On 05/09/2010 01:28, chris French wrote:
In message , David in
Normandy writes
On 04/09/2010 17:47, Mike wrote:
Hi y'all, just some words of advice, I have just dismantled my diverter
on the downcoming rainwater pipe leading to the waterbutts as we are
moving house soon, and found a lot of debri that included cherry seeds
etc, this must have stopped 50% of my rainwater collection for a couple
of years, I doubt if I would have ever looked there for problem, but it
is well worth checking along with guttering etc.
Every little helps. Mike, Cambridgeshire Dustbowl.

It is worth checking them annually in late autumn just after the trees
have lost their leaves. That is when they are most likely to jam up.

I simply put my rainwater downpipe directly into the water butt. Then
put an overflow on the water butt so the excess goes to... another
water butt. And the overflow water from that goes to ... another water
butt. Any after that goes down the drain. So I don't waste a drop of
rain. I'm not convinced those diverters transfer 100% of the rainwater?

No they don't, but I think for most occasions it's enough.

The only time when they seriously malfunction is when a few leaves have
managed to get down and one has got across the outlet to the butt. Has
happened a couple of times to me. It is fairly obvious in strong rain.

Collecting straight into a butt will sooner or later lead to the butt
overflowing as the pipe to the next ones won't be able to cope with the
flow.

Depends on the diameter of the pipe. I'd expect a 1.25" pipe to cope
with most circumstances. I rely on manual syphoning into two spare
(salvaged from a neighbours building site) plastic bins for extra
capacity. It is quicker to dunk a watering can in open water.

This may or may not matter depending on where the butt is situated.

Mine overflows into the same drain that the downpipe uses.

Regards,
Martin Brown