Ah, a shut-off valve makes a lot of sense!
I'll stop by the hardware store and buy a couple (one for each nursery).
Do you think I can just pull out the green water restrictor with pliers and shove the slip-fit shutoff valve onto the existing white pipe coming out of the elbow?
I'm not sure .. you might have luck getting that green pc out if the glue wants to let go, then again, you might end up breaking the elbow fitting it's attached to, which would create a bigger headache to fix.
If it were me, I would just insert a new section of 1/2 inch tubing
So it would look like this ... the elbow > green fitting>1/2" tubing (about a foot long)>shut off valve> longer pc of 1/2" tubing on the other side of the shut off valve. This pc of tubing acts as a main water line so you want it long so you can lay it around where your garden is, then you can run 1/4" dripper tubing from your main line. You can use the shut off valve as a pressure regulator, too, by simply not turning it on all the way which will reduce how much water goes through your drippers, plus you can use adjustable sprinklers to water just at ground level, or bigger sprinklers to get larger areas. On my front yard set-up I even have a BIG sprinkler attached to the system that waters my entire front grass, while the flower bed sprinklers just water their rerspective plants, only.
Sorry for being so wordy .. just hope it helps. :)
Hey, you could kill vampires with one of those and wash the ashes away at the same time. ^_^
TDD
... and fertilize your tomatoes with the same ashes, too!
haaha well .. you can do just about anything you want to do with these drip irrigation parts.
hey, if I can do it, ANYONE can do it! :-)
Which part did you suggest? I got lost reading all the posts and skipped through a lot of discussion part...
I'm all about making it simple! hahaha!
That is an option.
Something, I don't know what, seems to me that I'd prefer the permanence of the PVC shutoff and *then* the less-permanent stuff, such as a garden-hose thread which is then attached to the rather flimsy tubing.
But thanks for the idea as I hadn't thought of the shut-off valve, which is just what I need.
I was afraid of that. Thanks for the warning.
I'll try this procedure:
a. I'll try to pull the green part out of the 3/4" PVC pipe b. If that fails, I'll cut the elbow off and replumb with a new PVC coupling, elbow, & valve c. Then I'll add the pipe-to-hose thread so it can be disconnected when not in use (like when it's my compost heap again!)
Do not tell my wife that!
She'll kill me.
Sounds like a plan! One thing I probably should mention is those glued pvc sections come apart after being exposed to the weather elements day after day. You might think it is fine and you have the water pressure on the pipe, but the valve is shut off and come home from running errand with the pipes blown apart. We've had to re-glue every section of pvc pipe that we've ran throughout the yard so we could get a main water line to the back yard garden and set up the drip irrigation.
Got a call from my neighbor today that one of those sections had come apart and was producing a geyser in our back yard. He was kind enough to turn off the water from the source vs me rushing home to turn it off myself.
OK mums the word! :-x
You guys were right.
That green stuff is there to stay.
I'll probably cut off the elbow and start fresh, as there's no sense in restricting the water flow from the start.
You were totally right; the green thing would not budge.
They should make the garden hose nozzles out of that green stuff!
Hmmm... they're not supposed to.
On a.h.r, we researched what destroys the PVS, and if you paint them, the UV light doesn't bother them, and there's not much else that will.
Of course, earthquakes and trucks driving on the lawn would break them - as do lawn mowers and weed whackers, but they are supposed to last longer that we will.
Still, it's a good idea to paint them. Here's a shot of my recently repaired pool equipment, for example, where I haven't painted the new sections I put on last month to fix the leaks.
More information on PVC which is supposed to last 100 years...
UniBell FAQ on Studies of PVC Pipe Performance Over Time:
The Effects of Sunlight Exposure on PVC Pipe:
Painting of PVC Piping for Ultraviolet Protection:
How to Use Acrylic or Latex Paint on PVC:
These tubes are popping up out of the ground near a buried sprinkler box. I'm sure they go to the sprinkler system, but I haven't dug it all up yet to figure out what's not working.
I have a lot of that poly stuff and none of them are working.
I'm pretty sure they're busted and old, and in some cases the sprinkler system isn't working.
Personally, I think the stuff is too fragile - but I don't have any experience other than I do have a garden hose hooked to the one feeding the Oleanders and the water only goes about 100 feet or so, because the tubing is so badly cut up.
Anyway, maybe I shouldn't deprecate it so much, but I just think it's too flimsy for my world. Of course, it would be a LOT more work for me to bury pvc for a few hundred feet of the Oleanders, so, I guess I should just hunker down and buy a roll of the poly stuff and replace all the bad parts.
That sounds like a good plan! I'm too lazy when it's hot and will patch everything unless it just won't work! LOL
I don't like patching mainly because I won't understand how it's set up.
Of course, I don't like digging up buried lines either ... so that's why I have this 300' long run that hasn't been fixed yet.
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