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Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 05 11:54 am Post subject: Water Butts
Jonsey's posts have reminded me that we'll be getting our water bills in the next couple of months. In amongst the bumf you'll probably find an offer for a subsidised water butt and connecting kit delivered to your door. These are usally £10 or so cheaper than B&Q.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 05 1:18 pm Post subject:
Having ordered and used both the B&Q and ones sourced from the council there is a difference. I'm not sure if they are all the same but the B&Q ones I have are more sturdy than our council ones and worth the extra money. I'm not sure if there are any recycled plastic ones available and if anyone has tried these.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 05 4:13 pm Post subject:
Most water companies have a deal with Blackwall, My council provided composter was definitely not a robust.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 9:38 am Post subject:

Rather than start a new post, I thought I'd revive this one in case the timing is similar this year, and also ask if anyone has either seen any good deals elsewhere, or as TD suggests got any ideas for recycled containers that could be safely adapted for water butts?

We could do with attaching one to the shed this year; the greenhouse might be more of a problem as I'm not sure about guttering for it; and there's probably room for at least one more by the house (we don't have a lot of flat space around the house and the garden itself slopes steeply).

Any tips/ideas would no doubt be much appreciated by others too!

For one alternative there is this thread:

https://forum.downsizer.net/about4793.html

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 9:46 am Post subject:
It's worth comparing prices with this lot as well: https://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 10:04 am Post subject:
Minor thread hijack: Is there ANY easy way to feed a water butt from a cast iron downpipe? It looks to me as though its going to mean removing the cast iron pipe all the way back to a collection basket, and then replacing with plastic...

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 10:12 am Post subject:
Very tricky - you'd have to drill into the side of the downpipe but I guess you know that. Another way is to drop the down pipe directly into the but and then rig up an overflow from the butt to the drain.

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:05 pm Post subject:

Last year I purchased two council compost bins (they came from Blackwall) for about £5 each. There not the best but they were cheap and I use them although I haven't had the pleasure of trying to extract compost from the rather small hatch at the bottom. In hindsight I would recommend constructing your own three sided compost bay as it facilitates turning. I'm going to build myself another three this year.
I also purchased three water butts from Blackwall, with stands, but they aren't up and running yet as I need to fit guttering to two sheds and downpipes to my greenhouse. It's going to be a busy year!

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:10 pm Post subject:

On a slight deviation has anybody had any experience of using one of these? If so, is it any good?
Better still can anyone advise on something that they have fashioned from sticky back plastic and washing up bottles that will do the same job?
Edit: In hindsight this would be a lot better as a seperate post. Could one of you IT moderation geniuses move it for me please?

Last edited by monkey1973 on Fri Feb 03, 06 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:11 pm Post subject:

monkey1973 wrote:

I have one of those too - I quite like it because it isn't too tall, and I can bend over it relatively easily to turn the compost. Not as easy as my 3-bay pallet edifice, but still worth having.
Forget about trying to get the compost out of the hatch - just lift the whole thing off. That will save lots of frustration.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:11 pm Post subject:

monkey1973 wrote:

Get a large crowbar - much more useful.

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:14 pm Post subject:

Judith wrote:

monkey1973 wrote:

Mine are too tall to properly turn from above. They come up to about chest height on me. I was proposing to leave them for another season then add the lot to another 3-bay to help activate it.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 1:25 pm Post subject:

monkey1973 wrote:

also purchased three water butts from Blackwall, with stands

Our local council (and most others by the look of it) are offering what looks like the stuff off this page

https://www.blackwall-ltd.com/waterefficent.htm

- 200 Litre Water Butt
- Childsafe Lid (darn!)
- Water Butt Stand
- Rain Diverter Kit

For £29.95 + £5 per delivery, I think.

Two things; one, when we last had a delivery from Straightline who used to do it and I think got bought by Blackwall? The delivery took ages and ages, then turned up out of the blue, and was quite damaged at the time. To be fair they sorted it out but it was still irritating. Have you found (or anyone else as they seem to be the main/only company doing this) Blackwall OK?

Second, that one looks awfully like a dustbin with a tap attached to it; is there any obvious reason I'm missing that you couldn't buy/obtain a/several dustbins with lids, drill a hole and attach some kind of tap kit to them? Such a dustbin can be got for about £8 I think, not sure how much a tap would cost, then of course there's connecting it up and raising it off the ground, would the cost and trouble make it not worthwhile (ie, has anyone already tried to build their own set up using another type of container).

I have bought from Kays who Behemoth suggests above and would buy from them again, unfortunately the website's being "reconstructed" at the moment so can't compare prices.

Of course the other thing is has anyone come up with a convenient way to get bath water out of the bath and in to the garden without slopping watering cans all over the carpets? But that may be a whole other thread (in fact we might have had such a thread before but more members=more experience, you never know!)

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 6:09 pm Post subject:
If your bath is upstairs you could probably siphon it off - I've never tried, as ours isn't! Must look at the blackwall site, I've been trying to sort out a subbed water butt for ages (well, intermittently, anyway)

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 06 8:36 pm Post subject:
My Blackwall butt has been excellent; it sits on its stand outside the backdoor; we have the washing machine drain straight into it. No problems or complaints with it, got it on a council deal a few years ago.

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