Side by Side Comparison of: Oatey vs RTS Companies Inc

Made my own water barrel, and everything works perfectly. The barrel must be a closed system in order to reroute all the water back to gutter's down spout when full. Get the 1-1/4 Banjo NPT fitting for the barrel end. Lay the hose out in sun for a few days will help, wont be perfect but enough. See my water barrel system at youtube search "loa8RmKUYII".

Works pretty well. It was easy to install (you need a hacksaw or equivalent to cut the downspout, of course). We were surprised by how much water was collected. Obviously, the amount of water collected depends on the roof area feeding into the system as well as the rainfall. As others have noted, the flexible diverter hose going to the rain barrel needs to have the kinks straightened out a bit before installation. One small issue was that, in theory, when the barrel is full (it needs to be a closed barrel), the rainwater is supposed to back up in the diverter hose so that all additional water is sent back down the downspout. For that to work, you need a water-tight seal between the water barrel and the diverter hose. Our first attempt did not have a very tight seal even with a hose clamp and so the additional rainwater continued to be diverted to the barrel and out of the connection to the top of the barrel instead of continuing through the downspout as intended. We have made some adjustments (filing off raised areas on the fitting to try to get a better seal) - but don't yet know if the fix was successful.UPDATE: the minor adjustment referrred to in the previous sentence worked perfectly. Now, when the rain barrel is full, the additional rainwater re-diverts to the downspout as designed. - Upgrading rating to 5 stars

This is a great rainwater diverter! It works well and is reasonably easy to install. If you have metal gutters it can be a little difficult cutting out the back part of the gutter but its not terribly frustrating or even time consuming. I'd also like to address a common comment mentioned in both the questions and reviews.To Connect this to a Blue 55 Gallon Food Barrel:1. Buy a 3/4 x 1/2 Reducing Male Adapter at your hardware store. (Picture included)2. Buy a small hose clamp. (also pictured)3. The threaded end of the PVC Adapter will fit in the smaller hole in your lid.4. Place the Hose Clamp around the Enclosed Tubing.5. Place the tubing over the other end of the adapter and secure the clamp.This filled an entire 55 gallon on the first mild rain we had. Realize however that the amount of water you collect is influenced by a lot of different factors including how much guttering you have and how many other down spouts are available.My only complaint about this product would be the tubing. It is very stiff and somewhat kinked. Overall I would much prefer something a little easier to work with. However given that it still collected a large amount of water and handled overflow correctly I can't complain too much.

I just purchased this ahead of a projected rainy weekend in Utah, which is a rarity in the second driest state. I measured exactly and ended up cutting out 6 1/2 inches of gutter vs. what the recommendation was. This allowed me to use the same hole for the gutter strap but regardless it is easy to push the sheet metal screw from the strap through the gutter to make a new hole if needed. I started with a Dremel tool to make the cut but a hacksaw was easier all around. Place cardboard behind the gutter before you cut and be patient, the back cut is the slowest. Took about 3-5 minutes per cut. Make sure you are above the top of your rain barrel. The hose that comes with it I am sure is fine but I used the corrugated hose that came with my rain barrels because it won't collapse and the black is less obtrusive.I filled both 55 gallon barrels in about 8 hours. Would have been much time less had I waited for the heavier rain that came overnight. My barrels are not the sealed type and so I can either divert the extra runoff away from the house with the hose from the barrel or use the plug that comes with the unit to winterized it. I chose to plug it until the next storm because the runoff from the downspout goes into my garden. It works exactly as others have said. The water sticks to the inside wall of the gutter and thus diverts easily to the barrels. Very little comes down the downspout until the barrels are full. I don't remember if it said this anywhere but obviously you can have it divert to either side.

'Thank you' whoever invented this thing. I've been struggling with the gutters going to my multiple rain barrels for years, having to re-build the spouts every winter when the barrels are not in use. Also, the barrels don't overflow during a heavy downpour. The reservoir system channels the water to the barrel at a regulated rate while some of the rainfall continues through the gutter spout. When the barrel is full and the water is backed up the tube to the mystic collector the water bypasses and continues down the gutter spout. If your rain barrel is the type that the water pours into an open hole you will need to put a fitting directly into the barrel for the tube to connect to or the water will not back up into the tube when full and your barrel will overflow. You can buy a pvc fitting for about a dollar. If you take your barrel out of service for the winter simply take the tube off and put a cap (included) on the opening. Easy install, no rivets,screws or glue.

