Hello,

I bought 6 used rain barrels on Craigslist. They are commercially made, but I don't know the brand. I need help hooking them up!

1) Will I need to unhook them in the winter? (I'm in Maryland) If not, I was thinking about bending my downspouts to direct them into the barrels. If I will need to hook the downspouts back up in the fall, I was going to use flexible downspouts to connect from the cut metal downspout to the barrel. Just need to save $ wherever possible!

2) The tops of the barrels are hard plastic with a few holes, maybe 2 cm. Bolted to underside of the top is a flat metal flexible disk, a little smaller than the lid. I think the idea is that water can get in but it would be tricky for mosquitoes? There is no screen. Does this sound OK?

3) The guy who sold them to me said to cut a hole in the plastic top to put the downspouts in. Done. But should I cut the metal too? I don't want to just bend the metal disk where the water goes in, because I think it would pull the metal away from the 2 cm holes and allow mosquito access. Hope this makes sense! I'm just nervous about making permanent changes I might regret later.... I would imagine during a storm there will be a huge torrent of water and unless I cut the metal to make a clear path there will be trouble. I know this sounds silly. I'm just paranoid about making a mistake!

4) To allow for overflow, there are openings at the top. Should I just hook a short piece of hose to it and direct it away from the house? Is there a better way to handle this?

Thanks for helping me!

Ann