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The short answer: a water butt is simply the British word for a rain barrel. The one complete, standalone unit worth buying here is the Relaxdays foldable 250-litre butt, which arrives finished with taps, a leaf-guard lid and an overflow. If you already own a barrel, the diverter, tap, cover and linking kit below are what actually make it work. US shoppers get a far wider choice under rain barrels.
A word on the term. “Water butt” is what the rest of the English-speaking world calls a rain barrel — a roof-fed container that stores rainwater for the garden, with a tap at the base. If you are shopping on US Amazon, be aware that the phrase returns a thin and oddly assorted catalog, while “rain barrel” returns hundreds of proper, well-priced units. This page ranks what is genuinely sold as a water butt: one complete barrel, and the fittings that turn any barrel into a working one. For the mainstream American selection, our rain barrel guide is the better starting point.
What Makes a Water Butt Work
A water butt is only as good as the small pieces around it. Whether you buy a complete unit or build one, five things decide whether it fills, stays clean and lasts:
- Capacity. How much a downpour actually banks. A 250-litre butt holds roughly 66 gallons; smaller ones overflow fast.
- The diverter. The fitting that routes downpipe water into the butt and the overflow back to the drain. Without it, the butt never fills.
- The tap. The part that fails first. A metal, frost-resistant tap outlasts the flimsy plastic spigots barrels ship with.
- A cover or lid. Keeps leaves and mosquitoes out and light off the water, which keeps it clean and usable.
- Expandability. A linking kit lets a second barrel catch the overflow, doubling stored capacity cheaply.
The Water Butt Gear at a Glance
Our #1 Pick: Relaxdays Foldable 250L Water Butt
The Relaxdays foldable butt is the only complete, standalone water butt in this group, and that alone earns it the top slot: everything else here is a fitting that assumes you already own a barrel. It is a 250-litre (about 66 gallon) collapsible container with two taps, a leaf-guard lid and a built-in overflow.
What it does better than the others. It is finished. Two taps mean you can fill a watering can from one and keep a hose connected to the other; the leaf-protection lid keeps debris out without a separate cover; and the overflow handles a full barrel without flooding. The folding body is the unusual touch — it collapses flat for winter or between seasons, which a rigid barrel cannot do, so it does not have to occupy a corner of the yard year-round.
Where it is weak. The honest caveat is the review base: this is a thin and young listing, so the long-term durability picture is far less certain than for the mature rain barrels in our dedicated guide. A collapsible wall is inherently less rugged than a rigid one, and a full 250-litre butt is heavy enough that it needs level, stable ground. For most US buyers a conventional rigid rain barrel is the more proven purchase; choose this one specifically if the fold-flat storage matters to you.
Check price on Amazon → (paid link)
The Water Butt Gear, Ranked
Best for the buyer who wants a finished, standalone water butt rather than gear to build one
- 250-litre (about 66 gallon) collapsible barrel
- Two taps for filling watering cans and connecting a hose
- Lid with leaf protection and a built-in overflow
- Folds flat for storage out of season
Why buy it: This is the only complete, standalone water butt in the group — a finished 250-litre barrel with taps, a leaf-guard lid and an overflow, rather than a kit of fittings. If you want to buy one thing and start collecting, this is it; the folding body also stores flat when the season ends.
Best for routing water from a gutter downpipe into whatever butt or barrel you already have
- Diverts rainwater from the downpipe into a butt
- Catches and redirects flow without cutting the whole pipe out
- Recycles rainwater that would otherwise go to the drain
- Works with greenhouse and standard guttering
Why buy it: A water butt is only useful once water reaches it, and this downpipe diverter is what does that job. It intercepts flow from the gutter and sends it into the butt, returning the overflow to the drain, so an empty barrel actually fills the next time it rains.
Best for greenhouse guttering that needs an elbow-and-downpipe run to reach a butt
- Downpipe and elbow fittings for greenhouse gutters
- Channels roof runoff down toward a collection butt
- Drainage accessory for guttering that lacks a spout
- Simple push-fit assembly
Why buy it: Greenhouse gutters often have nowhere to send their water, and this down-pipe kit gives them a path to a butt. It is the plumbing between a greenhouse roof and a barrel, turning a run of runoff that used to spill onto the ground into collected water.
