Algreen Products Athena Rain Barrel 80-Gallon, Terra Cotta

Barrel looks great. You must saw off the seals on the plastic tubes near the top for overflow. Sawing was a snap, but finding a way to connect the tubes to a hose (directing overflow to another container or to a plant) was not the easiest task I ever performed. Outside diameter is too large for any available hose-and-clamp approach. Solution: the pictured adapter I found in the irrigation dept. of Home depot. Waiting now for our first monsoon here in Tucson.

The "one star" is a gift. I had to enter at least that much.Cheap plastic fixtures. The base spout snapped off leaving a nearly impossible to fix hole. Poor design with a spigot that is prone to this type of breakage.Overall this item seems overpriced for what you get. I'd say stay more basic in your pursuit of rain collection.The inevitable damage has rendered my purchase useless. Shameful.

This is the second rain barrel I have purchased and is a similar style to the first. I really like the ability to place plants on the top of it, but unlike my other one, you can't separate the planter. This presents a problem in two ways: One, there is no way for the planter to drain (unless you want it draining directly into your barrel, which kind of defeats the purpose of keeping it clean), so you have to put plants that are tolerant of holding a lot of water. When it does rain, the planter quickly fills with water, but since it has no way to drain, I have to tip the whole thing to remove the water sitting in the planter portion, which is a tricky task with 80 gallons of water inside. Overall it's a nice looking barrel, and I have received compliments on it. Also, it functions well when using it to fill watering cans (the faucet is high enough to fit a can underneath).

We've been using this rain barrel for a few months now. We haven't had a problem with leaking or bulging; we did put the spigots on using plumber's tape. The front spigot is brass, the back connector for a hose is plastic. We considered replacing the back connector but its mount on the barrel is plastic as well so we left it for now. The back hose connector is so low to the ground (to get all the water out presumably, and it helps with water pressure/flow rate) that one has to be careful to place the rain barrel so that the connector does not get broken off. From a distance this rain barrel looks nice. Up close it looks kind of cheap and the seams on the sides where the molded plastic came together are a visual detraction. But I haven't found better looking ones out there yet, so it wouldn't prevent me from buying another one. I think the price is high for basically a large amount of molded plastic, but it is serving its purpose. We do not use the planter section for plants as it's not particularly conducive for that. Instead we drilled small holes into the planter section to further help with water collection since we are collecting off a T-section of roofing that has no gutter and thus the water trajectory can arc out a varied distance depending upon the heaviness of the rainfall. We use mosquito dunks: Summit 20-Pack Mosquito Dunk to help with bugs breeding in the water, and one could also put window screening on top of each section, and place decorative rocks on top of that in order to further help with that problem, but gnats can get through window screening. A side note: our UPS driver in our rural area was loathe to deliver this pkg because of the very large box it comes in, so UPS kept delaying delivery.

New rain barrel has two pin hole leaks on the left side seam toward the bottom. Purchased it in May but didn't get rain water until recently. It's too bad, I like the design and the capacity for the price. If you buy one, I recommend checking for leaks as soon as you get it. Don't wait for rain to fill it.

I now have 6 of these and may buy a few more to gang together under the heaviest-running scuppers. We've collected 1,600 gal just this year and now have a 2,500 gal holding tank that we drain these into to keep these empty and ready to collect the precious little rainfall that we get in Arizona. My husband bought a pump that works with regular hoses so we can send what we catch in the rain barrels to the larger holding tank. It looks like we'll be able to meet all our garden water needs just with captured rain -- important in this arid region that's also in a severe drought.The reviewer(s) who have noted the crummy plastic fittings are right -- you should replace these with metal ones but this is inexpensive and easy and worth the time and trouble. Also, we drilled a few holes in the basin that is made for potting plants and instead of planting anything there, we use the basin as an extra catch; it may hold several gallons and expands your collection area -- important during our few but heavy rains.We're in AZ, have a stucco home with a flat roof.The color of these works well with our house and surroundings and is way more attractive than most other alternatives (think big blue barrels) -- and more expensive -- but avoiding the eyesore is worth it.Our plants LOVE the rainwater so much more more than the municipal stuff. There is an immediate, fantastic response to being watered with rainwater. Looking forward to the monsoons this summer!

This is in no way decorative or anything resembling terra cotta. It just looks like ugly orange plastic. To top that off, the grate where the water comes in was cracked before I even unwrapped it. I would not buy this product or recommend it.

These are really attractive rain barrels but they are not well made. I purchased 3 and, thanks to prior reviews, tested them all right away. Of the 3, one leaked badly and had to be sent back. They look really nice but couldn't Canada do a better job with construction?