Purchased this to divert water from the gutter into a rain barrel without having to install an overflow valve. Worked like a charm. When it first rained after installation, it filled up a 55 gallon rain barrel to the top and then diverted the water back thru the downspout after the barrel was topped off. It is a very heavy duty white plastic. It can be painted if you wanted to. Follow the instructions when installing so you do not cut too much out of your gutter (just holding it up and measuring by the size will make you cut out more gutter than you need to). The hose it comes with is thick plastic and is folded. You will need to remove the creases from the hose or the water will not flow thru. A blowdryer to heat up the creases while you bend it will work. Also comes with a stopper to plug up the diverter during the winter months. We initially ordered just one, to make sure it actually worked. We are very happy and have ordered more._______I forgot to add that this worked great on our rain barrel systems, as we have a closed top with bung holes. We left one bung hole closed and put the end of the hose thru the larger bung hole. If you have an open top rain barrel then it will just keep filling up and flowing over. The way this system seems to work is by pressure. As your rain barrel fills up, water is forced back up the hose and down the downspout. If you have an open top rain barrel (no top or just a screen) then there is no way to generate the pressure to stop the flow of water into the barrel once filled.Also: these will fill up a 55 gal rain barrel pretty quickly, even with just a normal amount of rainfall.

We had landscaping and a flower bed put on the opposite side of our house away from the water hose. So whenever we had to water the flowers in it we had drag the hose 100 feet. Now that we have the rain barrel our watering problems are gone, the spigot is high enough so there's plenty of water pressure, and the barrel doesn't look cheap, it's actually quite sturdy and fits nicely against the side of our house.

This is my first water barrel. Works exactly like they said.

Good product works as advertised. The two that we purchased didn't swell out when full nearly as much assome reviewers experienced

Excellent rain barrel! I had been looking around for quite sometime for good rain barrels. High quality plastic with a brass spigot and the mesh debris guard is great! I love that this one has a flat back to sit flush against the wall and takes up less space. A lot of people are complaining about the spigot being too high up to connect a hose, but the spigot placement is pretty low compared to most of the barrels you find out there.With the Socal watersmart rebates of $75/barrel I was able to get 4 barrels (max # for the rebate) at $480 with $300 in rebates.So I only paid $180 total for the 4 barrels with free prime shipping!

I do rain wafer harvesting for a.living and thought I'd test drive this .model... And like most, the barrel is fine but these mfg'rs don't seem to understand that the overflow spouts MUST BE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE DOWNSPOUT FLOWING INTO THE BARREL.!!!!! THINK ABOUT IT. If you get a heavy downpour...these tiny overflows will back up a cause your barrel to overflow at the lid....and I bet your barrel sits right next to your foundation!Not something I would want!

My barrel came today within two days was very surprise that it looked so real I got the stand with it both barrel and stand are flat on one sideI have wood chips about three feet from my house raked back the chip and leveled the ground which was a little hard as I have a small down slope Ididn't use stepping stones I used treated 2x4 to make the base to sat the stand on it and raked chips back.The spigot I have read here that a lot of people have trouble screwing it in "it is brass" I took my time and made sure it started perfectly in line.Screwing into the thread port if it gives any problem at all to start stop and start again till you feel it starts to turn easy about three turns then you'll know its right, screw it on in till it gets hard to turn then turn more till the spigot is face down. This will work.I used a 1 and 1/8" hole saw to cut the hole for the drain port to my Fiskars 5962 rain barrel diverterpro, kit the barrel is rounded so put it onflat part of the barrel at very top careful not to get to close to the back of the barrel if you do it will be hard to screw the holding nut on andmay leak because it may be where the flat part starts to round stay center of flat part.If you can sat your barrel about 10" to 12" from your diverter with your inlet port no more then 3" below the outlet port on diverted there will be small offset in the flex hose this is good don't worry about it. If you sat the barrel much more then 12" the hose will drop down in the middleThe water will not go back up hill to fill the barrel if you do have to make a long run you will have to strap the flax hose level.This is the way I did mine. If anyone hads better ideas please let me know I will delete mine I sure don't want to give bad advice.Up date 6-25-13 Had two little showers about five minutes each my barrel is half full now with no leaks

