Washing machine drum will work ok except in the middle of the summer and there isnt enough depth to let fish get to cooler water. Atleast that was the problem we had. The blue drums work well and will let you get more depth so the fish can get have cooler water. Do yourself a favor though and mount it with a boat winch, you do not want to try to pull that thing up otherwise. You can build one with a basic square frame and wrap it with hardware cloth too and they wrok well.