Testing My "Questionable" Rainwater Harvesting System in a Storm! 🌧️

[@Derrick_Harvey]

I love how you are showing the whole process and how it isn’t perfect!

[@freakygardener8033]

The best way to teach, is to not only show success, but to also show failures.

[@PRDreams]

This is awesome Kevin! That "Flash Gordon" special effect 😂🤙

[@ThomasEricWendt]

nice unique flare for a vid. I like it

[@rke-td]

Seeing how you collect water makes me want to rethink our water collection. The rain we get in our garden could probably sustain us through all season without having to use other sources of water 🤔

[@melw3518]

In Australia you have the gutters on all sides of the house to divert the water (and not end up with puddles next to your house which may cause damage over time). However, perhaps you need to add more rainwater collection systems/tanks to most of the corners of your house to maximise the collection of water. We have 4 (almost like a square) with rainwater tanks on each side to collect the water and even a short shower gives us a lot of water.

[@ivacheung792]

Impressive amount of rainwater collected! 🙌 (You’re probably on it already, so sorry to barge in with unsolicited advice, but if you can, getting some screens on your barrel openings will save yourself a world of hurt later on!)

[@epichomesteading]

Def will :)

[@incremental42]

I would elevate the overflow barrels to make sure the top of the barrels is slightly higher than the overflow valve on the main tank. Then you won't have to worry about leaks around the lids or what might happen if you accidentally left the cover off of one of the barrels.

[@PaulFisher83]

Agreed. If the overflow on the IBC tank is higher than the rain barrels, it'll overflow first at the rain barrels first and youll be in mud bath central. Have you thought about a French drain to take water away from the footpaths and house foundations? You could pipe to a nature pond, to encourage frogs...etc for pest control.

[@marcushernandez1010]

Glad someone mentioned the tops of barrels vs overflow pipe. I saw that and was like "Aghh!". Overflow pipe never going to engage with the current setup.

[@rayannemarlow3341]

Love that you are showing us the iterations! So often we only see the perfect solutions and gardens. Love watching your property evolve and grow! Thanks for bringing us along.

[@conniemcgehee2851]

i have just one rain barrel. I always hook up a 50 ft hose to the overflow valve on the rain barrel and put that hose under my fruit trees so the overflow waters my trees .

[@ronk4073]

Quick thinking! I've been planning my water harvesting system as well. I noticed the water coming out of your hose was pretty slow. I know yours is a temp system right now, but maybe the next time the IBC tote is empty you should raise it higher. Every 28 inches you raise it gives you another 1 psi. A cheap, easy, and strong solution would be cinder blocks and wood pallets. Both are designed to hold literal tons of weight, and can be found for free. A single layer of cinder blocks on the ground as a base and then stack wood pallets on top of them. Maybe 9 cinder blocks for the base, then stack 4 pallets. That would raise the tote up an extra 32 inches. That'll give you an extra 1.152 psi. And that's your min pressure. From a full tote you'd have almost 3 psi of water pressure. Half full you'd have about 2 psi. Not bad from free materials. You could raise it as high as you like with pallets, so long as you keep the top of the tote below the height of your gutter.

[@dustinlight4716]

"Life is what happens while you're busy making plans." Fun video!

[@JovieSpark]

I love how you were able to show the change in your set-up throughout a few days and we can see the great results in almost real time. It's so inspiring to see you build up your new homestead!

[@ConnorJohnGriffin]

That's pretty awesome that you're getting a grant to step up your rainwater collection, what a cool thing for the city to do. Back patio grow tent at 4:25, got anything good growing in there?

[@KatarinaClaire]

It's nice to see your troubleshooting with the rain water capture. Considering most of us do engage in some level of trial and error during our path toward self-sufficiency it's inspiring to see your ingenuity at work during the interim before the final system is in place. And, hey, you're getting water and that's a beautiful thing!

[@mariafolch8067]

Congratulations Kevin for making "The List" on TV. I was excited to see you on the screen along with Summer from "Plant One on Me" & Laura, from "Garden Answer". You guys have come a long way on KZbin. Glad to be a subscriber to all three channels.🤗🌾🌿👍👍

[@epichomesteading]

Appreciate that! I did not know I was on it

[@NevinNolte]

Looking forward to seeing you tackle the water pressure issue coming out of your rain water harvesting solution. I need some help with that too!!