Easy to install, filled my rain barrel in one short rainfall. Seems that water can spill out the side of the diverter (causing unwanted water too close to the house) in a heavy rain as it can't flow down the diverter tube quickly enough (I checked to make sure nothing was clogged, and the diverter is installed 24" above the barrel as specified in the instructions). Not sure if this could be ameliorated if the top & bottom pieces were tighter fitting or had some sort of gasket. (Included picture: water still flows down the downspout properly but some is bubbling out of the side of the diverter)

I bought this as a solution to an overflowing rain barrel that I had. During torrential downpours, my overflow hose wasn't enough to handle it and it was spurting out of my inlet, which was an open funnel-type system. I bought this and when I installed it, it just didn't seem like it would work. I couldn't imagine how enough water would get caught in the catchment area. I thought most would just go straight out of the gutter. I was quite wrong. This this works! It easily cost most of the water, there was water coming out of the overflow, and water coming down the gutter. So, problem solved.Install was easy. I have blue, food-grade barrels. The bung holes come with an inner 3/4" tap that just needs to be drilled out. I added a $0.36 adapter from the plumbing aisle and a hose clamp and I was in business with a working closed-system.I gave it 4 stars because water is overflowing slightly from the seam where the top fits into the bottom. I will likely seal it with silicon.

I was a bit skeptical when I first got it, could't figure how it would divert much water to my barrel, but I guess rainwater does run down the sides of a downspout, rather than falling down the middle. Granted, it does not collect as much as a diverter that directs 100% of the water, but there is a lot less debris left on the top screen or settling at the bottom of my barrel. The only negative thing I experienced so far is the hose provided... it comes collapsed and rolled so tightly that it takes forever to reshape it and get it to stay open... even after leaving it "warming in the sun" as the directions advise. I finally gave up and just cut a small segment to use as a sleeve to join a one inch PVC pipe to the outlet instead.

I can't believe all the sub-par reviews.Install was simple. Hose was a little obnoxious yes, but I was able to use it just fine after stretching it out as instructed. Heavy rain, no problem, full barrel, no problem, all these reviews claiming it doesn't work? You did it wrong!

We installed this a couple weeks ago and finally had some rain yesterday. This device easily filled our new rain barrel. It also looks nicer and keeps the rest of the downspout connected. One of our sump pumps connects to the same downspout so I didn't want to just cut off the downspout and leave the bottom open.The drawback - although the instructions say to install it 12" above your rain barrel - this will only work if your barrel has no other open outlets. Our barrel is open on top and covered with a screen. I wanted to install it next to the barrel - figuring that we need it no higher than the screen on top of the barrel. My husband wanted to install it higher. We went with his height. The barrel of course overflowed through the top screen and didn't cause the back-up into the tubing that would prevent more rain from coming into the barrel. We are going to have to put an overflow hose on our barrel to keep this from happening again.It's a great product - but definitely think about your style of barrel and the height when you are choosing the position of this device.

