Good Ideas Rain Wizard Urn 65 Gallon Rain Barrel - Black

Love this! Had my house re-freshened on the outside - down to a point where I could do all the outside maintenance myself - I'm 71 YO female - it was this or downsize and move - didn't like the idea of taking a few years out of my routine to move - had a barn metal trough in the same spot where I am using this new one - the job manager said "are you changing that trough - it has holes all around the bottom" - didn't realize it had rusted through in spots - not doing the job for a long time - he suggested all the new types made of materials - searched the web - found this one on JET - had shopped here many time - prices good - love the style - not the "normal rain barrel" - it came in a few days and the workers neatly connected the down spouting snugly through the heavy mesh square - will be very hard for any debris to get through the top - I had the gutters put on that have small holes the full length - so should be VERY hard for anything to get into the rain barrel. The down spout goes in through a hole in the top back side, in front of that space is a place for flowers, water for birds - is shaped separate from the the down spout hole area - I got the gray - will be stacking some field stone around the bottom - have the urn itself set on 2 3" concrete blocks to make sure it stays level - also bought a 24" man made man hole cover to go under this directly so if I ever have to move or adjust will be manageable - the urn is 25lbs, the man hole cover 8lbs, and holds up to 2000 lbs. They had the terracotta and the gray Just waiting for the rain now!!!! [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]

This is so much more than a plain barrel. It is a great decoration piece for my deck. Additionally, the built in planter is perfect for planting my favorite herbs. And let's not forget the discreet, conveniently place spigot for dispensing water from the back; I connect a small piece of hose to it and fill containers to carry water to wherever I need it. My husband deserves a treat for searching the web and finding this wonderful jewel! Thanks for making such an awesome product available.

This is a attractive and well built vessel with a large capacity. The design of the urn is first rate. Unfortunately it arrived without the hose bib that is supposed to be included within the barrel. I called the wholesaler and they are sending me a replacement hose bib without charge. I'm a happy camper.

With the addition of this rain barrel I now have four. (Each one is a different design) I use rain water when I plant, transplant or fertilize anything. I bought this one for my back patio because of the attractive, space saving design, large capacity & brass spigot. The flat back allows me to place it against the wall under the downspout. However, when I do that the elbow from the downspout overshoots the screen inlet on top of the barrel. Had to make some minor adjustments to downspout. Also, the spigot handle is too big. It hits the barrel preventing it from making a full 360 degree turn. I can't fully open or close the spigot and therefore can't use the barrel at this time. I've notified the company and am awaiting their reply. If that issue can be resolved I will be very happy with this product and would recommend it to a friend.

This is my second time buying this rain barrel -- I love the color because it matches my house perfectly. The spigot is pretty slow, but my father in law fixed it pretty easily and inexpensively with a new one from Home Depot. My last one cracked on the the bottom (there is an indented area) but we think it is because it wasn't properly supported when my husband built a platform for it to rest on. Without a platform (we just used brick pavers) the spigot is pretty low to the ground and can only be used with small buckets.

RainBarrelSource quickly responded to e-mail Qs. I ordered the urn late Tues. It arrived on Fri with standard shipping, just as they promised. Wow! The Khaki color looks like the color shown on my monitor. The urn design looks great and Khaki complements our new deck and ivory siding colors. It eliminates trying to hide my ugly black pickle barrel with its leaf-catcher top by having an urn with a built-in planter in the top that I will want to show off. It protrudes over 2' from the house and looks like a pregnant guppy, or a large wine urn, so be prepared for that image. A reviewer had commented that the brass water valve was in the bottom of the barrel and thought it was a returned unit. Mine arrived the same way, but I believe it's because the valve was in a lightweight plastic bag with a poorly welded bottom seam, held under the screen in the top of the barrel. It probably swayed throughout the trip and the valve weight eventually ripped the bottom out of the bag. Several low-cost ways for RBS to easily solve that simple problem. Other than the valve being full of plastic chips that were easily dislodged, there was no damage. The bottom of the urn was covered with plastic machining chips. Not a good thing; and they could clog the valve if they get caught under the seat. Plan to vacuum loose plastic from the bottom of the 25-lb urn with your vacuum wand thru the 4"" hole, while it's dry inside. The hole had plastic ""flashing"" extending 2"" inside the urn that I thought might cause water entry problems, but it was easy to trim with a razor knife. A reviewer said there was a problem with water splashing as it entered the urn from their downspout. Easy to happen if it misses the hole, I believe. I plan to run a smaller round pipe at the end of my rectangular downspout adapter and terminate it close to the top and in-line with the hole, which should eliminate that problem unless the screen holes are too small. If the existing flat screen is what caused the splashing, there's a few easy fixes for that, too. I'm building a 28"" high stand that I have found is a good height to connect a short hose with a bucket underneath. I'll extend it to the front side to get past the valves and allow small pots to be placed on the corners of the stand. It will have lattice covering the sides, hinged on one side so I can store a bucket underneath, which will look much better than the 3 cinderblocks I had under the pickle barrel. I'll make 1/4"" higher back legs to slightly tilt the urn to the front to assure overflow goes to the tapered trough going to the front spillway. The built-in spillway does not extend beyond the belly of the urn and has a smooth lip that water will cling to. I expect overflow will run down the front of the urn, which will cause staining. Molding the spillway to extend a couple inches more, with a sharper lip to act as a better pour spout, would be my preference, but that's not what was done. I'll check that before installation, and am prepared to attach a thin lip extension cut from the side of a clear thick 1-gal tea jug, to assure all overflow water misses the urn, especially the small drips. A reviewer said the built-in planter did not drain well. There are two 1/2"" (inside dim) smooth tubes connecting the bottom back of the 4"" deep planter to the rear of the urn, so the planter water can drain out the back and not into the urn. Certainly enough drain area if they do not clog. To keep them open, I plan to put about an inch of coarse gravel covered with landscape fabric before I place potting soil. A reviewer said that the water valve handle hit the urn. I screwed it in until it bottomed. The handle was close, but did not touch. But that will be a non-issue for me because I'll attach a brass Y ball valve to this valve so I can have one side for a hose and the other with no hose, and will seldom close the valve on the urn. Also, I prefer the easy 1/4 turn to fully open the valve. The tip of the valves will be 30"" from the house, but that's okay for me. A reviewer said the urn was too thin. It appears at least as thick as the plastic pickle barrel that was the forerunner of designer rain barrels, and is much thicker than soda bottles that hold 150-psi, so I don't expect a problem. The urn is much thicker where it needs to be. So if you like the urn rain barrel image and it's within your budget, buy it!

