This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Winter water butts
Copperdog
Posts: 617
Hello can anyone advise me if I should empty the water butts now at the this time of year to prevent freezing? Can I get away with just emptying them by half? I had to replace one last year as it had split underneath (Im sure from being full and the water expanding when frozen) I forgot how expensive it was to replace and don't want to have to do it again! 
Many thanks
0
Posts
We have 4, occasionally they have a little ice on the top, but I dont empty them, I am still using the water to water, 20 indoor orchids, various, plants in 3 greenhouses, although I know they say you should empty and clean them out.
I didn't empty mine last winter and both survived, I have a couple of tennis balls in each butt which is supposed to help if they freeze at the top, I think the ice crushes the balls instead of splitting the butt.
this is the time to give them a good clean and remove all the gunk that's built up in them over the summer and autumn (make sure you put the gunk on your compost pile as its good stuff usually),
it means they'll fill back up with nice clean water ready for spring
Ouch!!! Enough to make your eyes water!!!
Last edited: 08 December 2017 17:04:05
I live in Scotland so plenty of cold weather. I don't bother emptying them, I just leave them to their own devices. I do on occasion empty the pond filtration unit if I remember when I switch the pump off for the winter as that did split on me one year but it is a closed system unlike my water butts.
Thanks for the advice... and the laugh!
Plus, they are piped from sheds and greenhouses, I would have rain going over a concrete path by the sheds.Ahah I remember a rude theme about (water) butts going on earlier in the year on here.
I clean a water butt as it is emptied, what ever the time of year.. I do not want to be doing that in the bitter cold at the momemt.
However I had a fulll waterbut topple over last week which in turn knocked over pots and troughs etc.. I think the ground must not have been level at that point. So yep I will be washing it out but the setting of a level base is more pressing..
I think it will be a bit cold to level frozen ground currently..
Last edited: 09 December 2017 11:28:04
We get a little colder than most of the UK, think Highlands cold I empty my pallet tank water butt as if it were to freeze there isn't any room for it to expand, I also move it into the barn, no need for it to sit outside and get 6 months more UV than it has to, but the smaller open butts (horse watering buckets) get left they have frozen solid on me but it just pops up rather than splitting them thankfully.
Can I ask a question, yesterday a fellow gardener came over and saw I had a larget wheeled trug full of rainwater, he tipped it all out? I said why? He said it was stagnant, but surely the water we collect in our water butts isn't exac moving...
He didn't explain why so any ideas..??