FCMP OutdoorRaincatcher 4000, Flat-Back Rain Water Barrel, 50-Gallon, Brown - Rainwater Collection Storage Container w Side Spigots, Mesh Screen, Garden and Overflow Hose & Linking Kit

I set the rain barrel up this morning on a beautiful, sunny day, so, I will try & remember to update this review after we have had some rain. Setting up, attaching the hose and overflow pipe of the barrel was very simple. I placed the barrel on an old, upside-down planter to raise it off the ground, this might prove not to be a sturdy enough stand for it, time will tell. I purchased a downspout diverter, also from Amazon, which I installed today - I was undecided on whether to cut a hole in the wire mesh on the lid of the barrel to feed the hose into, but ultimately decided that was the more reliable way of keeping the hose in place, rather than just laying the hose on top of the screen. So, fingers crossed that once we get some rain this barrel will fill up and help reduce my water bill. The overflow hose arrives flat, and there isn't really a way of coaxing it into being round or *open* so it's hard to tell if overflow water will actually be able to drain out of it. I'm not too concerned at this point as the downspout diverter I purchased can be set to bypass the barrel, and in addition my yard slopes down and away from the house anyway, so hopefully water will not pool at the foundation. There were a lot of reviews that mentioned leaks in the rain barrel, again, time will tell as all my outside hoses are still turned off for the winter, so I have no way of testing the water tightness of the barrel. Keeping my fingers crossed! This barrel is fairly esthetically pleasing, not an eyesore in comparison to some. I have placed this in the back of my house, by my vegetable garden and compost tumbler, so how it looks is not too important, but, I do plan to buy more and put them at the front of my house & think these will look just fine.

Rain barrel works great. The overflow tube that runs down and under the barrel, also does well. Some times I have forgotten to turn off the diverter in the down spout when the barrel is full and the overflow tube takes care of it. I would purchase again if I needed another.

Love it works perfect easy to use and looks good on ,y deck

Ok. I'll start by saying, it's plastic and one solid mold. W that, you can expect a leak, but hopefully not.1) the over flow plastic piece is worthless. I read other reviews and was hesitant. Piece comes folded so it has kinks, and it collapses too easily. It is a thicker plastic material, so I was hoping the kinks would be alleviated w water running through. I tested it w a garden hose full pressure. It stayed kinked and collapsed on itself. I tried working w it w the garden hose on trying to work out the kinks. I have a open/close adapter on the hose: thinking now if the hose would fit into the tube maybe you could get it to form better BEFORE atttaching. But at that point, you might as well either attach a garden hose to it, if it fits, or replace w a PVC pipe as some have done. Honestly the over flow 'hose' is too short anyway....so yea, it will need to be replaced w something else.2) I was a bit surprised how quickly it filled. It was sprinkling for 1-2hrs before I even thought of checking on it. The way I have things set up is temporary and not the most secure. The thing was full. So back to the over flow issue. Thinking of just attaching a few of the expandable down spouts to eachother to get the rain to flow back out to the yard. As seen in the pics, this was a get it done now while it's still sprinkling and overflow is coming out of everything. Needless to say, current situation is hideous!3) I did two levels of paver bricks for good flow, but don't like the look because of where it's at.4) I do love the thing despite it's leak issue, and seriously considering a train of them on the side of the house from the other downspout.This one is where its at because of the garden right there around the pond. The plan is too attach a soaker hose to the barrel hose, but I can see that one barrel may not last that long, and our summers get hot and dry towards August.I am seriously considering the train of barrels, but they will be sitting until needed in later summer. So I'd need to figure out how to keep it from evaporating.So:1) it's super light and if not filled w water or a small cluster of rocks, it's going to blow over in a storm2) it will probably have a leak somewhere3) over flow hose is useless.4) rain comes mostly in spring and will need the water a few months down the road, so will it even be available at that time, or will it be evaporated.5) I do want more just to stock pile some water till it's needed.OH....and my main reason for this one, even though I knew I'd hate the over flow spout... the massive openingI did use the out pour hose to drain a little since it was leaking and it had good flow. I'd almost want to try w only one layer of bricks and see if the pressure is still good. The outgoing spout is at the very bottom, so it will need to be elevated unless you are going to have it at the top of a slope. I mean maybe not since it is at the bottom, but definitely for ease of use I'd slap it on some bricks or a stand.1st Pic is the current situation w the overflow issue and it's still sprinkling. The brown expandable is what I was talking about of having extra to attach and extend out into grass or garden rather than the old downspout. I kept it close for a just in case moment, which happened. The brown according is not secured yet, other than zip ties around the post 🤦‍♀️ and apparently it has its own hole somewhere2nd Pic is the leak: it's blurry sorry3rd is the overflow attachment. You can see how it's collapsed. When I 1st checked and the overflow was coming out of the leak and the tip, this attachment was not fully opened starting from about 6 inches from where it attaches. So basically stayed flat. There was some water flowing through, but it was opened enough. If it would stay wide open, there would've been good enough flow and probably no leak. I may even figure out a way to place the expandable type behind barrel and cut attachment to where it stays open and just feed it into brown spout, then feed that under barrel and out. That way I wouldn't need to worry about attaching things after the fact, as I could see this thing filling in minutes w a good storm.Would I recommend? Yes, but do not expect perfection. It's great for the price..although not th prettiest, it does the job.

I love having a water barrel for all of my flowers, it is exactly what I wanted. Also looks pretty cool in back of my townhome. I use the water for outside and inside flowers/plants they are very healthy! I put it up on a pedestal {DYI} and the flat back works perfect because mine is on a wall in a corner of my bottom patio. I live in the mtn's so in hard winter I just empty it except for a few gallons, and it still functions perfectly.

Holds a lot of water

The media could not be loaded. Absolutely love this rain barrel. It’s so easy to set up and I have not encountered any leaks from it so far. It holds 50 gallons but that fills up in one day after a good rain, sooo guess what… I just purchased another one.