Rain Harvesting Pty Ltd DDCR99 Clean Rain Ultra Downspout Diverter

DO NOT BUY! I have owned and operated mine for two Spring-to-Winter seasons as part of my rain barrel collection system. At the start of the third season the unit has completely failed. This tracks with other reviewers who bother to come back and update or add reviews after at least 2 years.1) *** THIS IS THE KILLER FLAW *** The leather washers that implement the first flush valve do not last. The manufacturer is not responsive regarding ordering replacements or advising on what else to do to make a cost effective repair. I have read elsewhere on the web from other owners that I may be able to get one more season out of the device if I put some rubber washers into the mix if I can find some that are the same size as the leather washers when they are dry. As it stands I am getting a trickle of rain regardless of which way the on/off switch is set. In the future I will either forgo a first flush valve in my rain barrel collection system or I will use one of the other available designs for a first flush valve that require little to no maintenance for continued operation.2) The vibrating leaf guard lets water splash over and out -- A LOT! The ground underneath the device is always wet after a rain. I wanted a self contained system that would not leak. This unit fails miserably in this regard. Yes, I have it seated properly. Yes, I clean the vibrating leaf guard regularly.3) If like me you put a 3" schedule 40 PVC connector over the in/out port then that also leaks but at a drip rate. I don't want to use PVC cement there because there is a filter that you need to be able to clean. I suspect that if you use the standard in/out port with a garden hose or two that this will not leak until its rubber gasket wears out. Unfortunately that same rubber gasket does not work with the 3" PVC connector. I don't see a way to get a snug fit here without using latex caulk that must be replaced every time you take off the piece to clean the filter.4) The screw holes in the back of the unit leak. This is also at a drip rate and I can put some latex caulk here to stop this leak.The item has good esthetics which is why I bought it in the first place over other options. The swivel feature is also neat although I don't need it and that feature may well be yet another source of leaking.

We purchased 4 of these to use for our off-grid house. They were installed in July 2011. We use solely harvested rainwater, with no other water supply, so both effective filtration and effective water collection are essential.These units looked great and have a very clever design, which would be outstanding if it actually worked. There's a part in the lower tube which expands when exposed to water, with the idea that after a small amount of rain has fallen, it seals off and diverts the remainder of the rainfall to the cistern. Unfortunately, we're consistently disappointed with the devices' ability to actually collect water. High-flow situations generally occur before the expander has absorbed enough water to shunt any water to collection, so all of the water is lost rather than sent to the cistern, even though the roof should effectively be 'washed' within the first minute or two. Even more problematic, the expander doesn't work adequately for slow, steady rain, either: even with prolonged low-flow, there's enough of a gap even after expansion that practically all of the water is lost.We had an entirely full cistern when the units were installed, and in our prior experience, about 3 months of typical rainfall is all it took to fill the cistern (which holds about 18 months of water). After not quite 2 years with these filtration devices, however, our cistern is nearly empty due to inadequate collection. We're going to have to replace these units very soon or else truck in water.Its one redeeming feature is that the leaf-screening portion of the device does work just as designed, and is one of the best large-debris removal systems we've tried, though it does splash a great deal of water out of that portion as well, further contributing to poor collection rates. When we rework our filtration this summer, we plan to keep that portion of the device, while removing the first-flush system which works so poorly -- I don't think the amount lost to the leaf-screener will be a problem once the rest works properly, but that's because we have a very large roof. If you need to maximize water collection, you'd be better off with a floating-ball-valve first-flush system.This device might be adequate if you only need to collect a small amount of rainwater, but particularly given its price, it's not a system I would recommend to anyone.

When I first purchased this item I was very happy. It took only a couple of rainfalls to fill my rain barrel. I was so happy that I purchased a second unit three months after the first. After the first year I noticed my rain barrels were empty even after several heavy rainfalls. I removed both units from the house and dis-assembled the units so I could see why they were no longer working. I found that the leather washers were no longer expanding enough to cause the unit to close and divert water to my tanks. So essentially all the water was going down the drain. Since I have no idea where to purchase replacement leather washers, I came up with the idea to add a few stainless washers to the stack, hoping the additional height would be enough to close the diverter. I was partly successful. One diverter is operational again and the other still doesn't work. For the price of this diverter, I expected a more reliable device. The device is an ingenious design, unfortunately the implementation is very poor.