To fight the drought in CA, I installed this on one of our down spout.Installation Tip:=================The hose came with kit is too short and stiff for anything. I bought a Flotec FP0012-6U-P2 Universal Discharge Hose Kit, 24-Feet by 1-1/4-Inch or 1-1/2-Inch to replace the one in kit. It fits just right, bought an additional hose clamp(1 came with hose kit), 1 clamp to diverter, the other over the inlet of rain barrel. Very easy to install and cheap. The hose is pretty long, but it can be cut at 3 places. (I guess you can cut anywhere, but I chose to cut at the flat section, so it's easy to clamp).Problem 1.=================The bottom part of the divert that supposed to slid into the down spout is a little too big, it is impossible to slide in, I even tried to hammered it in.Fix:I ended up use a hand saw to scrap some plastic off 2 of the corners, so it's a little bit thinner and smaller. A utility blade prob will do the work too, but I didn't want to accidentally cut off too much.Problem 2:=================It did not collect very much water during a full day of raining. the problem is the interior design of the diverter. Most of rain water would go through center of diverter and out into the down spout, only around the perimeter of divert would divert water out into the small outlet and to rain barrel. So, unless the rain is so heavy that it fills the entire interior section, most water would simply go right through the middle section.Fix:I cut diagonally through a water bottle, place the bottom section of the bottle over the middle section of the diverter interior, so it forms a cap and covers the middle section to divert all rain water into outlet. Today, after only a few hours of raining, I have 1 foot of water in the 275 gallon tote.

Looks beautiful and holds water!PROs:- love that it's a half barrel so it fits along the house- cute, rustic aesthetic- nice large sizeCONs:- came in a broken box and was missing all the hardware. Called the company and they sent replacements quickly.- the spigot leaks on mine. I put on a ton of silicon caulk all over it and it seems to be holding now.Overall I like it now that the leaking is fixed!

I like these (have 4) because they fit the style of the house. What I don't like is that they bow in the back once filled, the screens float off of the top too when full. Overflow is too small and allows for top hole to overflow. Retro overflow fit with screen on the inside to keep mosquitos out.

This rain barrel looks convincingly like a real wood wine barrel. The construction is more light-weight than my other barrel which is built like a tank:http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Outdoor/50-100-Gallon-Rain-Barrels/Rain-Catcher-Water-Barrel-54-GallonI didn't like the brass spigot it came with because the opening was too narrow. Plus the hole was too high, which leaves a lot of water in the bottom of the barrel below the spigot. So I bought some parts:PVC plug: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008O1X99QBulkhead fitting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0079JTVRIBrass hose fitting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015AOR8KFull flow valve: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A4XS0KI used the PVC plug to plug the existing hole. Then I used a hole saw to cut an opening below it, through which I attached the bulkhead fitting. The brass hose fitting gets screwed into the bulkhead, and the valve gets screwed onto that. Now I can a short garden hose and the flow is much better. It also leaves less water in the bottom of the barrel as it is emptied. Having the hole near the bottom of the barrel is not an issue because it's on a stand.

This is no doubt the best looking rain barrel out there and I'd like to give this 3.5 stars if I could. For it's rather expensive price there could however, be some improvements made to the rain barrel's structure:1. When it's full the flat back bends outward about an inch (maybe more) so if you're looking to sit this flush against a wall that could cause a problem.2. Screwing the brass spigot fitting into the plastic barrel felt weird and was chewing up the barrel the entire time. It's difficult to get it to go on straight and it's hard to tell just how many turns to make. This process required a ton of force to do and the whole time I was afraid I was doing it wrong. I'd like to see them factory install some kind of brass female fitting into the barrel so it would feel more comfortable screwing in the brass spigot.3. The screen/filter just sits atop the barrel in a recessed groove. Every time it rains hard the screen pops out of place. They should design the screen to slide in and under some kind of rail or clip so that there is something above the screen's edges holding it in place.

The product itself is fine. What we did not do is research on installation. The problem we had was that we installed the barrel by our garage downspout. I built a small stand to put in on so it would be easy to attach a hose or fill a watering can, but here is the issue. In heavy rains the barrel fills up so fast that the over flow cannot keep up with the volume of water and than the water spills over the top of the barrel as well. In addition the over flow runs out so fast it will make a hole in the ground. We were going to put a plastic tube attach it to the over flow and than bury a drain pipe under ground and place the over flow tube in it. The other problem is when you store it for winter you have to reinstall the original gutter so you can have the gutter drain into the drain pipe as well. It is just too much work.

