Gutters and downspouts

[Smiles Jr.]

I'm in the process of changing a couple of my rain barrels. Mostly tinkering around now that my planting activities are finished for a few weeks. My old rain barrel ideas are being replaced with some new ones.

I'm trying to find downspout diverter valves and cannot find them in any of the hardware or farm stores around here. These are inverted "Y" shaped downspout sections with a flapper piece inside to make the water go either to the right or the left. The flapper has a rod that protrudes to the outside of the spouting which allows you to move the flap to one side or the other. These are used to send the rain water to the barrel or to the ground.

Do any of you know where I could find a few of these or did they stop making them?

Edit - I found what I'm looking for HERE but $33 and $44 each is out of the question!!! I'll design something else but not that!

 

[digitS']

A person might think that in a region that will sometimes not gain even an inch of rain during the 3 months of summer that we'd all be very much into rain barrels and cisterns for watering the gardens but, we just don't have that here. There are probably still a few country homes with cisterns but that is because they are beyond this great aquifer that most of us are fortunate enuf to live on. Those cisterns are for their household water.

Back to that 1 inch of rain over 3 months . . . that would be a dry summer but let's say that we had twice that and an average growing season. Two inches of water would get us thru 2 weeks of irrigation at best if our gardens are the size of our roofs.

Where collecting rainwater must make a lot of sense is in regions where there is 10 or 12 inches of rain thru June, July and August. I mean, you've already got nearly 1/2 the water you need for a garden the size of your roof. So, doubling that . . . gets you almost all the way!

BTW - our local Weather Service office is predicting near or slightly above normal temperatures and below average rainfall for this part of the world thru the summer months! I haven't fully irrigated my gardens once so far this year! Looks like that's all going to change.

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Hey smiles, we have a downspout going right to our water barrel with no diverter. We just made the downspout fit (by squishing) around the um, raised inner hole in the middle of the lid, then drilled a few small holes in the rest of the lid to let any water that doesnt make it in soak down into the barrel. And yes, sometimes the barrel is full and all that water just overflows to the ground. Sorry that description isnt great, i could take a picture if you wanted!! Whats the reasoning behind wanting a diverter?

 

[Smiles Jr.]

. . . Whats the reasoning behind wanting a diverter?

In two places the "other" downspout goes to the cistern when it's not filling the barrel. Also, we live under some 80 yr. old oak trees and the crud that coats our roof fills up the rain barrels too quick. I usually leave the diverters set to send water to the cistern (which has a crud catcher) until the water runs clean and then switch it over to fill the barrels. Another reason is that I'm a born tinkerer and I love to play with this stuff.

Oh I forgot to tell you, these two rain barrels are set up in carts to be pulled behind the tractor to take out to two of our more remote gardens for drought emergencies.