Kitchen Garden Forum

We fitted a new water butt in the front garden some time ago in front of a fence which blocks off the back garden . The down pipe from the guttering in the front of the house which is supposed to tsupply it is located behind the fence. So we have a hole bored in the fence with a flexible tube inserted through it at the right height connected to the down pipe to deflect water iinto the water water butt. But despite heavy rains no water ever seems to be getting through

We,ve tried to solve this problem before without success. Mr Primrose installed it himself and would admit to being the world,s worst handyman. What could be going wrong? And how do we put it right? Seems the diverter kit in the down pipe isn't working for some reason .

ok time for my duck to ask a stupid question, could the diverter have been put on the wrong way round ??
I genuinely don't know it that's possible as I've never looked at such a system

First place to check is the top off the down spout where it meets the gutter it the favourite place to find a blockage usually caused by a washed out birdsnest

I confess to never having used one of these. You have installed a piece of kit in the downpipe not just put a flexible pipe across haven't you? If you Google "rainwater diverter instructions" you get a lot of hits - this one seems to include a clear diagram https://c253532.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/fil ... ctions.PDF

Thank you for your various suggestions. i have to confess, the installation was quite troublesome and accompanied by a fair amount of "huffing and puffing".
However as it's been pouring with rain for ages and water is still not trickling through to the water butt it,s probably time to call in an expert!

With our local water board threatening to introduce compulsory water metering for everybody in due course it seems foolish not to take advantage of "free" water.

I've got one of these "diverters" and most of the time it works fine, but quite often it gets blocked with bits of moss etc from the gutter. Dismantle it and make sure it's clean, if so I suggest disconnecting the pipe that connects the diverter to the barrel, pour some coloured water down from the gutter and see if it comes out the hole.

The coloured water suggestion is a good one John - thank you - but at our age clambering up ladders to gutterings would be a bit of a risky circus act.
There would perhaps be money to be made if you could train a monkey to do these high agility tasks !

Yes, sorry Primrose. I live in a bungalow and tend to forget that a lot of people live in houses!