It doesn’t really matter as long as you get a size that is good for you. I have seen 275, 300, and 330 gallon totes offered on Craig’s list. See the link at the bottom of the article for different adapters. Others have coarse threads and are known as S60X6 and will not work with the threaded PVC pipe. Some are fine threaded and are known as NPS female and work well with the 2” PVC threads, which is what I have.

When getting an IBC tote, note that there are two different types of threads on the IBC tote valves. You’ll end up with a garden desert that nothing will grow in. What you don’t want is an IBC tote that had a bunch of weed killer in it and then go out and water your lawn with water from that tote. Many of them just had sugar water or something like that in them. Most of the Craig’s list adds don’t necessarily say food grade, so you will have to ask what was in them and make that determination for yourself. Where do you get that IBC tote from? I have found quite a few listed on Craig’s list. The picture titled “DIY Rainwater Collection System” shows the downspouts now in the back and the IBC tote in and leveled. By making this swap, the downspouts were automatically moved to the back side of the garage. The gutters originally on the left side went on the right and the gutters originally on the right side went on the left. The fix for that was to to remove both gutters and downspouts completely and swap them. By that I mean they were coming down on the front side of the garage and not the back side where we needed them. The first issue we had is the downspouts were facing the wrong way. 75 (or 3/4) X 0.623 = 571.9 Gallons of water from 3/4″ of rain What about the Down Spouts?Įducational DIY Rainwater Collection System – All You Need to Know If we get 3/4 of one inch of rain, the calculation would be:ġ224 X. Square footage of your roof X the amount of rain X 0.623Īn example is my roof on my metal garage is 1224 (51 long X 24 wide) square feet. To figure out how much water you can catch, do the following calculation: If you want the quick version just to see what was done, go to the bottom of this post and look at the YouTube video titled “DIY Rainwater Collection System”. This is a very detailed explanation of the project including part numbers and places to buy them.

At the bottom of the article, I have links to the products I used in the project. This post will explain all of the steps that were used in putting this system together. It consists of an IBC tote, modifications to the downspouts and some 3” PVC. I put together a DIY Rainwater Collection System this past weekend. You can use the the Algreen Deluxe Diverter Kit with any Algreen rainwater barrel or almost any other rain collection drum.This Educational DIY Rainwater Collection System – All You Need to Know covers another rainwater system. It includes kink-free tubing, 1 hole saw, 2 hose clamps, and 2 assembly screws as well as usage instructions. This kit features a universal downspout diverter so you can direct the flow of water from your downspout to your rain barrel by cutting a hole in your downspout and linking the tubing from the downspout to the water barrel. If you're having trouble getting the rain from your downspout into your rain barrel, then the Algreen Deluxe Diverter Kit is what you need to guarantee you're getting the most out of your rain collector.

Rain spout diverter tan color