Increasing amount of gutter-feed into rain-water tank

[sendwine]

All down western side of my house I have one long gutter - about 12 metres. There is a downpipe at each end. On the northern end I have just installed a 9,000litre rain-water tank. The tank water inlet is only about 100mm lower than the gutter height. I'm interested in a simple way to get more flow into the rain-water tank.

My idea is to use silicon to build up a 1cm lip inside the gutter around the mouth of the down-pipe on the southern end. This should be tall enough to cause the water from the southern end to flow out the northern end into my tank. In a heavy storm the water would flow over the top of this lip into the down-pipe.

The problem with this is that it would cause water to pool up to the 1cm height on that end of the gutter - causing rust and a nice pond for mosquitos. My solution to this is to either

• (a) leave a 5mm narrow release gap in the lip for slow release; or
• (b) make a hole in the gutter just outside the lip and install a slow-release 5mm line flowing into the downpipe.

What do yuz reckon? Am I dreamin'? Any other work-around suggestions?

[Jacksin]

The last time I did anything like this the gutter was over a shade house area and not easily accessible to re-fall it and it wasnt 12 metres long either. I siliconed a patch with a 10mm hole over the far downpipe so that most of the water built up and eventually went to the other end downpipe into the tank.

Either that or do it properly and re-fall the gutter?

It is going to be there for a long time and short term quick fixes like you have suggested can create more problems, luckily mine didnt

[bricks]

You might be better simply dropping some sort of restrictor into the other downpipe. this would cause it to drain less water than the other.

Make sure you've got overflow on your gutters tho.

[woodbe]

It will work, but make sure you have some sort of drain happening or you will get mozzies and sludge from the water sitting up there in the gutter.

woodbe.