[@ohio_gardener]

Most people greatly underestimate the amount of water that comes off a roof during a rain shower.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

There are online calculators that will figure out the total gallons, based on the square footage of the roof and total inches of rain. It's kind of astounding how quickly it adds up.

[@rockgardner]

100 sq. ft of roof will collect approx 50 gal/inch rain.

[@maknyc1539]

@@rockgardner ok

[@MrJoolsi]

1 liter per sq meter per mm of rain

[@StewardshipGardening]

Kevin, I think you would enjoy using a Rainwater Harvesting System from Aquascape to have on a Fountain or Pondless Waterfall. Or, you could get a pond, then use the pond water to water all your plants. I think you would appreciate the ability to plant all the various marginals that would blossom and attract pollinators to your homestead. They also attract birds because they can drink from the water, those birds in turn will eat those pesty bugs in your crops. I know a couple contractors in your area who would do a great job on a project like that.

[@bushbunny8340]

Love your truthfulness and creativity, designs and fails, redesign and reinvention . Sotainable systems are always fluid, changing season to season.

[@mariateresacontrerasvargas1140]

hahaha, I loved this video! All those unexpected issues with the rainwater systems and the freaking out every time you are in the middle of fixing it, and there is a storm coming! My bf and I have had a bunch of those days, getting completely soak during storms trying to fix the system, but it is fun, and it is absolutely worth it :) We expanded our garden a lot this year, building 4 16x3.5 ft raised beds, and we were super scared about the water bill. It turns out we reduced our water bill to less than half compared with last year and all our plants are loving the rainwater

[@msabercr]

for the back patio roof you can just get some flashing to come up around an inch to an inch and a half over the roofline and that will funnel the water into the existing gutter that drains into the IBC.

[@darragh5054]

Omg you would pray for a rainy day Id give anything for a sunny one 😂

[@TheBeautyJournals]

Yes I’ll trade Epic Gardening one rainy England day for some sunshine

[@cathyfrancis1951]

WOW is your yard starting to look amazing

[@melissam6320]

How fun! I love my rain barrels... Even in Florida, we do have droughts... Though rare! But the tap water is really gard and captured fresh water is so much better!

[@JEK]

That is an awesome rain collection system. If you are a passionate gardener there is no excuse not to collect rainwater. Check with your local city there are many times programs giving away free barrels. With droughts year after yr in CA more homeowners should look into these to offset depleting reservoirs.

[@lvh912]

Nice work Kevin. I was wondering if you looked into the swale system design that Bill Mollison, and now Geoff Lawton, talk about in their permaculture teachings. It would allow you to use your soil as your water storage system. Capture water in swales, let them spread the water across your whole garden (veggie garden and orchard) and then let it soak into the soil. The water builds up into the soil over about 7 years (on average) where it reaches its maximum "soakage" capacity and makes your soil a lot more resilient to both droughts and floods. IMO, that would even optimize your rainwater system even further as you'd only need to use the water from the tanks during prolonged droughts. Geoff has a nice video about it on his KZbin channel!

[@Airmom72]

I totally know how you feel! Just got my rain barrels fully connected and we’ve had a torrential downpour for the past week! My rain barrels are totally full and my yard is still flooded. But it feels SOOOO good to be collecting that rain! Next, we need a video about using drip irrigation from a rain barrel. I already have drip installed at my faucet...but haven’t yet figured out how to do drip from my barrels.

[@farmyourbackyard2023]

Connect your barrels at the bottom and they will fill simultaneously. Add ball valves to each outlet on the barrels and you have a fully controlled system. On the last barrel, add a 50 foot water hose to the top and this will be your overflow.

[@epichomesteading]

Thank you! That is far better

[@farmyourbackyard2023]

@@epichomesteading You guys did a great job working on the fly. Especially since you don’t have a whole lot of water or rainfall. You might look into having Brad LANCASTER give you a consultation on planting water. It’s a fascinating study! You can look up his KZbin channel and find a ton of information. I think it would be right up your alley.

