If you really need water in the winter, melt ice. If your going melt snow for drinking, make sure you take mineral tablets with it, because, it will lack the essential mineral that your body and brain needs to function properly. And by the way, snow will take more fuel, lb/lb than ice to melt. Also, if you dont watch your pot when melting snow, you could end up burning your pot, and believe me when I say , some of us army types have found out the hard way.

This is why I love this place. Everyone trying to help find a solution.

Would insulating the tank with straw bales work?

If you really need water in the winter, melt ice. If your going melt snow for drinking, make sure you take mineral tablets with it, because, it will lack the essential mineral that your body and brain needs to function properly. And by the way, snow will take more fuel, lb/lb than ice to melt. Also, if you dont watch your pot when melting snow, you could end up burning your pot, and believe me when I say , some of us army types have found out the hard way.

And remember...the yellow snow IS NOT LEMON FLAVORED!!!

This is why I love this place. Everyone trying to help find a solution.

Would insulating the tank with straw bales work?

That would work if, you have a way to keep the temp above freezing, with a heater of some type, Other wise the water will reach the mean tempurature of the outside.

You might get away with a bubbler.
You might get away with a lot of insulation if it's sitting on a concrete pad that has a foundation below the frost line but you're probably best off just to drain it.
Depends on just how cold it gets there.

Northern Ontario .... only one answer drain it and turn it upside down!

Now i am confused. (which does not take much Lol) I live in barrie and it can get really cold. I have to install a 1000l rain tank For winter. My only option is turn Upside down? I wish there was a way to insulate it to stop water freezing.

Sorry for the confusion J1234. I am in Northern Ontario and there really is only one solution here. Unless you constantly circulate water through the barrel or heat it which would be energy intensive even if it heavily insulated it is probably going to freeze in Barrie as well as here unless it is inside.

Yup, I lived in Angus (west of Barrie) and in Orillia, Both cold enough to freeze a witches nipple in the winter. 😐

I have a couple of questions J1234. What are you going to use the water in the tank for? Can you at least empty the tank in the winter even if you can not turn it over? I beleive there must be a couple of workable cheap solutions for your problem.

Hey there
Why not insulate it with blue foam insulatin on the out side (is there room to get at it) box it in
Then all you would need is a little heat and circulation. Thats the answer these two factors
There are numerous heat and circulation pumps that will run off a 12 volt battery system and a small sollar cell
I my self used an inline block heater from a pick up truck in northern Alberta for my cattle and horse trough supply tank at -40
Hope you find something that works for ya Hobo

I was thinking along the lines of a pssive solar heater but let's see what the intended use is first.

I guess I should ask a similar question, We are hoping to put in a cheap pool in the middle of the garden and a shoot from the roof to it. The ocean freezes here. Will the pool split

This forum is great. And lots of advice. My water tank is for watering the lawn, but also in an emergncy back up water if needed.
I can drain the tank for winter. But I think there would still be 3 or 4 inches of water in it. Would that be ok? I would like a solution that does not takes any power. The power solar cells you are talking about - do you have a website that I can look at?

I have 3 downpipes that I can put into the water tank. Do I need rain deverters ? What I am thinking is just put the downpipes into the tank. During the winter months. I would just open the bottom opening and just let the water run out during the winter.

This would be a cheap and easy solution.
Would this work?