Professional rainwater harvesting assumes that you need about 30 watering cans of ten litres each in three weeks. A rain water collector capacity of 300 litres is therefore sufficient.
In addition, this calculation must take into account the size of your garden, the weather conditions and the amount of water required by your plants. If you have the privilege of a very large garden, we recommend a larger rain water collector - or two.

This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. You should inform yourself in detail about the frost protection of the rain water collector before buying.
Generally, it depends on the area you live in. If you live in places where a lot of frost is to be expected, you should empty your barrel. Otherwise, the rainwater can remain in the rain barrel throughout the winter.
However, it is important that you do not fill the rain water collector to the top, as the ice can expand and cause damage.

You have two options to choose from. On the one hand, there is the inexpensive option, whereby you simply take a piece of hose, cut it to size and suck in the water from one barrel. As soon as the water runs out of the hose you put it into the second barrel. The water level will adjust automatically. If you want to connect more than two barrels, you will of course need several pieces of hose.
On the other hand, you can fall back on the professional version. There are special rain barrel connectors for this, which you can get in any DIY store, garden centre or online in our category “Irrigation Systems”.

A rain barrel pump is specially designed for use in the rain barrel and has several advantages. It has a pressure of over one bar, so that the transport of water through a long hose is no problem. In addition, it has a riser pipe that delivers water directly to the top and a shut-off valve that makes it convenient to stop the flow of water, i.e. if you want to fill a watering can.
However, if you need even more power and have adequate storage facilities when not in use, we recommend a garden pump or a domestic water pump. You will also need to provide a place for these pumps that is protected from the wind and weather. In addition, the high effort of commissioning is to be considered with these pumps.

Small cracks can be repaired with a special glue. In case of a bigger damage we recommend you to buy a new barrel. The effort and the costs for material are about the same.