Move down

I stayed in a house on the island of Maui, Hawaii and the place had rain chains.

One night we got torrential rain and wind (quite the experience, just a few feet from the ocean). Anyway, I did notice that they worked very well. The house they were attached to didn't have gutters, but it was build on pylons.

SG

Yes they work very well. I have had one for a couple of months now. I don't have gutters either, but attached it where the rain off the roof comes right down the rain chain. Mine is the tulip rain chain.

Thanks for your responses. These chains are fairly expensive, but my guess is I can come up with putting one together (found a site with parts needed)and am going to try it on one corner of the house. They sure look a lot better than the old downspout and sound of rain is hopefully soothing. Love a good down pour rain.

When we own a home, which will be a blessing after almost 20 years of renting different places where the military moved us, I'm going to get a set nearest the bedrooms!!!

Thanks for replying all of you. With all of our ugly drain spouts, was surprised these were not used more as they appear to work the same and of course have a wonderful melody.

I really want to do this for the back yard (corner of house by bedroom)...and now that it is raining, should have figured out early how to make them. They seem simple in concept and compaired to the retail cost, I'm going to start looking for possibilities.

I've been wondering about these too & don't see how they work in place of gutters unless they are where the roof has a valley. I have a valley right over my front sidewalk & even with gutters and a gutter guard at the bottom of the valley, it overflows & is ruining the sidewalk. Would one of these be able to handle that much flow and keep it from pouring onto the sidewalk?

What's the site you found with parts? I've seen them before, and they look really neat, but even on Overstock.com the prices are prohibitive. Now if I could build them myself, on the other hand...

Blue, the site I found along with others were too expensive for my taste also. They appear so simple and why I posted to see if other's had an idea for creating. My first thought was small funnels connected together. But by the time enough were bought, unless at a dollar store, this idea could add up.

All these are made up of small funnels, similar to metal squares which have been rolled like a cake decorator tube and connected by chain. I guess one could buy or find an old sheet of metal and cut this, roll and punch holes in for connecting. Others are just a few feet of chain. Of course I'd like the interesting ones.

Marti, these wouldn't solve your gutter leak problem. They are an alternative to the standard downspout. The rain/water runs from the normal opening of the gutter located on your roof, down to the ground. Looking at the connnection it is just a wire about the size of a coat hanger which has been bent to hang over the opening at top and loop the rain chain over.

Any ideas from you would be welcome, I am keeping my eyes open for inexpensive possibilities. Anything in the form of a funnel with opening at top and bottom would work.

I bought my rain chain a few months back - we stayed at a resort in the appalachians that had them instead of downspouts. Love the sound, and if you collect the water you can use if for your little container plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Double Link Rain Chain I bought