[@farmyourbackyard2023]

Also make sure you get the biggest diameter hose you can for the overflow.

[@aveureaquest]

This is amazing! Showing the failures helps give ideas of what may happen

[@marisap09]

I’m in the LA area and have a rainwater collection capacity of around 250 gallons. I got two barrels free from the water district giveaways and 3 barrels from reclaimed food grade barrel vendors connected using the Blue Barrel Systems model. I’m also looking into incorporating a cistern like the Bushman Slimline and an IBC tote. I use my rainwater well into the summertime to water my fruit trees and garden.

[@Pixics]

I just googled these cisterns and they are huge. I want one now.

[@epichomesteading]

The bushmans are amazing

[@marisap09]

@@epichomesteading Australia sure knows how to do rainwater harvesting the right way. I haven’t seen it catch on in the US as much but I guess that’s our role!

[@pcatwell]

I have 2-55 gal barrels collecting rainwater off my roof and that sustains my small garden all summer. The only problem I have is that there isn't enough natural head pressure to make watering by hose easy. So I either have to raise the barrels higher or install an inline pump. Your system works well for a quick adhoc build. In the words of Mike Tyson, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." :D

[@Pixics]

maybe just connecting it to a drip system works better?

[@Altaree1]

I love seeing the iterations on your design. It shows how to scale up and how to deal with issues.

[@martinlaukkanen1652]

Fall's gonna be wet where i am but i have several 5000 gallon tanks, i put 15 gallon bins for overflow. They're close to building with pipes overhead.

[@robrowles]

If you elevate the tanks you could get a little more pressure. Also the the wider the feed line from the large box tank and chain of barrels will help quicken their fill rate and reduce the overflow before the system is full. I know you may not want to use electricity but you have solar power, you could try a marine bilge pump (dc voltage) with a float switch to move water across the yard. Put screens on the inlets if you use a pump.

[@LarixLyalliiAlpine]

Oh, goodness that was a lot of water all at once! My first thought was "gosh, if Kevin had a basement it would definitely be flooded" But that's because that's what used to happen at my house during big rains 🤣 thankfully we have a gutter now but need to get more rain barrels. My little yard garden itself uses up all the water in our single barrel as it is and I'm planning on significantly expanding it this year.

[@laurafedora5385]

Your place is really coming together! If you put your rain barrels up on cinder blocks the water will drain faster. Will your orange barrels fill from the bottom? The overflow did work, if you look it I think poured out past your trench. But it did work to divert it away from your house!

[@PaleGhost69]

Looks like you could benefit from dug down and mulched walking paths that can act as swales distributing the overflow around your grow space. Infrastructure is one of the best things you can do for a system.

[@sparkasaurusdonna]

Way to come up with a quick system to collect that fabulous rainwater! Can't wait to see what the final version will be.

[@janzebuski3559]

Congratulations on the rain! Live & learn with the 1st rain collection. But more importantly!!! Congratulations on your grant!!!👍🌿

[@Ash-xx5zd]

I enjoyed the video. We can watch all the new variations and watch how the design evolves over time and revelations of problems.

[@chrishernandez9277]

For the shed one maybe some sort of funnel would help since it doesn’t line up perfectly

[@GCaF]

Well at least the plants are happy :) Awesome job Kevin! I can't wait to see the full system in action...for now it looks like the orange barrels would overflow in between their lid before the white pipe gets anything in the trench... you could take advantage of the moist soil (caused by the heavy rain these days) to dig a proper trench and drop a tilted pipe in it. It is a lot of work but I think you would also enjoy it :D

[@RJRJRJ26]

Water looks dirty . Will you purify it before pouring in for plants or this water won't affect the plants in any way ?

[@epichomesteading]

It's just cause the tanks are dirty, but won't really affect plants esp if I use fast

[@cherylmorris611]

Very interesting. I like the progression of your solutions to controlling the flow. Keeping what works and looking for solutions to what doesn’t, leads to a successful gardener.

[@maggiemanzke7926]

What a wonderful thing - claiming rainwater! Any is better than none, so congrats on the progress!

