Anything I should be doing before the extreme cold? The plan is to cover the spigot, and then drain about 5 gallons of water to ensure ice doesn't break the screen.

I drain mine for winter and leave faucet open.

Just drain them and since they will be empty you have an excuse to clean them.

Seems an ODD ????........It's Rainwater.....It will thaw.....

If its a hard freeze like what they are calling for it will be enough to crack the barrels or at least crack the seal around the drain.

Drain them .

Was worried yall would say that. I use it to wash my hands, dishes and such at camp. Back to hauling to water.

Get some RV antifreeze or some big bottles of rubbing alcohol and dump in it.

I use plastic barrels to water my pigs. Have nipple in the bottom and leave the top hole open. I’m prolly gonna try to drain and hand water for a few days not sure yet…

Geesh. Drain about 15% for expansion and leave it alone. Probably won't expand as it is. We're only talking about 2-3 days below freezing. A rain barrel ain't a gallon jug.

Probably the best answer. I think it was 2009 or 2010, we had a place by Georgiana and we had 3 275gal totes set up to catch rain water. It got so cold for so long they froze almost solid. Damnest thing I’d ever seen. Tanks never busted. We had to build a fire close to them and put a little fan blowing towards the tanks to melt the ice so we could have water. Had to do this everyday. Those few weeks were definitely an adventure. I was talking to an friend who was an old offshore hand and he told me the rubbing alcohol trick. He said they did that in the water tanks on the platform. Of course it never got that cold again for me to try it.

You may be right but id rather be safe than sorry.. 72 hours below freezing staring from single digits

I'm guessing Skinny is right. Even if you give he ice room to expand up, it will expand outwards to an extent. It wouldn't take much to compromise the seal around the fittings.

I normally don't worry about it during a freeze, but it rarely gets this cold in Alabama.

Better drain ur pumps on pressure washers.

It won't matter if it's open top , 15% drained , water freezes top down. If your barrels freeze solid , only thing might save you is the barrels expand with the ice. Cast iron tanks , housings freeze and bust that aren't any where near full of water. Drain it.

Google search says water expands 9% when frozen.

Outside air compressor tanks , too.