Rain Barrels – Downspout Rain Water Diverter Systems

Rain water diverters are designed to direct rain water into a rain barrel; once the rain barrel becomes full they will begin diverting the water back down  the downspout as usual. This prevents overflow from overflowing and  potentially causing serious damage to your landscaping and your homes foundation. These downspout diverters actually attach to an existing downspout, although you may have to cut it down for a proper fit under a rain barrel. Most rain water diversion kits are designed generically to work with any rain barrel, but you’ll want to check just to be sure before you purchase one.

 

Many rain water diverters work manually, meaning that you have to go outside and manually flip a lever or turn a switch to get the water to begin flowing either into the rain barrel or back down the downspout. However, this manual process usually won’t usually be a problem since once the rain barrel is full you can just switch to the downspout after a rain storm until you use the water in the rain barrel. Once the rain water has depleted from the rain barrel simply flip the lever back to refill the rain barrel. Although there are quite a few options the Save the Rain Diverter, Offset Downspout Diverter, and Basic Downspout Diverters are inexpensive, handy options to have to protect your foundation.

 

Other diverters are designed to push water back through the downspout using backpressure once the rain barrel is full. The Watersaver Rainwater Downspout Diverter functions by causing the water to exit into your normal drainage system or through an overflow hose directed away from your basement. In that case, you would need a closed container to create the necessary backpressure.

 

Generally, rain water diverters are easy to install. Most likely you will just need to cut the bottom of your downspout to fit the diverter on top of the rain barrel and simply attach the diverter to it.