I have got both our water butts installed and linked together. Unfortunately, both sides of the link between them seem to be leaking. Neither is dribbling water at a particularly fast rate but a tiny trickle is enough to add up to a lot of water over a few hours and certainly more than I want to add to the concrete directly in front of the house.

Last night I bought some silicon sealant and applied it to one of the fixings. Next time it rains, I will check to see if it has done the trick and, if so, apply it to the other side as well. Surely it would not be difficult for the manufacturers to come up with a more leak resistant design though? In particular, I would like to have a stop tap on the input pipe; during the winter, there will be long periods where we don’t need more water or (when temperatures drop to freezing) that we don’t want any stored at all. I am sure I can figure out a way to hack a tap onto the input but I am surprised that this does not seem to be available as an off-the-shelf kit.

Ah well. At least I can look forward to a good store of rainwater for the garden.