[@sniperstalker1538]

Hi Kevin, thank you for the epic content ! having a big cistern is a great idea, you will be prepared for everything you will plant in your garden ! The only "little" prep I see is about the looooong trench and pipe you want to put : you can't grow anything above ( or you would need to dig deep, and i don't know if roots could be a problem). What about planing a walkway or something esthetic to cover up the pipe and not "loosing" the space ? it is a little bit of work but i think it will worth it !

[@epichomesteading]

Yes good idea!!!

[@desireereynolds577]

We have 3 rain barrels daisy chained together. But ours are all connected through the bottom. That way they are fill at the same time and they all drain at the same time. I was able to use food grade barrels with the 2 in pvc holes and connect them and put one spicket on the end of the line. It works great. We have our barrels off the ground for easier gravity feed to our drip lines.

[@desireereynolds577]

Hey is the video my husband made last year after we finished gluing it together. We are not vloggers so it's a rough video but I just looked back at it to see that.it does in fact show the plumbing aspect for you to see. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6C6Y4amqah5nKM

[@Pixics]

Yeah, I can see it being better if they are linked at the bottom.

[@desireereynolds577]

I think when they are linked at the bottom, they fill at the same time and best... They can be drained from one point instead of each barrel.

[@epichomesteading]

Good call

[@epichomesteading]

Much smarter!

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

Love it. You're already miles ahead of where you were before this. It may take a couple seasons to get your system really dialed in, and that's OK. Sometimes people let the pursuit of perfection paralyze them from doing anything... forget that noise. Get something going with what you've got and improve it as you go along. Just one little bucket or carboy under a downspout is better than nothing at all.

[@The_True_]

Water can be tricky to deal with, so it's good that you have a solid plan in place to get it where you want it. Can't wait to see that cistern setup, since I used to have pipe dreams of a small water tower design myself. Needless to say, my ideas were a bit too ambitious, unlike your more practical approach. Lol. Great job Kevin and Jacque! 👍💯🌦

[@rgespejoiii]

Hi, jun from the Philippines. I suggest building an underground cistern for your rainwater harvesting.

[@munapulido9054]

I want to build a rainwater system like this, a use it rains here all the time. It would be perfect to save on water especially in Mexico.

[@on_another_level5661]

Love it! This really has me excited about my own rain catchment project I have in the works. So cool.

[@Pixics]

how much do you plan to catch, I want to catch 1000 gals if I can.

[@audreydeneui192]

Yay!!!! Good job catching the rain! Don't fret over what got away!

[@rachelyates7473]

Honestly one of my favourite videos, partly because I am obsessed by rainwater capture and have tried similarly weird and wonderful systems, and partly because of the "and now I have no dry pants' comment. Have you considered using old wine barrels for capture? I am currently considering creating a 'water wall' with wine barrels stacked winery style, and possibly a pump system.

[@QueenKaleGardener]

My heart jumped at 6:20. Thought you got shocked! Should have known since it was the second time you used that transition! 🤦‍♀️

[@chinesischesser]

Nice. Have you considered that the air in the barrels need to go somewhere as they fill? If you don't have a release and leave the third Barrel closed it won't get completely full. But if you have that air vent your overflow probably won't work.

[@dulcsalvi88]

PERFECT TIMING 👌🏽 I was just researching this today! Have to give it a try and learn along the way. Thanks so much 😊

[@tortugaconqueso]

Looking great! Also, i don't know how it would work with that fancy copper plumbing, but I think you'd benefit from some sort of first flush diverting system so you don't have to dump murky water with bird poop and debris into your system (which can start to break down anaerobically inside your tanks). Especially if it doesn't rain super often where you are

[@epichomesteading]

Definitely will be getting one

[@kmw4359]

Hey Kevin, if you come up with a good way of integrating your rain barrel distribution into an irrigation system that normally runs on city water, would you please do a video on that?

[@chrisburke92]

Nicely done! Wet pants uuuuugh but not too bad of a problem at all though. Everything is coming along so quickly! Thank you for capturing as much of this journey as you can!

