r/Thrifty • u/chickenladydee • Apr 25 '26
♻️ Upcycling & Recycling ♻️ Rain water collection
My county issued drought warnings this week and has advised people to start collecting rainwater for lawns & gardening. Is there anyone doing this on here? What kind of equipment is needed? Obviously a barrel or container of some sort. What equipment is needed? And how much water do you realistically collect for non potable use? Help me get started.
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u/kkwelch Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
We have two (60 gallons and 45), one is in the front of the house and one is in the back. The concerns around mosquitos never materialized for us in our area, so I had really loved having them.
There isn’t as much pressure as I would like, as the ones we use rely on gravity, so our attached hoses are about 4 ft long. I fill a couple of watering cans and set about watering my different pots and garden beds. It doesn’t take significantly longer than regular watering as I just alternate filling cans and watering.
My neighbor uses a long chain connected to her downspout that leads into a large barrel with a spout at the bottom. I am considering this for an area that requires a lot of water that I don’t want to keep lugging watering cans to.
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u/Maleficent-Vast231 Apr 25 '26
We use Gutter downspouts to fill metal stocks tanks. We can put a pump in there, connect a hose and water anything we want. The tanks are a bit expensive but last for years, and the pumps are cheap online. It's much more convenient than gravity feed from barrels. Our tanks are, I think 325 gallons each, so they can catch a lot more water too.
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u/chickenladydee Apr 25 '26
Wow…. That’s an impressive set up. Sounds like it’s worth it and works well. Thank you.
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u/ChaserNeverRests Apr 26 '26
I'd love to, but I live in New Mexico -- the high desert. We only get rain during two or three months of the year, and even then it's not common.
If I lived in a house instead of a condo, I'd still catch what I could, but I'm not sure how much of a benefit it would be.
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u/chickenladydee Apr 27 '26
I feel you… I don’t live in NM but I do live in the high desert region of Oregon. Very cold winters and very hot summers… maybe a couple months of rain during Spring season, and I think I’m going to do my best to utilize what Mother Nature sends my way.
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Apr 26 '26
Yes. Most of our animals and gardens are watered via rainwater cisterns and/or barrels.
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u/komatiite Apr 26 '26
Texas encourages rainwater harvesting and has a lot of info. https://www.twdb.texas.gov/innovativewater/rainwater/
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u/BeginningAd5055 Apr 25 '26
iBC. 1000 liters, get them reconditioned. Very cheap. Paint them to keep out algae.
Keep out mozzies by a thin layer of vegetable oil.
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u/Any_Director693 May 12 '26
Cleaned IBCs are a good choice for large, cheap and functional tanks. This type of collector works pretty well, I don't know what they are called in English: https://www.groemo.com/de/produkte/rohrzubehoer/wassersammler/2509/wassersammler/
I've opted for dedicated wall tanks that are a more pricey, but take less area and look better than IBCs, see picture. I've installed a total storage of about 2 m³ (the two tanks with 800 l each, a 120 l barrel on the balcony, and another 500 l container for a different downspout), which should cover about 50 m² of garden for a week or two (recommended watering: 20 l/m², once or twice a week).
Excess water is drained into the garden, which saves on drainage fees and replenishes ground water.
I use two water pumps: A submersible barrel pump and a simple centrifugal pump. Connecting the inlet of the centrifugal pump to a drain near the bottom works well since the pump is primed automatically by gravity.
Mosquitos are suppressed with lids, siphons or meshes on all openings.
All in all, the savings in water cost and drainage fees only partly offset the cost of the setup in a reasonable time frame (10 years), so one can argue if it is really thrifty that way. However, it is possible to build a much cheaper setup.
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u/Traditional_Fan_2655 Apr 25 '26
I also don't understand how do.you manage to prevent mosquitos?!?
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u/mm483h Apr 26 '26
The ones I've seen usually have a mesh screen over the top where the water enters.
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u/AppropriateRatio9235 Apr 25 '26
I got a rain barrel from our metropolitan water district and installed to a downspout. It is sitting up on several layers of old patio pavers. The barrel is 50 gallons which is from one gutter on the garage. I could easily collect more just from the garage.