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Comment by Faaak | Hacker News Reader

I collect rainwater and flush my toilet + wash my clothes with it. It's not safe to drink, but it doesn't smell of anything and is nearly transparent.

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I collect rainwater in water butts outside for watering the garden. They stink. What are you doing right that I'm doing wrong?

How often do you clean your rainwater collection receptacles? I clean mine out regularly.

I pressure washed them this spring, and bought new ones to add to them at the same time. How regularly?

No direct sunlight + no direct heat.

Of course, if the system is cycled frequently (i.e. the water doesn't stagnate for months), then it's even better

Rainwater quality is a direct consequence of you local air pollution.

You may not be doing anything wrong and still get a bad result, while somebody else in a different location may do a lot of things wrong and still get good results.

When I lived in Hawaii, we had rainwater catchment as our main/only water supply. We added some bleach to the (10000 gallon) catchment tank once per month and ran it through filters as it entered the house (the last filter was 5µm). Officially, it wasn't potable, but we installed an additional 0.5µm filter on a drinking water tap and never had a problem.

Our neighbor in rural Idaho has been drinking unfiltered rain water for decades without any (observed) ill effects. He did mention that he diverts the first few rainshowers of the year to flush out all the bird poop and debris that collect over the summer.

I’m not sure I’d go that route, but it seems to work for him, and makes an area where wells don’t produce habitable.

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