Trying to collect rainwater runoff from the roof to store for watering the garden, but my google-fu, alas, she is weak and all I’ve been able to find are variations of barrels or buried tanks. I don’t particularly want a barrel sitting on either side of my property and I don’t want to dig a whopping big hole, so I’m hoping someone has seen/heard of alternatives.
Any suggestions?
Ummm…a washtub? 
Seriously, I’d get one of those blue plastic barrels.
And get a lid with a hole cut in it, to closely match the size of the downspout. It will help keep mosquitos from breeding in it.
I’m afraid that’s the best we have come up with so far. Here is a golden entrepreneurial opportunity.
Of course you could disguise the barrel as a flamingo, or a plaster jockey. 
A pond? Seriously, if you’re objecting to large storage vessels, maybe this is a viable option.
The coolest thing I saw was a system where the person ran piping along the top of a pergola over to a downspout into a pool (and ran a circulating pump to make it into a water feature). That might be a little more elaborate than what you had in mind.
How bout this–
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/33galrainbar.html
Comes with Brass fittings.
This one has a really nifty pump!
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/50galrainbar1.html
This is exactly what your looking for!
I have 3 rain barrels. Two are recycled, metal, food barrels. I cut some holes, inserted some plumbing parts, and now I have up to 100 gal of water in a part of my garden far from the spigot. These are hidden behind the garage and especially useful because they are on high ground so I get a reasonably good flow when I use them to water the slope below them and I can fill up watering cans quickly. No need for a pump. One thing about them is that, although I try to keep them screened, I suspect I would still have some mosquitoes breeding in them if I didn’t put in some dunks from time to time.
I also have a commercial water barrel with pump (probably about $150 with shipping. It’s cute. The barrel is an old whiskey barrel and the smell of the water out of it used to practically knock me over. The pump is convenient and gives me a source of water near my vegetable garden which has no water tap nearby. I also have a hose attached to the bottom of the barrel which is good for dripping water under the hydrangeas on hot days. One problem with the wood barrel is that it has a approximately 4x3 hole in it with a horizontal screen over it to receive water. This gets filled with debris from the downspout very quickly. A better design would spray water from the downspout against a screen set at a 45 degree angle so that the water would enter and the leaves would slide off.
Although I get use out of my rain barrels, that is mainly because of the particular placement where I need small quantities of water and where I have no water tap. As for conserving water, forget it. The barrels are only needed when it doesn’t rain and when it doesn’t rain you will quickly empty them of their 50 gal. So I doubt that there are many situations wher you would empty a rain barrel more than 5 times a year, thats a savings of 250 gal. Look at your water bill. That 250 gal is trivial compared to what you use.
An enormous cistern in the ground makes more sense but then you need a pump plus a place to put the cistern, a lot of concrete, and someone to dig a very large hole.
Running rain water in to a pond is a good idea but if you use the water for something you will have a fluctuating water level in the pond and that greatly complicates the pond design if you want it to have plants, fish, or just look good.
Be carefull of local laws. Rain Barrels can be illegal(They are in parts of Colorado). Water drainage , and who is entitled to what, where, and how much is heavily regulated, and a Homeowner has no given right to collect rainwater even in their own property here.
The local news stations at least once in a while dedicate the “What the hell are the idiots at city hall thinking” segment reporter to the issue. But the law still stands.
If you really want a rainwater barrel, then get a true blue Aussie rainwater tank!
what started this was an article I read about a product in Australia a while back. Unfortunately, I can’t remember either the products actual name or where I read it. 
It was a response to the ugly barrels, and it was basically a hollow fence. It was plastic 6 foot tall hollow fence that the gutters were somehow attached to. It was modular (you could expand the structure) and it could hold a significant amount of water. Natually I don’t want somthing quite so elaborate, but I just got to thinking that it would be possible to find alternatives to a plain old plastic or wooden barrel.
As far as legislation, they sell green plastic barrels here so I’m guessing it’s ok.
In terms of quantity, I’m actually hoping to have something a bit bigger than 50 gal. (which is one of the reasons I don’t want just barrels).
Again, this is all still in the planning stages so nothing is out of the question yet.
The barrels I linked to also have a spigot/hose fitting at the bottom. Gravity feed will move your H2O.
And the barrels in my links are plastic.
Heh, that’s even worse when you consider that it’s catching runoff from a house, coated with who-knows-what sealant, paint, etc. Collecting drainwater from a house is probably improving the quality of the water that isn’t collected!
Just scanned the replies, maybe someone else has suggested this. One of our downspouts has a accordian-like vinyl hose attached that is buried underground and the exit feeds out to the lawn. Could you do something like that, that feeds into a pond to collect your rainwater? Mosquitos might be a factor though.
regards,
widdley
I’ve been thinking about doing this for my garden, one of the more interesting ideas I came across was PVC pipe, BIG PVC pipe!
Assuming I got the math right (which I don’t) here’s some numbers;
12 feet of 12 inch diameter pipe holds 69 gallons, weighs 126 lbs empty, and should cost about $14.00.
You can get Schedule 40 up to 24" diameter, somewhere, but it’s heavy (12’ of 24" weighs something like 400 lbs) and you probably can’t get the variety of fittings that you’d want.
In the smaller sizes you can easily get everything you’d need to connect the gutter leader and a garden hose to the pipe.
CMC fnord!
My first reaction was “hey!.. thats a good idea” but then I got to thinking, how about leaves and such? A barrel allows for detrious to compact at the bottom, but this would need some sort of filter for water going in.
This sort of thing is what I was going to use, and still remains my ‘backup’ , but what I’m looking for is something less… barrelish if you will.
I’m not sure anything exists, which is why I’m opening up the question to the dopers, who as we all know, collectively know all and see all. 
Like I posted, I’ve heard of hollow fences, so I got to wondering if there might be other non-common storage solutions.
I built an architectural feature (to match the house) around mine. Some 4x4’s and 3/4 AC ply with trim.
I’d check.
All of the commercial barrels I’ve seen have a screen to keep debris (and mosquitoes) from getting in.
Any large debris (especially leaves) in any style rain barrel can/will block the hose outlet.
Any rain barrel without mosquito-proof screening is a science experiment.
Here’s the part you need to add, a downspout diverter.
They both use hoses to connect to the “barrel”, and both look like you could add some filter material (aquarium filter floss, gravel, fiberglass, etc.) so nothing can get in the “barrel” but water.
Assuming we’re both thinking about placing the pipe horizontally (I am) you need to install a fitting to create an opening for the water to enter the pipe, I’m hoping to find a solvent style saddle tee that would fit (could always heat the PVC tee and mold it to the right size).
You could just drill the right sized hole and (PVC) glue in a hose fitting
(M/FGHT = Male/Female Garden Hose Thread, MNPT = Male National Pipe Thread. Garden hose threads are different than standard pipe threads. They are much more coarse and are 0.75 - 11.5 NH (normal hose). The 0.75 is the nominal diameter (3/4 inch) and the 11.5 is the number of threads per inch.).
You do need to drill a small hole in the top of the pipe to let air out as the water fills the pipe.
CMC fnord!