Rain barrels are a perfect way to conserve water and lower your water bill. In the summer months, the average household uses about 3 to 5 times more water than in the winter, mainly from outdoor chores like watering gardens and lawns. And considering a rain barrel can supply an average of 1,300 gallons of free water during summer peak months, it’s a compelling reason to buy one for your home.
The standard rain barrel costs between $120 to $160, which isn’t unreasonable. However, for those of us on tighter budgets, there are a few options to buy inexpensive rain barrels.
Before I dive into the best places to buy inexpensive rain barrels, I just want to touch on two things: 1. are rain barrels worth it? and 2. can you legally have one.
Should You Buy a Rain Barrel?
A rain barrels is an innovative and inexpensive way to care for your garden while lessening your environmental impact. However, it does have some downsides.
I go more into detail here. Before you make room for a new rain barrel, consider these disadvantages. While the pros significantly outweigh the cons for my yard and lifestyle, you may feel differently.
- Savings not as big as expected (i.e. $35 per month)
- Unpredictable rain collection
- Stinky algae
- Hotbed for mosquitos
Is it Legal to Use a Rain Barrel?
Rainwater collection and use is currently regulated by individual states. Some states provide incentive to use rain barrels, while other prohibit them. Before buying and installing a rain barrel, you might want to check your local and state laws. The following states have some sort of restriction on rainwater collection, although the law might be as simple as filing a permit or using collected water for non-potable (i.e. non-drinking) purpose:
| List of States with Rain Barrel Restrictions | (as of 2023) |
|---|---|
| Arkansas | North Dakota (permit required) |
| California | Ohio |
| Colorado | Oregon |
| Georgia | Rhode Island |
| Kansas (permit required) | Texas |
| Illinois | Utah |
| Nevada | Virginia |
| North Carolina | Washington |
| Wisconsin |
If your states isn’t listed above, you SHOULD be good to go (but double check with local authorities).
9 Places to Buy Rain Barrels for Cheap
Rain barrels are containers with large openings (commonly 55-gallon food-grade plastic drums) with converter kits (i.e. hose, spigot, screen, etc.) that harvest rainwater from your roof’s gutters.
This post lists ideas to find “ready-to-install” inexpensive rain barrels (i.e. comes with all the parts) as well as “DIY” rain barrels (converter kit sold separately).
“Ready-to-install” VS DIY Rain Barrels
Buying a “ready-to-install” inexpensive rain barrels is obviously more convenient. But if you are willing to put in a smidge more time and effort, you can probably save even more money buying a “DIY” rain barrel.
How? First, secure a plain reclaimed food-grade barrel (usually a 55-gallon plastic drum) from one of the resources below. Then buy a converter kit and watch a YouTube video (I have a good video at the end of this post). And wah-la!! Working rain barrel.
BEWARE BARRELS WITH HAZADOUS CHEMICALS!
Before we go any further, if you decide to go the “DIY” rain barrel route, I’m compelled to issue this warning. Ensure your barrel did NOT previously hold hazardous chemicals.
For example, auto dealers store their windshield wiper fluid, which is toxic to plants, in drums. Sure the auto dealer may be willing to sell you a barrel for $5, but should you? Do you really want to harvest rainwater to water your vegetable garden with barrel that previously held toxic chemicals?
So while there are other places to find rain barrels for cheap, like auto dealers, industrial waste, construction and insulation companies, even the dump, I’ve understandably left them off this list.
1. Municipalities
If you are looking for a “ready-to-install” rain barrel, your first stop should be through your municipality.
Many municipalities or regional water authorities, including large cities such as San Diego, Chicago, and Washington DC, have comprehensive rain barrel programs that provide discounts, rebates as well as free technical assistance for installation.
These rain barrels are usually high-quality barrels with a classic look secured through major rain barrel manufacturers, such as The Great American Rain Barrel Company and Rain Water Solutions Inc.
The downside of these programs is that they tend to only have barrels at a specified time – usually in the winter or very early spring when the ground is just defrosting and you haven’t organized your spring garden yet! This one below was posted in early February – well before the average homeowner is thinking about summer. Plus, these programs tend to run out of barrels quickly. So if you want to buy a discounted rain barrel through your municipality, you must jump in at the right time.
2. Facebook Groups
You can likely find rain barrels for cheap through Facebook using a few different options. One is directly through Facebook Marketplace or better yet, your local Buy Nothing or Recycle Groups.
These groups are meant to reduce our impact on the environment and build community by neighbors gifting what they no longer need. Join your local group and use the search function to narrow your search to rain barrels.
Another method, and one that I think may be more fruitful, is to join your local or regional Facebook Garden group. Post that you are looking for a free or discounted rain barrel and see what answers pop up from your local expert gardeners. Someone might just have a spare rain barrel stored in their garage.
