Drip Irrigation Inputs Please.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Hiya, I've about had it with the black plastic tubing approach to drip irrigation. I'm constantly having to fiddle with fittings and such as they tend to leak. I was thinking about a different approach and was hoping for some opinions. I'm looking at running PVC, Sch. 40 say a couple of inches below the surface. Then tapping into that with brass barbed adapters that would screw into the PVC. From there, I can run short lengths of the small black tubing to the emitters etc. Any thoughts? Cheers, cc

[jerry_maple]

Don't know about that screwing into PVC approach, sounds like it might be a little leak-prone too. Have to admit to never trying it though.

A little googling got me to this page:

The basic concept seems sound: run PVC sprinkler pipe, come up to the surface with a standard 1/2 inch cutoff riser, then screw on one of their adapters to transition to the 1/4 inch drip tubing. They even sell an 8-output drip head with individual flow adjustments for each output.

Maybe something like that would work for you.

Jerry

[Steve B]

One thing you did not mention, and a lot of people are unaware of is ....................... a pressure reducer. EVERY system needs a filter and a pressure reducer. When the system kicks on ......... BAM! ........... it's hit with a shock of full pressure water. This causes leaks or just blows the connection all together. A pressure reducer eliminates that shock. They can be really cheap affairs, or better quality ones can be had. You will still have the same flow, it's just that your system won't be getting hit with instantaneous shocks.

Try one. It may solve your whole problem.

Steve

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

thanks Jerry. I may look into that a bit more. Cheers, cc

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Yup. Got them on the current system and would need to install them on this setup as well. Cheers, cc