Downspouts for home decor.

Beautiful, practical and functional, we love our copper rain chains for year round exterior home decor artistry. Rainchains they come in a variety of materials, shapes and designs. Whenever we post videos of our rainchains on Facebook they go viral, and people want to know more about them, so we’re sharing some of that info and videos here for you.

Topics Covered:

• Where can I buy rain chains?
• Where do the rain chains attach?
• Do the rain chains make sounds when it rains?
• What does the rain chain run into at the bottom?

Other Names for Rain Chains

• Rain Chimes
• Drain Chain
• Rain Bells
• Water Chain
• Gutter Chain Drain

Rain Chain Questions

Q. Where can I buy rain chains?

A. You can get them from your local home stores, such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, and even Walmart. You may want to price check first between in-store and online prices.

We purchased our rain chains from Amazon.

Here’s a cool slow motion video of our rain chain: 

Q. Where do the rain chains attach?

A. These attach to the under side of the hole in your gutter downspouts. Make sure the rainchain you buy has the attachment part to it, (if it doesn’t say so in the description then it’s not likely included, but most seem to include them). You can however, buy rain chain attachment kits separately, if your favorite one doesn’t come with it.

Q. Do the rain chains make sounds when it rains? 

A. Some people call these “rain bells” or “rain chimes”. While these do may a pleasant kind of resonant tinkling rain sound, it’s not really a ringing. You can tune into the sound in the video below, which is similar to others that we’ve heard. The main reason for this name is likely due to the bell shape common to many designs.

Q. What does the rain chain run into at the bottom?

A. It’s up to you. We have several scenarios for ours:

• Rain chain basins. We used to have a ceramic pot-like bowl similar to this one, but we were concerned with the possibility of standing water and mosquitos, so now…
• It just flows over large river rocks similar to these. We got ours delivered by a rock supplier in a half-truckload for an area of landscaping. But if you only need a bucket full you can get them from your local home store.
• The other way is we have them trailing into rain barrels (you can see what we’ve done here). We then use these barrels to gravity water our plants.

And… here are a couple videos of our copper rainchains, (though you can’t see the copper color in these videos due to lighting and since copper turns darker with age.

Rain Chain Video in Spring

Rain Chain Video in Summer

Rain Chain Video in Winter

If you’re interested in a brief article on rainy days and a couple of short inspiring playing-in-the-rain videos here. And our garden poetry article includes a positive rewrite of the “Rain, Rain, Go Away” song.

The Environmental Benefits of Rain Chains

By Sally Kirkpatrick

All water collected in a sewer must be treated by municipalities. So any runoff you can keep out of the system helps keep costs down. Letting the water percolate through your soils cleans it and it can flow as groundwater, more naturally.

Structures such as houses and paved areas take away much of the natural water filtration system. This can be just a little piece to returning some of it.

How Rain Chains Work

You remove the downspout of your gutters and have the chain hang from the gutter. Water will follow the chain down. From there you can have the water go into a flower bed or lawn. Rain chains allow the rain from your roof to be used instead of going into the street or sewer.

Pretty and Artistic

Rain chains are pretty or artistic, some are just a large chain, allowed to rust. You can have a pile of rocks below it to avoid erosion under it. It can make quite a hole in the soil. Or you can have it go into a bowl or curved platter and use that as a bird bath or watering for birds and bees.

Rain chains allow the rain from your roof to be used instead of going into the street or sewer.
~Sally Kirkpatrick, teacher, crafter of handmade rain chains

Handmade Rain Chains by Sally Kirkpatrick

Wishing you great gardens and happy harvests!