3. Local Food & Beverage Distributors
Food and beverage manufacturers and distributors deal with a significant number drums on a regular basis. And they might be willing to offload their barrels for free or at low cost.
These companies deal with large quantities of food and liquids, such as sweeteners, syrups, sauces, marinades, alcohols, and oils (vegetable, canola, etc…) And exactly where do these distributors and bottlers commonly store these bulk quantities? Yup, you guessed it – 55-gallon food-grade plastic drums.
A wide range of food and beverage manufacturers are great targets for plastic drums, including:
- Soft drink bottlers
- Juice and water bottlers
- Breweries
- Homebrew supply stores
- Olive or pickle distributors (foods jarred with brine)
Not sure which food and beverage distributors are in your geographic area? Try Googling food distributors or bottling companies in your zip code. Pick up the phone and call your town/city hall or county clerk and see if they maintain a list. There’s a good chance you have a bottler or distributor of well-known food and beverage manufacturers such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Tyson, Mars, or Kraft-Heinz in your town.
Give the company a call, and with a little digging to the right department or employee, you might be able to snag yourself rain barrels for cheap, like this guy did with Pepsi.
4. Craigslist
In my experience, there seems to do nothing that you can’t find on Craigslist…. Seek and you shall find. This online classified platform provides a place for businesses and individuals to sell and trade products and services.
With Craigslist, like the online other marketplaces, you might strike is rich with “ready-to-install” rain barrels for cheap. But you will probably be more successful on Craigslist with securing a drum from a company and converting it into a rain barrel with a converter kit.
When dealing with Craigslist, just ensure you have a thorough understanding of what was previously stored in the drums. You don’t want to end up bringing home a drum that stored hazardous materials.
5. Peer-to-Peer Markets
An alternative to Craigslist is the peer-to-peer online marketplaces, such as LetGo and OfferUp. These options, usually app-based and mobile-friendly, are more in tune to the younger generation. (Admittedly at my age I fall into the Craigslist generation).
Similar to Craigslist, these resources are meant to connect people with buying and selling secondhand good locally. But a benefit of these online marketplaces is the ability to investigate the person selling the items – to determine if they are trustworthy. If you have used Craigslist enough times, you have probably run into a sketchy transaction……
6. Vineyard/Spirits
While this rain barrel resource technically falls under beverage distributor, I felt that this deserved a separate section. Why? Because here you won’t find plain plastic drums. Instead, at vineyards or spirit manufacturers or distributors such as whiskey or bourbon, you encounter fancier oak barrels to convert to rain barrels.
Oak barrels might be more expensive than plastic barrels, but let’s face it, oak barrels are beautiful. If you are willing to pay a bit more (but still a fraction of the cost than store-bought), using an oak barrel as a rain barrel in your yard could be pretty spectacular.
7. Car Wash
Another option for rain barrels for cheap is to stop by your local car wash. Many car washes receive their soaps in 55-gallon barrels, which might work to your benefit.
A downside of buying a rain barrel from a car wash is that you must rinse the barrel several times to thoroughly remove all the soap. And all that rinsing may seem like defeating the whole purpose of conserving gallons of water, right? But consider that you only undergo excess rinsing just once to gain a cheap rain barrel – a rain barrel that you will use for years to come.
Ugly Barrel?
As a side note, barrels from car washes (as well as food/ beverage distributors) are not known for their beauty. Usually these barrels are bright blue and do NOT provide any curb appeal to your house. But don’t worry, this other post talks about 5 different ways to spiffy up a rain barrel, such as painting, covering and planting around it…
Related Post: 5 Ways to Hide an Ugly Rain Barrel (20+ Photos)
8. End of Season Sales
For retail outlets, rain barrels are like most backyard/outdoor products – seasonal. And at the end of the season when they lose their popularity, stores look to offload merchandise for a discount.
If you can’t find a rain barrel within your budget this year, look ahead to next year. Consider waiting until the end of the summer season for potential sales. Keep an eye out at your local hardware and gardening store. Rain barrels take up a considerable amount of storage space, so stores might be willing to offload rain barrels at a discount at the end of the gardening season.
9. Use Trash Barrel
To gather rainwater, all you really need is some sort of vessel to hold water, right? So instead of buying a true rain barrel or food-grade barrel, consider buying a good o’le fashioned durable trash barrel from your local hardware store. Buy a converter kit, and watch this YouTube tutorial from Tasty Home.
How to Make a DIY Rain Barrel
In case you chose the “DIY” rain barrel method and need to connect a converter kit (I’ve heard Algreen rain barrel pump kit recommended for easy installation), here’s a great video from one of my favorite DIY homeowner resources – This Old House.
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