water diverters? please help!

[retropants]

I am thinking of getting a rainwater diverter for my downpipe from the roof of my house, but I can't put the water butt next to the pipe.
As I don't know how these things work, would it be OK to have the diverter, then a length of pipe from higher up on the downpipe, going across the top of the gate to the water butt a few meters away? Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, but the downpipe is between the back door and the garden gate. Any help would be very gratefully received!

thanks! Emma.

[Beccy]

Yes this should be fine.

[richard p]

it will depend on the design of your diverter, all the ones ive seen connect to the water barrel with a horizontal pipe into the top of the side of the barrel. when the water in the barrel is up to the level of the diverter the rainwater then overflows inside the diverter and continues down the downpipe to the origional drain. if the diverter is above the level of the top of the water butt the water in the butt will overflow down the side of the butt when its full, ok if you can put an overflow on the waterbutt to dispose of the excess, perhaps back to the origional drain

[Allan]

We fixed ours up with a huge (170 gal.)tank plus 3 smaller tanks right down the garden. We couldn't understand why the tank did not fill up, eventually found a lot of rubbish blocking the downpipe at the diverter. Leaves had been blown in the wind up to the house roof and on into the gutter. We now have a small gulley above the divertor, a simple filter of a cylinder of wire mesh over the outlet allows muck to accumulate in there but filtered water goes on to the diverter. It all works fine now but unfortunately only when it rains!
Allan

[retropants]

thanks chaps! I shall probably go for having an overflow on the waterbutt, possibly into another container somewhere else. A filter sounds like a good idea too Allan, thanks.