ivanbell•1mo agoProlific Poster

My rain barrel system cracked two weeks ago and I lost all that water I'd been collecting for my garden.

Turns out the cheap plastic fittings from the hardware store couldn't handle the freeze-thaw cycle we had in March, so now I'm looking into metal connectors-anyone have tips for winter-proofing their setup without spending a fortune?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_brian1mo ago

Ngl my buddy had the exact same thing happen last winter. He just wrapped his connections with old pipe insulation and duct tape and it held up fine through a brutal February.

emeryj661mo ago

Same thing with my truck last January. I grabbed that foam pipe wrap from the hardware store and just taped the hell out of it with gorilla tape. Still holding strong through a couple of thaws and freezes since then. The tape is getting a little ratty looking but the connections are bone dry.

owens.anthony1mo ago

I gotta say, I used to think the cheap plastic fittings were just fine if you drained everything before the first hard freeze. But that bit about "the freeze-thaw cycle we had in March" really hit home. We had one of those weird winters too where it kept going back and forth, and my plastic connections just gave up like yours did. I had the same mindset as that guy with the truck - just wrap it up good and it'll be fine. But after reading your post and seeing how the tape and pipe insulation held up for those other folks, I'm rethinking my whole setup. I went ahead and replaced all my plastic connectors with brass ones from the salvage yard for cheap, and wrapped them in that foam insulation with some waterproof tape on top. So far so good, even with this weird weather we keep getting. Appreciate you sharing this, it changed how I look at the whole thing.