Water Butt Accessories – Things you need to go with your Water Butt!
A water butt is a great addition to your garden.
Some homes even set up multiple water butts to gather water from the house along with the water gathered from sheds, summer houses or garages.
Water butts collect rain water through the gutter system and store it for when you need it.
Water butts are relatively inexpensive and can save you a fortune on your water bills. They are also better for the environment, recycling water instead of using fresh purified tap water.
There are a large number of water butt add ons and accessories available that might not be included with your water butt purchase.
Or you might need a replacement water butt part in the future.
Here is a round up of the best water butt accessories and attachments you might need.
Strata Ward Water Butt Filler Kit For Round Downpipes
Water butts usually come with a down pipe kit to attach the butt to your drain pipe to collect the water. But if you don’t have one, this kit only costs a few pounds and contains everything you need to turn your downwards round drainpipe into a water butt filler.
Water Butt Diverter Kit for a Square Downpipe
If you have a square downward drain pipe, you will need this kit instead, it replaces a section of your drainpipe. placed high enough so that the water flows into the water butt first until the water butt is full. Any surplus water then continues straight down the drainpipe as normal.
Grow It 08877 14 x 4 x 82 cm Greenhouse Rain Water Harvest Kit – Grey
This little gadget is inexpensive and attaches to the guttering on your green house to act as a water collector and downward drainpipe to feed into a water butt. This is especially useful if you have a green house somewhere in your garden that isn’t near a mains water tap. Having a water butt near to the green house will make it easier to water the contents of your green house without having to make repeated trips carrying a heavy watering can.
Water Butt Replacement Tap
This might seem like a random item, until you actually need one. If the water butt tap gets accidentally knocked by something heavy or bashed with a watering can it could cause the tap to break. Sometimes, just general wear and tear of the water butt tap can cause them to break. For a few quid, you can replace just the tap of the water but instead of having to replace the whole butt itself.
If you are creative and good at diy, you might even be able to turn something else like a barrel into to a home crafted water butt! All you would need is a tap and the correct hole to screw it in to!
Hozelock 3-in-1 Water Butt High Pressure Pump 1.1 bar Max Pressure with Tap Connector Included
This is a clever gadget, it turns the somewhat meagre flow of a water butt tap into a powerful flowing water supply by pumping the water out of the water butt through a hose pipe.
Yes, the Hozelock water butt pump will probably cost as much as your water butt itself, but it means you can enjoy the ease and freedom of watering with a hosepipe, but with all the benefits of using a stored reserve of water.
To use, you silly have to connect a hose to the pump outlet, (most standard hose attachments will fit because its a Hozelock fitting). You then place the pump into a water butt and plug the pump in to an electric source. The result, the water from your water butt will be pumped out at a much faster and pressured rate than if you were to use the tap function.
There are built in filters which can be cleaned, to ensure that the pump lasts as long as possible and does not get clogged.
The pump is supplied with 10 metres of cable, so your water butt does not need to be right next to your house in order to reach a socket.
This really is a high quality and super little gadget from Hozelock that will make your life so much easier if you prefer to use a water butt over a mains water tap.
Hozelock Water Butt Treatment
There are quite a few different makes of water butt treatments available and you can spend a long time reading the slight differences between them.
Or you can save your time, and go with this tried and trusted product from Hozelock. This relatively small 500ml container contains enough treatment liquid to treat 6400 litres of water. If you wondering what that equates too.. an average – large water butt is 100 litres, so thats the equivalent of this treatment lasting for 64 full water butts of water. Thats a LOT of water, and enough to last you all summer.
But what does it do and do I really need it?
This liquid treats the water in your water butt, it prevents unpleasant odours and scum from forming. This is especially useful if the water is not used for a long time – it prevents it from becoming stagnant water. This treatments also keep your water free from slime and algae. But don’t worry, it is non toxic and wont harm your plants!
The key thing with this treatment is that you are supposed to empty your water butt and clean it first, which can be a huge and daunting task. So it is great if you can get this product at the time of installing a new water butt and use it before filling with water for the first time.
FreshaTank anti-microbial disc, everlasting water cleaner
This everlasting tank cleaner is an absolute must have for anyone who owns or is buying a water butt. It literally costs a few pounds, and all you have to do is drop it into the water butt and forget it is there!
The disk uses the same industrial silver that can be found in drinking water purifiers and fish tanks. The ‘Freshatank’ disk is an antimicrobial product and helps to destroy fungal, viral, bacterial micro-organisms and parasites in the reproductive stage.
Whilst using this product does not replace the need for maintenance and other means of keeping your water tank clean and fresh, it certainly helps to control the living things in the water that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Strata Water Butt Stand to Suit 250L
Most water butts will come with a water butt stand included, but some of the more designer ones, (some look like barrels of giant bee hives) do not come with a stand.
The good news is that the stands are very inexpensive ad easy to obtain, especially if you are happy with a black basic stand. You will have no problem in finding one at all for around £12.00.
They are quite discreet and sit neatly underneath the water butt. Bases are heigh enough to enable you to fill most shape and size watering cans from the tap and the base of the water butt.
You can always disguise the base with plants and pots surrounding the base.
The one pictured is very robust and long lasting and can hold a water butt of 250 litre capacity (which is bigger than average.)
The only difficulty with water butt bases is trying to get a different coloured one. For example, there is a water butt that looks like a giant bee hive and is a sandy terracotta colour. This particular water butt does not come with a stand included and would look best placed on a stand of a similar colour, (not just a black one.) These are available online, if you have a little look, you may be lucky!