Other reviewer notes a 'cheap plastic faucet', the one I got In February of 2013 has a vary nice brass or bronze faucet that seems solid. The back is also 'corrugated' so that it's fairly strong. Mine was filled up after one storm and there was no bowing when it was full or after I emptied it.The only complaint, if I would call it that, is that the spigot thread was almost larger than the threaded hole in the barrel. I had to work REALLY hard to get it to thread into the barrel and to get it to thread straight! I don't know how else they could have done it to make it easier, without making it more likely to leak though, so I'm content with it. You just need to know that going into it or you'll strip the first few threads and make it that much harder!Over all I think it looks great and does the job well.

had to return; didn't fit in our small down spouts; stuck out too far from the wall

Works pretty good for collecting rainwater and keeping large particles out, but kind of a pain if you don't have an overflow protector on your rain barrel. I have to remove the hose and put the plug in to keep it from overflowing my barrel.

"Works" with MAJOR CAVEATS! SEE: [...] for installation. Unfortunately, I seem to have a "special size pipe", just smaller than the ideal! (2 7/8" x 1 7/8")-- Bottom half Too Tight a fit, needed to "crimp" my pipe with pliers to make fit, therefore only able to fit <1/2" or less inside. So stabilized with duct tape around it, which is Not exactly attractive (but in backyard so livable). Since tight fit/most of water will run down pipe & NOT into diverter, so Duct Taped hole of Bottom Section leaving only 3/4" x 1 1/2" side slit open for "overflow".-- Top section Too loose so slides down to sit right on top of bottom section, which leaves very little room for water to go into bottom section & Large Gap at top so if heavy rain will all pour out at the top. So, Duct Taped top section to not slide down so much.NOT TERRIBLY ATTRACTIVE with all the Duct Tape! If this sound like TOO MUCH WORK, Recommend Get Another Brand!(I was determined to make it work after cutting a 6" section of pipe!)

I purchased this diverter for my new 55 gal rain barrel. My barrel has a screen on the top so there was no way to seal the connection around the hose. At first, the dirverter worked well. The barrel was full in no time. Once the barrel was full, the water did not divert back through the downspout like it was supposed to. After a hard rain, water was going everywhere...out of the barrel and squirting out of the connection between the diverter and downspout. It looks like the hole for the rain water to go back through to the downspout is not big enough for it to handle a heavy rain. Maybe if the hose was sealed on the top of the barrel, it may work better (?) Not sure...

The unit itself is heavy duty and made well. After installing it on the downspout I first changed out the awkward plastic hose with a 1 1/4 inch inside diameter flexible hose that I purchased locally. It was a step up from the included one. It does collect some water but not as much as I expected. I've had a few heavy rains so far and my 40 gallon rain barrel is only 1/4 full. When I purchased this I thought it may fill up the container faster than it actually does. It just trickles a small amount through the tube to the barrel sending the majority of water down the downspout. I would like it better if it filled the barrel up quickly. I will most likely send it back for a refund and try to figure out another way to collect water.

I understood that when the water barrel was full the Mystic Rainwater Collection diverter would close and the water would then go down the down spout. My rain barrels filled to capacity during a recent storm but one of the diverters does not seem to close and the water continues to run into the rain barrel so that the rain barrel overflows instead of going down the downspout which goes to a collection area further down the yard. I checked the opening in this collection area and very little water is coming out. Both were installed exactly the same, just one seems not to work.

The barrel itself is very nice and well made. My only complaint is with the brass spigot assembly. The pre-drilled hole for the spigot was garbage and it cross-threaded every time I tried to tighten it. I eventually said the heck with it and just kept cranking on it until it was in all the way. Its fine now but do yourself a favor and get the stand for the barrel, I didn't and the spigot is so low to the ground you can't get a hose on without kinking it.

It's ok, it's pricey for plastic. Lets see how it hold up under our Florida sun.I do not like the brass turn hose nozzle that comes with it, I changed mine to a better quality handle nozzle. it's much easy. Quicker to turn off & onThe company should give buyer & option for either nozzle

I had bought a rain barrel from a different company, but it was not linkable. So I ordered this one. I might have found it acceptable if I had never seen the other. The spigot was difficult to put in straight. I just isn't as nice looking as I had hoped. It horrible. I might not even have minded how it looked if I hadn't had to manhandle the spigot. Never did get it in exactly right. But I had some plumbers tape on hand and it doesn't leak.

