Oatey 14209 Mystic Rainwater Collection System Fits 2" X 3" Residential Downspouts, white

I bought this with muted expectations based on the somewhat mixed reviews. However, after installing it and observing it during the first rain storm, I honestly can't figure out why so many people have trouble with this incredibly simple and very effective rain collector. 1. This fit the gutters which were on my house like a glove. It's not going to work for you if your gutters are the wrong size so measure first if your gutters look like they are a non-standard size. 2. When run into my sealed rain barrel, this thing collected almost all of the water during the first rain storm. I would say upwards of 90%. When it started raining hard, I went out several times to monitor the barrels, and there was only a trickle coming from the gutter, but I could hear the torrent of water flowing into the barrel. It easily filled one 55g barrel after about 3 hours of on-an-off moderate rain. Good think I have three more to integrate! 3. Cutting the gutters is a bit of a pain without a nicer hack saw. I only had a cheap one, but I found it much easier to start with the saw, and then finish with tin snips. Installation took about 20 minutes, and went smoothly. 4. The included hose was kinked when it arrived, but feeding it over a piece of PVC pipe and hitting it with a blowdryer relaxed it considerably. 5. The hose actually fits very nicely over a 1" PVC sleeve. Lowes has a PVC connector which is 3/4" threaded on one side, with a 1" slip coupling on the other side. This $0.47 fitting threaded perfectly into the threaded bung on the barrel cap, and the hose fits snugly enough over the slip coupling to make a water tight seal. 6. In general, the product is well build, well designed, and looks attractive when installed. It even has the same texture/pattern that my gutters have.

I harvest the rainwater from my roof gutters and this diverted does all the work. Easy to install and maintain.

Quality product.

I have so far made three rain barrel setups with two of them using the Oatey Mystic Rainwater Collection System. The Oatey Mistic collector is a well engineered and efficient method to divert rainwater from you downspout to you rain barrel. This collection system is designed so that when the barrel is full the water then backs up the fill tube causing the water to then go down the leader and away from your house.This unit itself is made of quality plastic with easy step by step instructions. You should be conferrable on the use of basic hand tools to do the cutting. I used a 4"hand grinder with a cut off wheel to cut the downspout and I had removed the downspout to cut it instead of cutting in place. You do need a file to remove excess material caused by the cut. This diverted the water with no problems whether it was a light rain or a heavy rain. This is why I gave this 5 stars. The biggest problem of this system is connecting the 1-1/4 ID hose to your rain barrel. I am a master gardener and I am doing a fund raiser making rain barrels. We were able to get donated food grade plastic barrels from Coke to use for these rain barrels. These barrels have two bung opening that have a 2-1/2 buttress thread. There is no direct connection from these bung openings to the 1-1/4 hose. You can purchase a bung adapter to a 2" npt thread, 2" npt to 1-1/4 bushing and a 1-1/4 hose barbb. This is expensive about $25.00 total.This is my best solution to solve this problem . Get a Apollo 1-1/4 in Dia adapter plastic coil fitting (lowes item #22741) You should be able to get this same adapter at any plumbing store just make sure it is made out of metal. Put a 1-1/2 in the top of the barrel with a wood bit or a hole saw. You then have to force the platic coil fitting into the hole. Push down on the fitting while turning with a very large pipe wrench. This take quite a bit of effort to get started but it will work. You can purchase a 1-1/4 npt tap off of ebay you maybe able to find one at a realizable price.The other thing you have to do is put a vent tube on your rain barrel. With my barrel the bungs had 3/4 npt thread all ready molded into the bung. Use a 15/16 wood bit and drill out the bottom of the 3/4 npt thread. Install a threaded hose barbb, I used a 3/4 npt to 3/8 id tubing barbb. I rain the 3/8 Id vinyl hose up the diverted hose using wire ties to attach it . Make sure the vent hose opening is above the Oatey rain diverter. In all this is a very good unit and I hope this help any one setting up a rain barrel.

Stupid me purchased this for my Swimming Pool I live in Australia all our measurements are metric so 3inches by 2 inches don't fit, well made good quality