Rainwater collecting system for carnivorous plants

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Ok this is not properly random, but I didn't feel it was sciencey enough for the science and technology board.

I am an amateur carnivorous plant breeder. This requires me to buy somewhat large quantities of distilled water. I would like to build a system to collect rainwater, but I'm not sure I have the time to try different ideas between lab and exams. Does anyone want to help me designing it?
Requirements:
- water should not come from the roof or come into contact with anything that could leach into it (good materials would be glass, plastic, ceramic, some metals)
- shouldn't require anything too hard to find or unreasonable expensive
- shouldn't be too humongous but allow to collect more than just leaving a bucket out in the rain.
Any help will be appreciated, and rewarded (not pecuniarily though ).

I'm not a "science person", but I am good with tools and I work at a flower nursery so maybe I can help. A few questions though.

Will this bring water directly to the plant or does it just collect it for you to give it to the plant itself?

Where would you ideally keep such a thing? (i.e. backyard, porch, side of a building)

Thank you for your reply!

I keep the plants indoors, so I would just like to collect some water to give the plants myself. I would probably keep it in the backyard.

Thinking this over, here is how I am envisioning it.

What you could do is use one of those 5 gallon plastic buckets as the collection chamber. You can get them brand new at Home Depot or Lowes for I think less that $10. Someone in your neighborhood might have a used one they could give you. They also come in smaller sizes, 5 gallons is just what I know is readily available at those stores.

What you could also do with the bucket if you are inclined to do so, is drill a hole in the side of the bucket as close to the bottom as you can. Then you could install a fitting in the hole (probably will want to seal it with something like caulking compound or whatever is used on window seals i.e. waterproof, maybe glue from a hot glue gun could work), put a small hose on that with a nozzle fitting at the end that has an on/off lever so you can drain the collected water directly from the bucket into the plant or fill a bottle with it to then give to the plant. Otherwise just pour it straight out of the bucket.

So then you take that and get some chicken wire or even some window screen material to act as a filter to keep any objects like leaves or stick out. Just make sure that it is something that can handle the elements. So if you use a metal chicken wire, make sure it is resistant to rust or paint it with some kind of outdoor paint. I would glue this on to the top of the bucket at least partially to keep it from blowing away. Window screen material might be best because it can come in plastic and chances are someone somewhere is throwing out an old screen somewhere you can take a bit off of.

I think something like that should work just fine for collecting rainwater for plants on a budget. I think it would be better if there was something at an angle along the perimeter of the bucket to maximize its collecting capabilities, but alas, I cannot think of anything at the moment that would work. If I think if something I'll let you know.

Hope that at least you now have some ideas to go on with this or hopefully my concept is just what you need. Good luck!

I was actually thiking of using an upside down modified umbrella, does that sound doable?

It might, if it could be cut so that the sides of it can be attached to the rim of the bucket, that might work.

Just has a thought. Maybe an old garbage can lid could do the trick? Preferably one that doesn't have the handle molded into it or has a lot of grooves, nooks, and crannies.

That's a possibility. Thank you for your ideas!

No problem!