Barrel arrived quickly and it looks good.Just as described.Could easily have been 4 stars but...My only reservation is it does appear to have been re- sealed in the carton and the fact the the bag containing the hardware had been cleanly sliced open and resealed with tape makes me think I may have been sent a "used" barrel and not a new one. It also appeared that the threads where the spigot is installed had something previously installed as they didnt look new either.But overall the barrel does look good and after installing the valve I filled it with a few gallons of water and it didn't leak so Im waiting for the weekend to install it on my downspout...so aside from someone possibly getting over on me for a few bucks as the used ones are a bit cheaper, Im still pretty satisfied with this product as long as it doesn't leak after it fills....Will have to wait and see...I will update after its installed...Well it's been over a year and my rain barrels are serving the purpose well...A few issues....first thing you probably want to do is swap out the spigots that come with the barrel...They are crap...get yourself a full ported valve of your choice...they won't clog as easy and you will get a better flow....Like some other reviews mentioned, the flat backs do now a bit when the barrel is full, and I did empty the barrel before the first freeze....not the end of the world though.What it does though is it skews the opening on the top where the screen fits into allowing debris and Mosquitos to easily enter the barrel....,Other than that ...I irrigate my raised gardens with the water and Im pretty happy with my purchase..

as its on a narrow porch outside my bath. Use it to collect "warm up" water from my shower/sink in order to water plants, as CA is in drought. Delivery was fast. Came w/brass faucet. Found it impossible to install faucet all the way down to the barrel as instructions state. I wrapped plumbers tape twice around faucet, and w/wrench (the indentation from the surface of the barrel made it very difficult to use), much swearing, and all the patience I could muster, got within 1/8" from barrel. No leak so far. Not sure If I'd buy another, unless it had to be pretty and flat backed.

I love the look of this barrel. 2 annoying things though, 1) The overflow is right at the front which detracts from the look of the barrel when a hose is attached. 2) Also, when it is full of rain, it expands and the back 'bowes' out. As mine was positioned quite close to the house wall, it caused the barrel to 'push' out against the wall and ended up tilted slightly. It is still full of water right now and I hope it goes back to the original shape when empty.

we hooked this up per instructions. The water does not go into the side slot as we expected. Most of it goes straight down the rest of the gutter like normal. We are not very thrilled with the product. Wish we had bought something else.

This is exactly what I needed! Filters water right to my barrel, I just wish it filtered more water to my barrel. It takes a lot of rain to fill my barrel.

Won't install unless your gutters are the exact perfect shape. Mine are the right dimensions but square instead of rounded, so I ended up having to use brute force. Also seems to work much less effectively if it is not 100% level (another reason you need a perfect fit).Again, if your gutter is not: 1) the 2x3 "rounded rectangle" style and 2) hanging straight down you will probably find this a frustrating purchase.That said it does work even in suboptimal conditions and trickle-filled a 55 gallon drum over a week or so of light rains. So for your purposes it may be adequate.

I was hoping to divert and filter most of my downspout rain to my barrel. This design is a pass-through downspout and will only divert a portion of the water into my barrel. It had potential but they stopped short of a real good solution. The description reads "channels rainwater flow from the sides of the downspout while allowing debris such as leaves and dirt to go down the center." Do you realize how much rain is also going through the center along with the debris? Tons more rain than is being collected. If you are truly trying to collect/harvest as much rain as possible, I recommend researching and finding another solution/product. I'm still searching.I will, probably, chop this thing up into something more useful for my needs.

Although this looks well made and fairly simple to install, you can't tell by looking at the picture that just a small amount of water around the edges inside the device actually go into the outlet and into the rain barrel while the rest of the water flows on down the pipe. As the reviews of this product were very good, I ordered 2 but returned them (cost $5.00 for return shipping). What I really am looking for is a simple "Y" gutter spout with a diverter which used to be fairly common, but for some reason now is very scarce and when you do find them very overpriced. However, you can find a variety of complicated, high priced and questionably designed products that may or may not do the job as well.

