the unsatisfactory arrangement" previously, what was wrong??

Was it overflowing, not filling?

Plastic parts are standard and readily available, so all replaceable.  Once youve freed the bracket, if the downpipe is over a drain you should be able to lower the bottom section down the drain a few inches so you can trim the upper section to fit the diverter.  If you decide to move the waterbutt later you  can simple fit a new full length section. 

Oh, this was in a previous house with a dodgy drainpipe and no firm base to stand the butt on.  So I'm ahead to start with on this one.

So it sounds like getting the bracket off is the best bet.  Will the lower section of drainpipe just twist out of the joining collar?  Everything seems very firmly stuck together at the moment!

Robin9 said:

I've got a similar issue - an existing set up  - with two water butts side by side both on slabs.  Hoping that when the left one is full the flow goes into the right. It does when the right is full the butt itself overflows

Should the one on the right be higher than the left ? or vice versa.  It's a cast iron down pipe -  altering the diverter is not really very practical

When I've linked water butts before I've done it with a hose at the bottom of the butts so the water is always level between the two, not just one overflowing into the other when it's full.  In your set up I wonder if when the right hand one is full it will overflow its own top rather than backing up into the left hand one and sending the water down the diverter?

-taff

They might have used a welding glue on the pipe connections so you won't get it apart but if it's plastic, just get a new piece [or new to you, freecycle?] and another collar, make it higher, your problem is solved.

Beeblebr0x

We're in the midst of a heavy downfall. I've noticed that butt number 2 overflows down the sides despite the diverter sending rainwater down the drain pipe.

Spikeygran

It happens. its a simple system.  We have fitted an overflow pipe on our linked butts (opposite the inlet), and fed it back into the drain.  

LessImpecunious

Beeblebr0x said:

We're in the midst of a heavy downfall. I've noticed that butt number 2 overflows down the sides despite the diverter sending rainwater down the drain pipe.

I've found that gunk gradually accumulates in a diverter and partially blocks the flow (both into barrel and down drainpipe) - so you have to periodically dismantle and clean out gunk - this should at least allow the max possible amount of water to go down the pipe. Tho' with some of the heavy rainstorms we get, it may be that, even with a squeaky-clean diverter,  there is not enough capacity in the (partially-blocked-by-diverter) downpipe to take all the water, and some of it may be forced into the butts even if they are full - there is nothing to stop butt 2 overfilling and therefore overflowing - unless you added a third (and possibly more) butt    - or do as Spikeygran suggests and add an overflow pipe...

Spikeygran

You can buy a longer length of the black corrugated piping if needed.  I've seen 2 metres with wire clips for £9.99 on amazon.

Its not perfect but works well enough.  There are a few slightly different styles of converter and all work in a similar manner.  If you have a lot of trees they do need unblocking every so often.