[@BlackDogDesigns]

I just love your videos and I’m thrilled you got rain🌧💦🌦 We are in the Eastern Sierras in Big Pine, we’ve gotten quite a bit of snow in the mountains but not much rain here in The Owens Valley🪴

[@danielkazimi3969]

I live in Washington and you could fill your system in a few hours if not less during some of our daily downpours. (though almost nobody collects rain water) some of our excess water flows into a pond (its about 500 gallons and fills in about one or two days from just one gutter sprout) and we have a underground natural tank (I think its like 10,000 gallons) and it overflows all the time in the winter. I would collect rain water but I have cleaned my gutters before and that stuff smells .I would not want to drain it, or use it for any household things, only thing is for my garden but then I have a well so water is not super expensive anyways

[@catharineorellana3522]

Kevin PLEASE raise those rain barrels UP HIGHER off the ground to get better water flow pressure. I've got mine 3' high off the ground on concrete blocks.

[@teresab7885]

It snowed here near fort Tejhon thank you and your family for your awesome videos 😇🥑🌲🐕‍🦺🌻🐝🐞🍅🥕🥔🍆🍑🍐🍋🥬🧄🧅congratulations

[@The_Digital_Samurai]

Might need to raise the barrels off the ground a bit to increase pressure.

[@catharineorellana3522]

Agreed! I've got mine on concrete blocks 3' up off the ground.

[@1MzSyd1]

Love love love!!!! GOALS. Im saving money to get a nice looking rain holding "tank" my house has full gutters already this is definately a goal!

[@thersgarden3144]

Free water 🌧. I am also looking to set up a rain water collection system.

[@garden_geek]

So jealous of your rain. It’s been so dry up here in NorCal this winter. I hope Sierra Nevada sponsors you because you’re always rocking their hat!

[@epichomesteading]

Stay tuned...

[@cindysalem7194]

Great information! LOL "wet" san Diego not usual and I LOVE how you took advantage of it! Able to see the catchment and the volume of water. Yup. Nice.

[@rhondabarlow860]

Good video. You gave me a few useful ideas as I plan my rainwater catching system. Thanks 💕🌱

[@deanwinchester6654]

Cool video, missing out on collecting rainwater, at least spring is nearby. Getting a 2nd barrel connected to collect more.

[@melaniehouston6633]

SanDiego stealing all of Dallas’ rain. It has been threatening to rain here for 3 days and got a 30 min sprinkle. Looking forward to seeing your pro water collection set up soon. 😉

[@lolthien]

If you connected all the smaller barrels at the bottom, wouldn't they all contribute at the same time to the hose? That way you wouldn't have to move the hose from container to container?

[@pascalxus]

Looks like things are shaping up really good! I thought of adding some rainbarrels where my water collection was, but then I realized the rain barrel costs 70$ much more than the cost of the water I saved: 1 rain barrel is about 50 gallons which is 25c of water. That means it would need to fill up 280 times to recoup the cost of the rain barrel and we just don't get that much rain where i live, not even over 20 years. But, I've calculated how much money you'd save from all that rain water your collecting. With a 1000 sq ft home and 10 inches of rain per year in san diego, you would save almost 1000 cubic feet of water per year! thats 7480 gallons. That would be a savings of about 35$ per year if your water costs 3.50$ per 100 cubic ft. That means, over the next 50 years, you'll save 1750$ in watering costs! Even more, if you include inflation.

[@joansmith3492]

Do you know about Brad Lancaster and his rain water harvesting books? Really, really great stuff! The 5000 gallon cistern is a great idea. I have Poly mart rain tanks, 2 - 500 gallon tanks and 3 - 250 gallon tanks. IMO 50 gallon barrels are ok to catch rain from a small coop or hutch but not big enough for anything larger. That IBC tote thing is not pretty and I think the water will turn green if you don't use it quickly. Consider an over flow rain garden at your cistern overflow (pipe that extends ~ 10 feet away from your cistern and away from any structure). My rain garden it is truly low maintenance. It drains within a couple hours after a storm and is ready to catch and slow the next storm. It is my best rain water harvesting component. I don't have to do anything. I took off the first flush diversions on my tanks because they clog easily and that stagnant water starts to stink after a while. Rainwater leaf eaters are worthwhile if you have many trees around. The original one is not so good IMO. The second generation one is better. I have not tried the newest one yet. Check out mozzie stoppa things made in Australia for wet systems like you will have if you do the cistern. Maybe you don't have mosquitoes in San Diego.

