see the video on the ‘start to finish’ page for DIY kit assembly (wait for it…) or scroll down a little ways for a 50 sec. vid
other than that, here are the 7 steps:
- Rain falls
- Your diverter filters and directs 99%* of rain from downspout into 2 lines or garden hose (both adapters included)
- Line runs underground to your RainBench™ reservoir and connect to its lower fitting
- Water fills all your reservoirs equally from bottom
- When full, water overflows the upper fitting, direct to rain garden or back to downspout
- Water your plants with rain from your benches, they love it.
- Repeat. You save water, just by sitting there…
An actual installation looks like this:
To see a video of the above system, installed in 2009 (in the beginning!), play the video below:
To make a bench that catches water that falls on it, here is a recent retrofit for the cap:
http://www.secondrain.com/test/ 2015/03/retrofit-rain-collecting-cap/
If you’re looking for how a standard Rain Bench actually is built, here is a 50 sec video showing Scott throwing one together (keep in mind many stores will do the large panel cuts for you for free, but Scott cuts them here):
We’ll do a blog for pump/ hose reel hookups soon, but here are a few simple examples…
The pump here is a 1/2 hp Wayne pump, self priming ($110), and hose is a self-retracting Flexzilla Air hose -also works for water ($60) and a few misc fittings to adapt it to garden hose.
The hose shutoff hanger is simply 2 screws, and access is a door at the end of a long cedar rain bench.
This is pretty much the same setup, found inside the bar in the above video. The middle of the stone cap separates and comes off to access this, although it’s not really needed other than possibly pulling the pump in winter.
Lookalikes?
Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The one on the left was our very first pump hookup with a retracting air/ water hose. Not pretty but it was under a deck and it still works just fine, 6 years later!
To see a video that the neighbor recorded while Scott was there making some improvements, and see the water pressure from this pump, watch the video below:
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