Sankey Slimline Water Butt – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

With a drought always, if would seem, nowadays, even in England, which was known as a land full of rainy skies and gales always, not far off, harvesting rainwater as and when it is in season, so to speak, is more important than ever.

Rainwater harvesting is also becoming a requirement in the building of new houses but that is then used for graywater systems and that is not what we are talking about here.

The rainwater butt has been a mainstay of gardens, especially allotments, for ever and a day and in those early days it was simply a barrel and may people still, to this day, improvise by using waste containers, such plastic 55 gallon drums, for example. There is nothing wrong with that; it works.

However, if you want something in which to collect your rainwater for your garden that looks a bit more snazzy then you won't go wrong taking a look at the range of rainwater butts from Sankey. They have a large range from slimline ones to those that look like terracotta pots. So, if you want a rainwater harvesting system that will look not like a water butt then Sankey has the answer in the same way for those that are not too concerned as to whether the butt is seen as what it is, namely a rainwater collecting barrel, though a barrel neither of those butts is, really.

The instructions are very precise and anyone should be able to follow them and successfully connect the butt to the downpipe.

The installation is easy and does not take long unless, like myself, you happen to have a downpipe that is several decades old and where the adjustment screws for the fittings have decided that they will not budge. Then, unfortunately, it can take about and hour to connect it up; it did for me.

The initial preparation, that is to say drilling out the hole for the connection pipe and such is very simple and straightforward, aided greatly by the guiding indent in the areas where the pipe is to be fitted. Only found that a 26mm drill bit, if it could have been had, would have worked better than the recommended 25mm one. Had to forcefully screw the connector piece into the butt itself.

Once the problem with cutting the pipe – due to the condition of this older downpipe – was achieved the rest was quite simple and the water butt is now also filling up slowly as we have had some downpours meantime. After all it is Wimbledon tennis and what would Wimbledon be like without rain in the London area and better still on SW17?

Check out Sankey's rainwater butts before anything if you consider buying a rainwater barrel of any kind.

© 2011