# Advice/info on rain barrel utility **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582 "2012-03-12T20:02:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/1 "2012-03-12T20:02:28Z")
My wife is interested in getting a rain barrel. While I can easily see how it works to collect water, I’m not seeing where it would be particularly convenient to use the water. Can anyone shed some light for me here? The barrel would likely be pretty much like [this one](http://www.marc.org/Environment/Water/buildrainbarrel.htm). Certainly one could fill a watering can or bucket many times from a full barrel. However, we don’t do that very often. We water the lawn with a sprinkler attached to a garden hose. We also use a hose to rinse the car when washing it. Is there some way that using a rain barrel is feasible for those applications? I’ve found that we could get a pump. It appears the better ones run $100+. I wondering how using such a pump would compare to using the garden hose, in terms of pressure, flow rate, and minutes of use from a full barrel. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/2 "2012-03-12T20:19:03Z")
See the spout on the bottom? Hose goes there, positive pressure pushes the water out. It won’t work for a sprinkler system, but it should do fine for the car. And it may go without saying, a rain barrel is intended to conserve water, not present the user with maximum convenience. That said, have you asked your wife how she intends to use the rain barrel? Perhaps she has something else in mind, something that uses less volume of water than car washing and the lawn. Maybe watering indoor plants or a vegetable garden? ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/3 "2012-03-12T21:11:28Z")
Perhaps talk to your wife about how she plans to use it. Some people feel rain water is better for flowers. I put a 125 Gallon tank under our deck. I can siphon water out of it to water things on lower ground than it is on. It is useless when you go 2 months with no rain. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/4 "2012-03-12T21:21:30Z")
mount it at a height to give gravity flow for your needs. slightly above ground is good for buckets and flower beds. for auto washing you might elevate it about five feet. ---
**Author:** ![Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diver)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/5 "2012-03-12T22:30:39Z")
When I was a kid in West Texas back in 1945 or so people collected rainwater in barrels because it was much softer than most well water. I don’t remember what it was used for except for women to wash their hair. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/6 "2012-03-12T23:11:57Z")
> [@Diver](#): > > When I was a kid in West Texas back in 1945 or so people collected rainwater in barrels because it was much softer than most well water. I don’t remember what it was used for except for women to wash their hair. Yep my Grandma used to always get us to fill a 50 litre container when we went out to our holiday house for this reason. In Aus most houses have a tank for water [ours is 6,000 litres] to supplement the mains water. We use it for flushing the dunny mainly and cleaning the car and yes you need a pump as well. Stupid Chrome spell check, it is litre not liter! ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/7 "2012-03-13T00:29:13Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Stupid Chrome spell check, it is litre not liter! I’ve heard Chrome has a culture-checker, as well. How did it try to correct “dunny”? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/8 "2012-03-13T00:31:10Z")
A single rain barrel might not really give you enough to do much with, but it’s still free water. The easiest, cheapest, device I was thinking of using to irrigate our veg garden is this [venturi pump](http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1207/Mighty-Pump/venturi/0). CMC fnord! I’m still trying to figure out if ganging two, or more, to a single garden hose would increase the amount of water drawn from the barrel? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/9 "2012-03-13T01:46:18Z")
> [@Diver](#): > > When I was a kid in West Texas back in 1945 or so people collected rainwater in barrels because it was much softer than most well water. I don’t remember what it was used for except for women to wash their hair. My mother swore it was better for washing hair (and for house plants). This was in Dallas County and not West Texas. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/10 "2012-03-13T02:55:27Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Stupid Chrome spell check, it is litre not liter! In FireFox right clicking in a box like this brings up an menu allowing you to select a language. English/Australian is oneof the choices. I only learned this after changing to Kubuntu. To get spell check to work, you have to specify a language for most websites. Fixing it here didn’t fix it at ClubCav. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/11 "2012-03-13T03:08:17Z")
Ironically, I’m in the U.S., but my (Firefox) spell checker seems to default to Australian English. I’ve had to reset it from that to American several times. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/12 "2012-03-13T03:50:34Z")
We have one on each side of the house. One we attach a drip line to that goes out to our garden plants. The other one we use to fill watering cans for the potted plants on the patio. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/13 "2012-03-13T05:07:24Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Ironically, I’m in the U.S., but my (Firefox) spell checker seems to default to Australian English. I’ve had to reset it from that to American several times. Resistance is useless. But back to the OP, a small tank is probably going to cost more than it saves in water costs. Big assumption that water is probably not the expensive part of your water bill. In Aus it is sewerage access etc that make up a large % of costs. It wants to turn dunny into sunny… ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/14 "2012-03-13T05:42:44Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > See the spout on the bottom? Hose goes there, positive pressure pushes the water out. It won’t work for a sprinkler system, but it should do fine for the car. If the garden is level and not too large, it’ll probably be good enough for a drip line. Elevating the barrel a meter or two would be even better. ---
**Author:** ![simsimian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@simsimian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simsimian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/15 "2012-03-13T15:14:10Z")
We have 2 rain barrels. When I first installed them, the water pressure was pretty low. It took a long time to fill a bucket. I raised them on cinderblocks, about 2 feet. The pressure is still lower than the tap, but it is sufficient for watering. We hooked a 30’ hose to one, and it works fine to water the plants around our patio. A secondary benefit, that I wasn’t expecting, is that the rain gutters no longer dump water next to the foundation. Now the gutters go into the rain barrels, and the overflow hose from the rain barrels goes where ever I point the hose. (up to 30’ away from the house) ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-info-on-rain-barrel-utility/615582/16 "2012-03-13T23:29:51Z")
When I was growing up in San Diego, my friend’s mother used to put cans and pots and stuff out in the covered patio to catch the drips of rain. We asked her why and she said she had heard tap water was rather alkalyn and countering that aspect with a bit of acidic rain seemed to perk up her plants. I always figured the chemistry of the water was being changed as it ran across the rooftop to eventually drip into her containers, but she swore by it. —G? I wanna know Have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day. . --John Fogerty (CCR) . _Have you Ever Seen The Rain_