Refitting a Great American rain barrel with a new heavy duty spigot.

Refitting a Great American rain barrel with a new heavy duty spigot.

I purchased a rain barrel from the city. It is the usual recycled food barrel painted and fitted to be a rain barrel from Great American Rain Barrel Co. The spigot is a small flimsy device that looks like the spigot from a 40 cup coffee maker fitted with a garden hose thread. It does not flow well, and can be tricky to operate.

So I started researching alternatives, and found it at Aquabarrel, another rain barrel vendor. They sell a bulkhead fitting with the valve and thread converter for $22 plus shipping. I ordered one and received a rugged part in the mail several days later.

Start out by disassembling the top cap, screen and tray. Put the barrel on its side.

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Step 1The old spigot

Here is the old spigot. It threads into the barrel directly, so if you move it from top to bottom (as I had to) you are very worried about stripping the threads.

It is very flimsy too. Hence this Instructable.

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Sep 20, 2010. 10:39 AMOldbear says:

You sir, are a genius. We had the same issue on our first two barrels, but the top hole was the whole top. My latest barrel top hole is only big enough for the downspout and a bit of breathing room... I used a whole beer trying to figure out how to get the fitting in there...

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