EWC-10 FreeGarden Rain Barrel, Beige

This is my third season with the Enviro rain barrels and today I am ordering my 5th barrel. This design suits my gutter/downspout configuration perfectly. The barrels are sturdy and well designed, especially the concave top which catches water well. Each barrel is propped up on two hollow concrete blocks. Our Florida downpours were causing issues with gutter overflow and fascia damage so we just cut the end caps off the gutters and let the water flow into the barrels like a waterfall. I have four barrels in a square and link them at the top with short pieces of the overflow pipe that comes with the barrel. A downpour will fill up these 4 barrels in 10 minutes so to quickly divert water to my garden, I purchased four Wayne 66000-WYN1 1.5" x 25 ft sump pump hose kits to attach at the top of two barrel overflow outlets (one of the others was used to make a 50 foot run to the garden; the other is in reserve.) Each metal spigot has a 50 foot hose which slowly drains to various spots in the garden. I keep mosquito tabs in the barrels. Leaking is no problem because the barrels sit in a gravel water retention pit away from the house (part of my rain garden). The 5th barrel is for a similar "waterfall" at the other end of the 30 foot 6 inch gutter (we have 4 downspouts besides the two open ends.) When I need to water, I just pop the lid off the barrels (I did not screw them on, rather weigh them down with blocks) and scoop out water that remains below the spigots with a 2 gallon bucket. At the end of the rainy season, I am able to easily clean out these barrels and box them together for storage.

To begin with, when it arrived I was unhappy with the design. The spigot is 10"-12" above the bottom of the barrel - I had hoped the space below the spigot was hollow, a raised platform of some kind to get the spigot off the ground. It was not.I hand tightened the spigot into place, because the direction warn against over tightening. It leaked. I went back and tightened a bit further with a couple of wrenches, this temporarily stopped the leaking.When I hooked a hose up to the spigot, the spigot moves, loosening the seal, causing the barrel to leak. I go back in and tighten the spigot again. At this point the spigot washer is destroyed, the spigot still moves freely, ever loosening the nut on the inside of the barrel.The barrel is leaking. I empty it. There is a crack in the bottom. I have no idea how it got there, if it was there when I got it and didn't notice. It really doesn't matter, because it's not like I am banging this barrel around. I lives stationary on top of a platform, never to move, never subject to impact.On the whole, this thing is a piece of junk. It will only waste your money and time. I am unable to return it.

We bought one barrel in the beginning of our rainy season in 2016, and one in the middle of rainy season 2016 because we liked the first so much. So at the time of writing this is the end of our third rainy season with the barrels and they are still working well. *knock on wood* A few things might have contributed to this:1) we're in the SF bay area so the barrels have never been frozen. They have also never seen the inside of our house so while they are element-hardy, I cannot speak to the effect of freeze thaws.2) I empty them every beginning of summer and try to scrub down the gunk that may build up on the sides. This is where the removable top makes this barrel a superior design to completely closed barrels.3) we don't move our hoses from the spigot. One barrel is behind a fence and some bushes - a real pain to get to - so we elevated the barrel on a few bricks and connected a long hose to the barrel with a simple ball and socket spigot at the user end. If we want water from this barrel we open the ball and socket spigot and use the hose, but we never connect or disconnect the hose from the spigot on the barrel itself. When we're done we throw the hose into the bush that the barrel lives in. You can't really see it. The other barrel we find it just easier to remove the top and scoop water out to hand water plants. A bit more labor intensive but we don't mind, our yard is small.I only wish the barrels were bigger now that we see how durable and easily maintained they are.