Water Butt Accessories

Many accessories and replacement parts are universal extras which will fit most water butts, however it's aways best to check the manual that came with your container, in case it's necessary to buy accessories which are made exclusively for your particular brand of water barrel.

Obviously it's important to buy accessories that have been manufactured to a high standard so it's often worth reading the reviews of a few previous customers to gauge whether the product you are interested in is reputable. We feature an extensive range of accessories from leading UK stores including B&Q, Tesco Direct, Screwfix, Evergreener, Amazon and Greenfingers, so we're confident you'll be able to find what you're looking for.

There are various accessories which can support your water-harvesting efforts - a submersible electric pump, for example, will allow you to get more pressurised water from your container. 

There are some excellent units from Hozelock, Kingfisher, Silverline and Draper which are ideal for use with water butts - many of them can also be used to pump water from garden ponds and paddling pools. They come with an attachment to connect the pump to a garden hose.

A cheap electric pump 400 watt device, which is capable of pumping around 2,500 to 10,000 litres an hour will cost around £30 to £50, however a deluxe top-of-the range pump is likely to cost upwards of £100 . Battery-powered pumps are also available which is great if you don't have electric outlet anywhere near the location of your water barrel.

Water butt linking kits are excellent for enabling you to connect several containers together. This is ideal for people who want have extensive gardening duties to carry out but don't want to have one giant water barrel in their garden - a linking kit allows them to buy several small units and then chain them together with a series of connector pipes. These kits are fairly cheap at around £5 so they are a very affordable accessory. The connector pipes can be installed to allow water to pass to follow-on butts when the first in the chain becomes full.

If your water butt didn't come with a stand, or you made a do-it-yourself butt from an old plastic wheelie bin or other suitable container, there's the option to buy a stand separately. A stand is crucial to allow you fill a watering can or other water carrier below the tap on a butt. It will also help to create a tad more water pressure by way of gravitational force.

One essential accessory is the rain diverter kit which is is used to effectively direct rainwater from a downpipe into your water butt.

These are easy to fit and it's just a case of using a hacksaw to cut through your downspout and then attaching the diverter to collect the rain water in your rain barrel.

These devices are cleverly designed to prevent excess overflow from the butt when it is filled to capacity, instead allowing excess water to bypass the diverter and continue down the downspout pipe. Water butt diverter kits cost around £10 to £20.

Downpipe plastic or mesh guards are excellent accessories which will stop leaves and other debris getting into your water butt. There are very easy to install and feature flexible slats to enable you to adjust them to fit the width of any downpipe opening.

There are also plenty of cleaning accessories available for cleaning the interior of a water butt. The products available to buy for reducing smells, scum, algae, harmful bacteria and green water come in liquid or tablet form. There are also silver and copper anti-microbial water cleaner discs which use industrial silver which is also found in water purifiers and other cleansing devices. These tablets can destroy fungal and micro-organisms and are also safe to use in ponds, fish tanks, horse troughs and bird baths.

Let's not forget the old faithful watering can that's found in just about every garden in the UK - we feature several types of plastic and gavanised metal cans to cater for all your trips from you butt to your flower beds and greenhouse.

Finally, there are plenty of the little accessories available to keep your water butt in tip-top conditions - the various plastic bolts and screws, plugs, taps and washers that will eventually wear out after several years. And if your downpipe diverter eventually deteriorates, there are plenty of replacement kits available.