Ordered two. One arrived with overflow holes in rear cutout and resealed. It looks like a return. I sat on pavers after leveling ground horizontally and making sure slight grade away from house so overflow channel would work well. Ran gutter straight to mesh on both rain barrels (straight down). I'm happy with the product EXCEPT that the reviewer who said that the rain hits the mesh screen and runs into the overflow channel was correct. I cannot believe that with 100+ reviews no-one else has mentioned this. I removed the screens and ran the gutter straight into the barrel and it works fine. Also, the rain accumulates in the planting area on top. As other reviewers have mentioned, you need to drill small holes in the planter area so the water that accumulates in the planter will drain into the barrel. Just set a plant in the top - don't put dirt in there and really plant anything. The barrels fill quickly in a good rain. I don't need to elevate on blocks to get the hose to fit in the spicket. The pressure is very slow, but that's fine with me for my watering purposes. I have these two rain barrels and two Good Idea composters. They are good products and arrive fast, but the manufacturing is never perfect on any of the items. There is also excess flashing, sometimes missing parts, sometimes small damaged areas, etc. Since the screen has to be removed to fill, mosquitos will get in so I will get some mosquito pellets. I'm happy with the product, just wanted you to know the complete picture.

I received the barrel about a week ago and it had rained a few times so I have a little bit of experience with it. One thing you will want to do is elevate it for two reasons: 1. water pressure, 2. to make hose easier to attach. After the first rain, I had a lot of trouble getting the water out, so I drained it out and put it on a plastic stand I improvised. The pressure still isn't great, but at least I can get the hose on. Also, the item was about twice as big as I expected. Not really a problem, but I did have to clear out some space and positioning it was a bit of a challenge, so just something to keep in mind. It does look exactly as pictured. If you use it as a planter, be sure to put some rocks or something in the bottom before you plant anything because water will accumulate as it doesn't drain well. The picture I attached is before I elevated and planted flowers. You'll have to tilt your head, sorry.

We bought this rain barrel urn because it was nice looking, we were able to plant some colorful flowers in the top and we could reuse the water and be environmentally conscious. This urn does all of these things and is a good buy for the money. That being said, we did notice a few design flaws. 1) The overflow valves in the back are flush against the siding of the house when the rain barrel is standing upright, so we actually had to move the rain barrel sideways and bring the overflow hose out the back around the corner. If the corner hadn't been there, we wouldn't have had a solution. They should have designed it such that the overflow came out the side or top somehow. 2) the plastic screen where the gutter drops the water does splash it around quite a bit, so after reader another raters suggestions, we cut up an old window screen, created a valley into the barrel with it and attached it with the provided screws. Then inserted the gutter downspout inside several inches. This solved the problem, no more splashing, but the screen still catches debris. But, these two design flaws excepted, the rain barrel is fantastic, we are very happy with it thus far.

Upon initial inspection, they looked fine. But then we found a piece of tubing that we didn't know what it belonged to so we started looking at it more carefully. The product had a indentation on top for the placement of a plant with built in weep holes for drainage out the backside. The weepholes were formed incorrectly and if we had used it, would have let dirty water weep into the clean water area. When we saw the weepholes, they looked like an animal had gnawed the tubes, which is kind of impossible since they are inside the units, but what's probably the problem is the plastic molding process didn't work correctly. Then when we went to return them last night, it took the store and 5 different managers and employees to get us our refund. Not happy right now, at all. And this is the 2nd attempt to get these.