Rain Barrels, Anyone Have Them?

Musselman's brand applesauce is produced in Adams county, PA (near Gettysburg). It's really an apple growers co-op. They produce a lot of apple products including apple juice. Because of their year round contracts certain times of the year they import apple concentrate from overseas. The concentrate comes to them in food grade plastic barrels. Often it's more expensive to ship the empty barrels back then sell or recycle them locally. Look for cheap barrels in this area, generally Gettysburg to Carlisle. I've bought them for less than $5 ea. Often just someone selling them at some farm roadside stand. I'd also check Craig's List or Freecycle in the area.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check them out for sure. Lisa

Thanks for the pictures. That's what I had in mind. I was able to find some 55 gallon drums on Craigs List and hope to be able to pick one up tomorrow. There are several videos on how to put one of these together so I think this is something I can do pretty inexpensively. Thanks for your input. Lisa

Here is some pics of my system, I made the mistake of buying the brown one from Home Depot, but I modified it after doing some homework on youtube

More pics

ScubaSteve wrote:Here is some pics of my system, I made the mistake of buying the brown one from Home Depot, but I modified it after doing some homework on youtube

I was just going to order one from HD on line. What didn't you like about it? I can get the empty barrels pretty cheap but by the time I gather all the parts to put it together, the green one which is only available on line at HD is cheaper and that is including shipping. Any more information you would like to share will be greatly appreciated. Lisa

HI!! Its not that I didn't like it, Its just that it was 100 bucks, and I figured out how to make them after I purchased it. The only thing I didn't like about the home depot barrel was that it used a downspout to divert only some of the water. I modified it so when it rains, all the water goes in the barrels. I'm gonna add like 4 more barrels so I never have to use my city water for my plants The blue barrels were 10 dollars each and the pvc piping was a few dollars. For 100 dollars I could of made and linked liked 6 together! When the growing season is over I just reroute my downspouts and drain any water that might be left in my barrels

LISA:
I bought the blue plastic barrels with their lids. Painted them with plastic adhering spray paint to match my building color....I cut holes in the lids to fit down spots in. I calked the downspout in so NO MOSQUITOES! Got the valve in the bottom...with some cheap hose that I put holes in. 2 55 gal barrels ($25) down spout 10' section ($12), valve and hose ($20). SO for $67 bucks I got a water sis-tern to water my veggie plants....looked to buy done barrels and they were well over $100 per barrel.