It's has been great so far after a month of use.

Excellent barrel. Nice thick and solid BPA-free plastic contruction. The front valve is brass and mounted mid-way up to fill a bucket without sediment. The back has a plastic valve at the very bottom to attach a hose. There are two easily drillable fill and overflow points in back at the top which I use with a sprinkler system tap to maintain an full emergency drinking water reserve. Drop in a solid .999 fine silver coin for permanent crystal clear algae and microorganism free water. I replaced the flimsy plastic grille with a 12" diameter rubber edge universal frying pan lid for a good seal.

This barrel is beautiful! It is very lovely on the corner of my house with all my landscaping plants. It has no seams to leak. I did use the provided Teflon tape to install the two spigots and they do not leak. I have no idea what the hose hanger hook goes on--there was no diagram and it isn't self evident.

Many reviewers complained about the planter area filling with water. I drilled a few holes in bottom of the the planter so it would drain into the barrel, but since the barrel has no overflow outlet, the first heavy rain overflowed out of the top of the barrel and washed my soil and seeds out of the planter. I will come up with a solution, either installing my own overflow kit or connecting this barrel to another downhill via the back drain.

I had read the other reviews before I bought it. Others had complained about the spigot: and yes, that's the only thing that lets this barrel down. Mine also came with a "junk" plastic one. After I screwed it in, I could hardly get my hands on it to turn the valve. So I went to Lowes and bought a brass one for a couple of Dollars. Works great now. The irony is that the image even shows a brass one!!!!

The barrel looks good when placed in a garden setting with potted plants around it; do not make it the center piece of your garden. I planted wild flower seeds in the top planter and water by hand daily, looks good; as noted by another owner, do not overwater. I will be ordering at least two more of these to get at least 300 gallons of storage for that particular planter area. I have 4 different styles of rain barrels from 4 different makers to compare. Three have a spigot nearly halfway up the front, and the water pressure at that point is too low & not worth using. Only order a rain barrel with an access point at the bottom of the barrel to get full advantage of the water pressure and access of all the water in the barrel. Also this barrel has an opening at the top large enough to allow a 2 gallon bucket access to get faster watering of my plants. I used 8 each concrete blocks, 8" x 8" x 16" and 4 each 16" x 16" pavers to make a 32" x 32" platform; this raises it just enough to allow ease of access to the bottom spigot at the bottom rear of the barrel and attach a hose and to be able to access all of the water in the barrel. I leave the spigot open and place the open end of the attached hose into the wire holder at the top of the barrel. To water the adjacent garden area I only have to pull the hose end from the wire holder and lower below the water level in the barrel. This barrel is decorative enough for my front yard planter area. My other barrels are more utilitarian and hidden in less visible areas. I recommend less expensive and less eye appealing barrels for less conspicuous areas.