Rain Chain and Barrel Water Catcher for Canalis

Note - model has been revised with decorative caps for the mounts when funnels are removed for the winter. It’s a big enough revision that it became a new model - https://makerworld.com/en/models/699259. This older model will be deleted soon because the decorative caps don’t fit this version.

If you have canalis you know they are a pain to put a rain barrel under. You can cut holes in the canalis but that's drastic IMO. Dams risk flooding back onto the roof. This model tries to address some of these issues. I'm using Monarch rain chains for this, available at Walmart and Amazon. Probably other places. But they are hoops about 2.1" in diameter and the copper itself is about 0.15" in diameter.

The base gets attached to the underside of the canali with four stout wood screws so it should hold even ice buildups but there is a no-tool dovetail joint that allows you to just lift the funnel off the base. If there's ice coming it literally takes longer to place a ladder and climb up than to just lift the funnel off. The dovetail joint is under the canali so not much worry about ice or even water on it. It seems very secure, though, and especially with the weight of the rain chain on it.

The funnel is below the canali drip edge (at least on my house) so there should be no danger of flooding back onto the roof. Worst that happens is you get a waterfall not unlike what the canali would give you anyway. The funnel is also wide - 9" - so this will catch most all of the water except if it is coming too fast and the funnel floods or there are little trickles that may go wider along the drip edge.

My first version didn't have an additional splash ring around the rain chain where it attaches and water could exit the base of the funnel with enough sideways motion to leave the chain and miss the rain barrel below. This model has a sleeve that stops a lot of that and the water drumming on the tops of the rain barrels startled my wife in a recent rain. We’re catching that much more water onto and down the rain chains. Next to do are bowls with something in them to diffuse the splashes and kill the noise.

Added 4/7/24 - We had snow and ice hit and the chains started icing up adding weight to the canalis - bad. It took longer to set the ladder but I just lifted each funnel up off the dovetail holders and lowered them onto the rain barrels. It literally took just a couple of minutes total per canali (most was setting the ladder at each canali) to bring them all down. Later this morning I’ll reverse the process and put them all back up again. Makes rain chains trivially easy to put up and take down and makes it easier to set them early to harvest more water without worrying about having to pull them down.

My first set was printed with PLA but showed minor heat deformation over the summer. Reprinted in PETG HF for more temperature resistance and so far so good.