the_harper•28d agoProlific Poster

My rain barrel setup finally broke after that big storm Tuesday

I had this DIY rain barrel system rigged up for two years catching runoff from my garage roof in Portland. Tuesday's downpour split the plastic spigot right off and sent 50 gallons of water flooding into my neighbor's driveway. Anyone else have their water conservation projects fail in a spectacular way?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_singh2028d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, so it's not just a matter of picking the right plastic type? I always figured that as long as the plastic was thick enough it would hold up fine over time. But after seeing how your spigot just split like that from the weight, I get why steel fittings are the safer bet. @mia700's point about cold weather makes a lot of sense to me now too since I've had my own cheap parts crack in the winter. Maybe I'll finally upgrade to metal next time my setup starts leaking.

the_anthony28d ago

Steel fittings instead of plastic solved that problem for me.

mia70028d ago

@the_anthony steel parts are definitely tougher, especially in cold weather where plastic gets brittle and snaps off. I switched to metal on my whole setup and haven’t had a single leak since.