[@epichomesteading]

I've been studying his stuff!

[@kimberlyd317]

I can feel your excitement! What a fantastic learning experience.

[@JoyKOz]

I think I smiled all the way thru this. 😍 Well done Kev !👍👏👏👏💓😘🇦🇺

[@mishachevalier9754]

Very cool!! I'm excited about building ours this year. Good luck with yours!! Love the "flash" movements!! Oh yeah....what's better?? Overflow connections at the top or bottom of tote??

[@systemtim]

your overflow must match the same size or bigger than the input if you want the overflow to work effectively.

[@steffany3513]

Great video! I love watching the process. I’m surprised by the amount of rain you had. Loved the flash lol

[@happinin07]

Looking forward to seeing this system moving forward!

[@johngaltman]

This is the first video of your's I am watching. Please tell me you didn't install the copper gutters. I just installed my own system, and couldn't even look at them without crying.

[@TheGentGaming]

Look into how it's done in Australia - we have a kickass system with an undrground sump which pushes water out of various taps in the garden at greater-than-mains pressure. Big ole 5000L and a 2,000L tank. Life is good. You can even fit them underground so they're out of sight. There's also a concept called "swales" that you might want to consider researching. Natural way to store groundwater in hot climates. All very permaculture-y food forest-y that someone like Geoff Lawton can explain better than I.

[@epichomesteading]

Wow greater than mains, that's amazing

[@brettwood8109]

Hey mate im from Australia I was gonna suggest always get a bigger tank than you think. Eg 5000-10,000L RAINWATER TANK. Another tip for you for every mm of rain you get to the square meter size of your roof thats how many litres/gallons you will fill. Therefore you can figure size of tank you need. Example roof size 50sqm 1mm of rain will give 50L of storage water hope that helps!

[@epichomesteading]

It does, thanks!

[@luanllluan]

I didn't know that I need Kevin wet & wild, but now I just don't know how to live without it xD great video, man!

[@matthyland1218]

Found your channel(s) this week from the Chad and Steve podcast, couldn't have been better timing, we're planting a ton of stuff and I've been catching up on all the videos to help us with the mistakes we made the last couple years

[@pancakeday4866]

This is inspiring me to take a look at my rainwater runoff and see if I can harvest some (I’m up in L.A,). Love hearing about all your wet pants.😂

[@joshuahill7783]

Good looking out for a cross-thread

[@danieldow3094]

Well it's not stopping raining, genuinely exactly how I felt, probably around the exact same time lol. Great video and congratulations on the grant! That is epic!

[@jakefrechette3224]

Loved the addition of the effects to make you super speedy! Are you the MCU's next Quicksilver?? It gave us a chance to get a little extra personality from your video style and I think it's great! Keep it up Kevin!

[@jessicar4717]

🙃 get some screens on those barrel openings before they become mosquito nurseries! Looking good though!

[@anthonyshea5946]

Refinement- tons of refinement. But looking awesome. Looks great!!

[@AllHouseRecords]

Where’s your fish and turtle pond to make compost tea pond water?

[@JXHNDRX]

Wow. First video I've seen from you. I love this!

[@garyhovey9305]

Cool to watch the trial and error process

[@ke3347]

Love those copper gutters!

[@farmerjones5479]

Please, what were the orange and black drums upcycled from (original use) please and thank 😊

[@downundervlogs]

I just love rain, when my watertank overflows back to the down pipe storm water drainage I get about 6 buckets and start emptying the water tank because I cant bear to see all that water go down the drain.. funny isnt it, Im still saving water but dont like seeing go down the drain. I fill up my washing machine with the buckets. Very rewarding. Love your novel special effects. Maybe you could use that system for a drip system too.

[@finned958]

Your rain capturing system is instructive, but it could use some refinement. There’s some good ideas.

[@philcote9]

Instead of waiting to make things all nice and perfect you definitely might as well hack stuff together! Nice work man

[@epichomesteading]

Thanks!

[@scheralgreider5406]

Elevate the rain catchment system for better gravity flow of the water.