Connected Water Butts Overflowing

[louisec16]

Help please.

I connected a water butt to my downpipe and all was good. I realised it was two small so connected a second water butt to the first with a connecting kit. I couldn't get identical water butts however but both are slimline 100L.

The first water butt still fills ok but the second one overflows the brim. Anyone know how I can stop this from happening?

Many thanks,
Louise

[Bigmallly]

Hello Louise & welcome to the Jungle. Water butts ideally should be fitted to a downpipe with a diverter, this allows excess water to go back down the pipe when the butt is full. You've linked a 2nd butt to the 1st which is good but you are still going to have an overflow problem. You can either link a 3rd butt to the 2nd or start using some of the water. Can you rig some hose from the 2nd butt into a greenhouse or similar so the overflow feeds the beds.

[MarkPelican]

The answer to your question depends a bit on how you've linked your butts together.

If you've linked them so the water can flow in both directions, the water in all the butts should reach the same level. So, if you've used a rain diverter, you need to make sure that the second butt is slightly higher than the first so that the diverter re-diverts back the downpipe before the second starts to overflow.

If you've just linked them so that the water runs out of the first to the second, then the second will overflow.

I link my butts together with a length of hosepipe plunged to the bottom of each. Providing hosepipe is filled when you start, the water will syphon from one butt to the other and keep them both at the same level.