Best for replacing a flimsy plastic tap on an existing butt with a proper dual-outlet one
- Two outlets — fill a can and run a hose at once
- Nickel-plated copper, rust and frost resistant
- Includes two hose connectors
- Fits water butts, garden taps and washing machines
Why buy it: The tap is the part of a water butt that fails first, and this dual-outlet metal one upgrades a cheap plastic original. Two outlets let you fill a watering can and keep a hose connected at the same time, and the metal body shrugs off the frost that cracks plastic spigots.
Best for keeping leaves, debris and mosquitoes out of an open-topped butt
- Five drawstring mesh covers, roughly 60cm across
- Blocks leaves, debris and mosquito access
- Drawstring holds the net over the barrel rim
- Cheap way to keep collected water cleaner
Why buy it: An open butt collects leaves and breeds mosquitoes; a mesh cover stops both for a few dollars. The drawstring cinches it over the rim, keeping debris out of the water so the tap does not clog and the barrel does not turn into standing sludge.
Best for joining two barrels together so they fill and drain as one larger reservoir
- Links two butts into a single connected reservoir
- 0.5-metre connector pipe with fittings
- Lets a second barrel catch the first one overflow
- Simple bolt-through installation near the base
Why buy it: One butt fills fast in a downpour and then overflows; linking a second one doubles the capacity you actually keep. This kit joins two barrels near the base so they equalise and fill together, turning wasted overflow into a second barrel of stored water.
Quick Comparison
| Product | Best for | Rating | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relaxdays Foldable Water Butt, 250 L, 2 Taps, with Lid | Best Complete Water Butt — Relaxdays 250L | — | Check (paid link) | |
| HEITIGN Rainwater Collection Downpipe Diverter Kit | Best Downpipe Diverter — HEITIGN | — | Check (paid link) | |
| Atyhao Greenhouse Water Butt Down Pipe Kit | Best Down-Pipe Kit — Atyhao | — | Check (paid link) | |
| Dual-Outlet Copper Nickel-Plated Water Butt Faucet | Best Butt Tap — Dual-Outlet Faucet | — | Check (paid link) | |
| Water Butt Mesh Covers with Drawstring (5-Pack) | Best Butt Cover — Mesh Nets | — | Check (paid link) | |
| Water Butt Connecting Kit, 0.5m Link Pipe (3-Piece) | Best Linking Kit — Connector Pipe | — | Check (paid link) |
How to Choose Between Them
Want one finished barrel to start collecting? The Relaxdays foldable butt. Need to get water from the gutter into it? The HEITIGN diverter for a standard downpipe, the Atyhao down-pipe kit for greenhouse guttering. Replacing a leaky plastic tap? The dual-outlet metal faucet. Keeping the water clean? The mesh cover pack. Doubling capacity? The linking kit to join a second barrel.
Because the water-butt catalog on US Amazon is so thin, most American readers will do better buying a proven rigid barrel and adding a proper diverter. Start with the best rain barrels, add a rain barrel diverter to fill it cleanly, and if you want the stored water to run your beds automatically, pair it with a hose timer.
How We Research Water Butts
We do not physically test these products. Our ranking is built from the consensus of verified owner reviews, manufacturer specifications and the accumulated advice of rainwater-harvesting communities. Several items on this page have small or young review bases — a genuine limitation of the water-butt catalog on US Amazon — and where a listing has too little verified data to trust, the cards show no invented rating rather than a made-up one. That absence is deliberate and honest. We weight long-tail reviews over launch-window ones, and star figures on the cards are pulled from live Amazon listing data, never hand-typed. Prices were current at the time of writing. Full method on how we rank.
The Verdict
If you specifically want a complete water butt, the Relaxdays foldable 250-litre is the one finished unit here worth buying, with the honest caveat that its review record is still thin. For everyone building or upgrading a barrel, the HEITIGN diverter, the dual-outlet tap, the mesh cover and the linking kit are the pieces that make it work. And most US buyers will be better served starting from the best rain barrels instead. Browse the rest of the watering and irrigation hub, or every guide in resources. Check the current Relaxdays water butt price on Amazon → (paid link)