Living in NM we don't get much rain, the few times I tried this I got maybe 20% of the water into my rain barrels and most went right though, didn't seem worth it. Instead I put mesh over the gutters to keep the leaves out, plumbed the gutter straight into my rain barrel with a ball valve to redirect the water if needed. Four months in that works a heck of a lot better than a system that only collected about 20% of the water

The aesthetics of the rain barrel are great but our model came with a plastic connector. The fitting leaks and you damage the rain barrel if an attempt is made to tighten the connector. In my opinion the function of the rain barrel is to reclaim the rain water so I can’t give this product high marks, due to its lack of functionality.

So far...disappointed. The cover does not come off. The brass spigot does not have a good seal and will have to buy something so it doesn't end up leaking. I did not realize the back was flat and the barrel was not round. Hoping the barrel does not bow when filled as other reviews have relayed. Thought about returning.

purchased 2 barrels, love the design and look great in the yard. HOWEVER, the brass spigot was very hard to install, no way to tell if it is threading correclt and the brass damages the plastic threads! returned one for a replacement, and had the same problem with the replacement barrel. Returned it as well. i have one that does not leak and is functioning well. The overflow just spills out the center front top, not sure how I will be able to rig up a tubing to direct the water away from the house. hopefully I will be able to cross connect to another barrel of different design to avoid overflow.

I've had two of these for a couple of years. They are OK but don't let them fill over three quarters full. They bulge and deform if they actually fill up. One of them has also developed a small leak in the bottom even though I empty them and put them in the shed during the winter. For the price I would expect to get more than two years use.

Looks great but when I buy a product I want it to go together smoothly and work like it's suppose to. Purchased 3 of these barrels and with all 3 it was an aggravating time consuming process trying to get the brass spigot installed straight into the composite material threads in the barrel. Had first rain on central coast of CA. since I bought these and all 3 are leaking from the threads today. Guess I will spend more time working on the manufacturer's engineering flaw and try plumber's tape. I don't recommend this product unless you enjoy tinkering and fixing problems.

hose connections at top of barrel need to be more adaptable. have to cut plastic to connect tubing or hose.screen on top sticks, hard to get out.

Product arrived on time, That is the only good news. Product is well constructed but poorly engineered. I will be lucky if I can collect 5 % of the runoff from my downspouts. After installation I ran the garden hose into the gutters on the roof. very little water was collected. I must of poured 100 gallons into the gutter . I collected about 2 gallons. If I was in a dire need for water , this collection device would be the cause of my death., I am looking for a way to RETURN them .

What a let down. The hose is so stiff it's impossible to work with. It literally takes days in the blazing hot sun to get it pliable enough to bend and expand to your needs. Its made in 2 parts, but the top part just rests inside the bottom part, there's no seal to keep water from escaping all around the joint. So the first rain overwhelmed it right away. Wish i could get my money back but I've had them too long.

Plastic drain tubing was kinked and flat. Stiff drain tubing could not be opened enough to drain water even after heating to soften to try to shape it to stay open..Poor design as the water is supposed to run along the inner walls of the drain to be diverted to the hose spout. So little water is diverted that the system is effectively useless. Would not recommend this product.

OMG I actually bought 2 of these. Wasted my Friday off installing them, we had the heaviest rain we had all year,...and I was out there tweaking and rigging so my foundation didn't get soaked (the whole idea of having gutters) Misleading piece of junk! doesn't fit standard gutters, and the instructions in box differ from their you tube video. Now I have cut up gutters that I need to fix, thanks Oatey for ruining my weekend. Going back. If I could give negative stars I would.

