Hahaha! I was trying to think of something rubber I can cut into rectangular when I was watching this video. Let’s be creative now. How about cutting and stacking a few rectangular foam mats?
Thanks! I found your video looking for "do it yourself diverter" as I've found store-bought ones reduce the flow of water which can lead to overflows / backups. Your simple system is helpful to see! I'm sharing it with friends to explain the diverter mechanism and drawbacks. In your case, your system would reduce the top flow to about half of what the pipe could carry (I'm having a problem with a downspout/pipe that is near capacity in heavy rains). However, if you ever have this problem, your system shows me that I could have a section of wider pipe, then use this same type of system where the middle section of pipe is the same size (or bigger) than the one feeding it. I'm just stunned at how easy you made it though - brilliant!
What do you do about preventing freezing from cracking the barrel? Just drain it? I found this video looking up a friend suggestions to put tennis balls inside the rain barrel to absorb the expansion of the ice but I think water will permeate the tennis ball after being frozen a few times... Maybe not... Is there something else we can do to avoid draining then every year? Thumbs up on the video! Glad I landed here!!!
I rarely drain the tanks as we don’t really get too low temps here in Ireland. If I see around the -4 or -5 I’ll drain them but as I say it’s rare. Maybe once in the last 5 years. Not sure how you would prevent it though.
