As a company that specializes in converting used barrels into rain barrels, our customer service team often answers questions from folks who want to convert an existing rain barrel to a BlueBarrel Rainwater Catchment System™.
The trouble is, a typical rain barrel has at least one hole drilled into the side for a spigot. Often there is a second (and even third!) hole used as a drain and/or overflow port.
Whether this is your situation, or your simply messed up and drilled a hole you don't need, we've got some great solutions for you!
This article will teach you how to patch or plug holes in plastic barrels for a watertight seal. Whether you need a removable or a permanent solution, read on for expert advice!
How to repurpose this...
...into a multi-barrel BlueBarrel System™!
The BlueBarrel Rainwater Catchment System is a completely closed design, which keeps water very clean. Our unique, underplumbed linking solution allows the user to drain every last drop of water through the high-flow drain valve provided with our kits.
But if barrels need to be all closed up, what can you do if you're trying to repurpose hole-y barrels? The good news is, we’ve discovered some great solutions, both temporary and permanent, for a water-tight seal on pre-existing holes.
The Plug-and-Play Solution (Removable)
We carry twist plugs in our online store to seal holes that have been drilled in barrels.
Now available in our Online Store, these rubberized twist plugs insert into holes around 1″ to 1-1/2″ in size. The plugs are tapered to work with holes of varying sizes. Insert until it feels tight, then twist the knob to expand the rubberized plug head for a water-tight seal. It’s brilliant!
The Quick Patch Solution (Permanent)
Quick Patch is a newer product that provides a permanent stick-seal solution for holes in barrels, downspouts and more!
Quick Patch is a newer product that instantly repairs almost any hard surface. Simply peel it and seal it! Quick Patches come in multiple sizes, and adhere to all types of piping, glass, fiberglass, metals, wood, polyethylene, and more. Use this product for sealing unwanted holes in barrels or tanks, fixing ruptured PVC, patching gutters and downspouts, and more!
Quick Patch is as pliable as a Band-Aid when you take it out of the package and as hard as fiberglass with just 10 minutes of exposure to UV. This product cures in the sun outdoors, or with a UV flashlight indoors. See our video gallery for a product demo.
Threaded Insert Tap Seals
Also available in our online store, threaded insert tap seals provide a watertight seal for your spigot or drain.
If you have leaks around your tap or spigot, you can tighten up the connection without plugging the hole and starting over. For this, we recommend our threaded insert tap seal. Unlike bulkhead fittings, which are two-part fittings that require you to get inside the barrel to screw them in, threaded insert tap seals easily insert from the outside.
Similar to the tapered twist plugs, these fittings have a tapered shape that help them seal. They create a watertight port for any standard 3/4″ tap, spigot or drain valve. When the valve screws in, it tightens the tap seal beautifully against the barrel wall.
See our Online Store for these parts, as well as high-flow spigot and drain valves to pair with them. Our high-flow valves will improve your output for gravity fed drip irrigation (or just faster bucket filling!) while you’re at it.
An Example From the Field
Simply insert the plug and twist for a water-tight solution for hole-y barrels!
As a case in point, I had a conundrum while setting up a BlueBarrel System for a friend. She already had two 55-gallon blue barrels that were configured as single rain barrels. While they were the right kind of barrel, they already had spigot holes drilled in the side. They also had an overflow hole drilled on the sidewall toward the top.
After learning about BlueBarrel’s unique system design, my friend decided she would much rather have a 2-Barrel BlueBarrel System™ than two singles. I had a chance to test the twist-plugs and they worked great to plug holes in plastic barrels!
Furthering our Sustainability & Self-Sufficiency Mission
Many BlueBarrel customers are attracted to our company not only for our unique rain barrel system, but also because we stand by our environmental values of creating a lighter footprint and helping households be more prepared and self-sustainable.
If you’ve read about BlueBarrel’s history, you’ll know it all started with a desire to create a rainwater harvesting system that uses upcycled food-grade barrels destined for the landfill. We make them available locally to our customers, thus reducing the costs and impacts associated with manufacturing, storage, and transportation. This also reduces costs, and helps households be more self-sufficient.
The products highlighted in this article help us take our mission further by giving yet another life to barrels that may have already been repurposed. Now you can patch or plug any barrel holes to prep them for another use. Turn a single rain barrel back into a sealed barrel suitable for reuse in the BlueBarrel System!
Furthering your ability to recycle, reduce, and re-use, re-use, re-use, we are proud to offer these simple and inexpensive solutions for making your property more sustainable emergency-prepared.
As always, we love to hear your stories from the field, so please keep them coming!
Article contributed by Beth Auerbach, BlueBarrel staff writer, MS ecological design.
"I built a trellis to carry the water from the roof to my BlueBarrel System location. The instructions with the RainKit were well written and easy to follow. I made one adjustment that I thought I would share: using a 2" ABS drain pipe (pictured) to the barrels. A 2-1/4" kitchen strainer fits perfectly between two MIP and FIP couplings."
Look more closely at the 9-barrel system to notice Erik used custom spacing to work around small obstacles (an existing irrigation manifold and standpipe). He also rounded a corner to mimic the curve of his home.
Leaf Eaters
In the back yard, Erik had less space for barrels, but he managed to fit two right next to a corner downspout.
Many of our customers ask us how to get water from other sources into their BlueBarrel Systems. This is easy to do because the vent pieces in our DIY RainKits are fitted with a screened hose-swivel, and the user can simply connect a garden hose to fill barrels when there is no rain.