 Purchased several of these diverters for my rain barrels. They do not work as represented. In theory the water in the downspout gets interrupted and transfers to the rain barrel – when the rain barrel is full, the water is supposed to continue in the downspout to the yard drain. … Though not mentioned in the instructions, this ONLY works with a CLOSED SYSTEM rain barrel – otherwise the water continues, overflowing the barrel (defeats the purpose of rain gutters with foundation flooding). Calling the Oatey technical support line confirms this and that company information does not mention the issue. Secondly, the device leaks (see video – view with QuickTime) – in a heavy rain the two piece diverter cannot handle a heavy downpour and leaks at connection point for the two pieces (also, the supplied plug does not positively cut off flow and contributes to the leaking – again, defeats the purpose of raingutters with foundation flooding). Third – even if the product worked, the diverter hose shipped with some of the items (since I ordered several, I received two different types of hose) are stiff – no matter what you do (i.e., leave out in the sun, use a hot blower, insert a dowel to attempt to straighten out kinks) they are not pliable and do not allow for a connection without kinks. The other type that was included in some are soft and easily pliable – technical support was unaware of two types and states the hose only needs to be left out in the sun or heated (this does not help).Only gave one star as that is the lowest possible - THIS PRODUCT IS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY – worst of two worlds – contributes to foundation flooding and does not allow for efficient rainwater harvesting - basically does not work as expected or represented. If you choose to ignore my warning and purchase this product anyway, I caution you NOT to place your downspout in line / adjacent to your foundation vent – the leaking Oatey will divert some water directly to your foundation vent which will result in flooding your garage …. I learned the hard way (make that, the “wet way”).

The female half of the diverter - that goes around the upper end of your pipe - is 2.25" x 3.25 (inner measurements of the female part) but it's rounded. So if your pipe is actually 2"x3" and rectangular, not rounded, it won't slide over the pipe.The maile half of the diverter - that seats inside the lower end of your pipe is 2.2" x 3" and rounded (outer measurements of the male part), so it won't go inside a 2x3" downpipe, whether it's rounded or rectangular. Boy am I mad! mad! mad! I cut a 6" section out of my downspout, as directed. This product is not the size it advertises.

This is NOT a BPA free product. I bought one of this and bought four of Algreen rain barrel. Water comes out of RTS rain barrel was purple for a while but the water from the Algreen was clear. To make sure the rain water will not pollute my vegetable bed over time with poisonous rain water, I wrote to the manufacturers of both RTS and Algreen. Algreen wrote back and assure me that their rain barrel was made from BPA free material but RTS never wrote back to answer my question. I will not use the rain water from RTS rain barrel for my veggie bed. I can only use it for the flower bed. In addition, the facet of RTS did not fit most of the garden hose head.

The barrels are very attractive. I tried to screw the faucet into the drilled area and was unable to screw them in as directed. The predrilled place to screw in the faucet was so poorly done that I could not screw in the brass faucet without it turning sideways. The sites leaked with a small water test. Ordered 4 and this happened on all. I never tried to fill them all the way to find out if the back bowed. I called the company for assistance after the first failure as directed and no one answered the phone and I never received a call back when I left my number as requested. Very poor quality!

This is the 2nd one I've purchased and while the 1st one has worked out great this particular barrel leaks. Unfortunately for me, I didn't set it up right away and now that I found a leak it is too late to return to the company. Lesson learned, the hard way.

The barrels have the drain at the very bottom. A hose cannot be put on as the barrel sits too close to the ground to get the hose on. They expand and warp and then sit lopsided. I bought two and they are junk.

Poor plastic quality! It makes no sense to have a rain barrel that can't hold water. Do not buy from RTS

I have bought a lot of stuff from Amazon and never been so disappointed. I can't get the brass spigot to align correctly to go into the barrel. The spigot is brass and the barrel a soft plastic. Within moments I have stripped the screw in and the barrel may be worthless. Stupid to screw a hard material straight into the soft plastic but that is how it is set up. I put together things like this all the time with no problem. Other reviews say the spigot goes in easy but not my experience at all. May be an isolated problem but I would never buy from this company again.I thought maybe it was just me so had a friend try. He is very very good at putting things together. He had exactly the same problem. We then caulked up the spigot and got it in just a bit out of alignment. It leaks just a tiny bit but at least is useable. From the reviews it looks like it is luck of the draw whether you get a good one or a bad one and the company may not have enough quality control to ensure the same results for all customers. I still would never buy from them again.