Should You Keep Water Butts Full Over Winter?

A lot of people empty their water butts in autumn and forget about them until spring. That's a missed opportunity: autumn and winter are when the UK gets most of its rain, so it's when your butts fill fastest. Here's how to keep collecting safely through the colder months.

Keep collecting

There's no need to disconnect or empty your water butts just because it's winter. Plastic water butts cope with cold weather, and a full butt is a reserve that's ready for spring, when the garden starts drinking again and the weather can turn dry quickly. With hosepipe bans in 2026 still running into the autumn in some areas, starting next year with full storage is worth a lot.

The real risk: frost

The weak points in a winter rainwater setup are the small parts that hold water in thin pipes: taps, hoses and fittings. Water expands as it freezes, and a hard, prolonged frost can split a tap or a length of hose. A few simple habits avoid it:

• Watch the forecast. A light overnight frost is rarely a problem. A spell of several days below freezing is when to act.
• Drain exposed hoses before a prolonged freeze, or disconnect and store them.
• Protect taps. A tap cover or a wrap of insulation helps, and leaving a tap slightly open after draining stops water sitting in it.
• Keep lids on. They stop ice forming across the top and keep leaves out.

If you have RAINPOD

RAINPOD keeps every connected water butt or tank topped up through the wet months, and because you draw all your stored water from the pod's own taps, you never need to trek out to the butts in the cold and dark. You don't need to take RAINPOD out of use for the whole winter: mild, wet months are exactly when it does its best work. The one thing to do is drain the pod if a prolonged spell of freezing weather is forecast, then reconnect it once the freeze has passed. That way you keep catching rain right through the winter and only pause it when a hard frost is actually on the way.

Leaves and gutters

Autumn leaves are the other winter job. Blocked gutters overflow before the water ever reaches the downpipe, and leaves washed down the pipe end up in your butts.

• Clear the gutters once most of the leaves have fallen.
• Check your filter. RAINPOD's debris filter pops out in seconds to rinse off leaves and moss.
• Look inside your butts now and then, and scoop out anything that's got in.

A good time to add more storage

If your butts are full after the first autumn storm and water's still pouring down the drain, that's a sign you need more storage, and winter is the ideal time to add it. It'll fill for free before spring. Our guide to saving rainwater at home explains how to work out how much your roof collects and where to put extra butts or tanks.

The short version

Keep your water butts full and connected over winter. Protect taps and hoses when a hard frost is forecast, keep your gutters and filter clear, and you'll start spring with a full reserve of free water.