Drip tape problems, have you had these?

This is my first year using drip tape in the garden and orchard. I've loved it EXCEPT, it's split in many spots. I bought it from dripworks.com Has anyone else had this problem?

Hey Elle! Drip tape is designed for low pressure uses, and a lot of them have a max pressure of 12 or 15psi. Do you have it connected to a household water supply like a garden hose faucet? If the bursting is from water pressure being too high, a water pressure regulator at the source (faucet) with the drip tape connected to it will remedy the situation and future bursting.

I do have a PSI reducer connected. I bought a kit and it came with one. I installed it as directed. How do I check my wells PSI?

elle sagenev wrote:I do have a PSI reducer connected. I bought a kit and it came with one. I installed it as directed. How do I check my wells PSI?

Excellent, that narrows things down. Another possibility is holes could be getting poked into the drip tape from accidentally stepping on it, for example. Drip tape is often made from 15-mil plastic and while that's pretty thick for such a type of plastic, it can still be easy to puncture.

A simple way to check the well pressure is with a water pressure gauge with a garden hose fitting on the end. Just screw it on and open the faucet and you'll know what the psi is. Here's what one looks like:

If you know the pressure is regulated and in range, and if you know there was not damage to the drip tape in handling or installing it, that only leaves defective product as a reason for the splits.
Drip tape is generally considered good for one season (depending on the supplier and how much they want to cover their butts) but I've used some of the same tape for years with no issues. I say this to illustrate that you should not have failure this soon with new tape.
You should contact the manufacturer and be ready to prove that your pressure is regulated. Good luck!

Matt Todd wrote:If you know the pressure is regulated and in range, and if you know there was not damage to the drip tape in handling or installing it, that only leaves defective product as a reason for the splits.
Drip tape is generally considered good for one season (depending on the supplier and how much they want to cover their butts) but I've used some of the same tape for years with no issues. I say this to illustrate that you should not have failure this soon with new tape.
You should contact the manufacturer and be ready to prove that your pressure is regulated. Good luck!

I am not sure of water pressure and will test that as soon as I can to determine if it's ok.

I know it wasn't damaged at installation as these leaks are a new thing. We don't wander around the garden all that much, it's fenced from the dogs, so nothing should be damaging the tape.

I was hoping to take up the tape in the fall to reuse next year so the splitting upsets me!

That is weird.

I use the 15 mil ones from dripworks and I've never had that happen. I previously used their thinner tape, however I never had any of the thinner ones just blow out the side like that. I've even ran them over 30psi and not had them explode.

Can you take an up-close pic of the split when the water is off? A good pic of the hole and I might be able to tell what's happening.

Hmmmm, makes me wonder if a curious animal is biting into it!!??Raccoon comes to mind, maybe even a chipmunk or squirrel...especially if it's been dry and they happen to come across it when it's got water in it and they see it slowly oozing out and go for a drink but want MORE lol. Heck, maybe even a very determined bird (but I kind of doubt that)

I am pretty sure we use the same type (the two blue stripes) and while we do have some issues, it's pretty rare and usually our fault.

We move them rather often when transitioning beds and we'll drag them along the ground/sometimes get kinked, etc.

The good thing is that they are quick and easy to fix but frustrating if you don't catch it and it floods a spot in the bed

Elle,

Congratulations on your dripworks solution.  I have ordered their products before and I love them.  I have not used drip tape as I was always concerned about durability.  Instead I used emitter tubing which is more durable.  On top of this I buried it.  As mentioned previously, perhaps an animal got into it.  Perhaps the drip tube is more durable.

Good luck!

Eric

I regularly have pocket gophers puncture my drip tape- but you would know if pocket gophers are around as their mounds are obvious- the tape gets punctured almost always where it is buried in the mound.

A SIDE NOTE:

I've been fiddling with irrigation controls about the property. In the past, we bought the type you screw on to the faucet and that can control up to four zones. Every year or two they would fail, but were pretty good until then.  

To upgrade the system, I bought the DC solenoid valves, a 120 volt control box with battery backup (for memory),  and some five conductor wire (for four zones) a year or so ago.  I mounted the valve system above ground, on the inside wall under a 2nd story deck, which serves as a storage area for yard an garden related things.  The control box is about twenty feet over, also under cover, but near the lower door for easy access.

REGRETFULLY, I bought and Orbit control box. I turned everything on when it was supposed to, running through the zones for the times entered. HOWEVER, it kept repeating and would not shut off.  A search of Prime sales pages for that item revealed this was the number one problem complained of with the Orbit controls. In other words, they have idiots programing the firm ware of their devices and they don't care.  These was proven when I returned the first and installed a second new one, which did the same thing.

AGAIN, the most common complaint for the Orbit controls was, they would not shut down after running the set cycle. A few people reported very high water bills because of it.

My new Rain Bird should be here in two days.  After the fact of purchasing the Rain Bird, the neighbor was over from the coast for the weekend (his summer house). His career is installing football and baseball fields, so I asked him his opinion and what he used. It was Rain Bird all the way, and he, clearly, had NOTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT ORBIT CONTROLS.

Second that on Orbit stuff. Problems, and I got some seriously bad attitude from one of their people when asking some questions about random failures.

Also second very positive experiences with Rainbird stuff.

I gave up on drip years ago for a lot of the reasons already mentioned, High mineral content water plugging the drippers, and the sand I'm working with which severely limits how wide and area the drip will cover were big factors here. All the water goes down, not spreads out.

Out of all the drip lines I tried, the one that did the best was Rain Bird Drip/Emitter Line Tubing Clog-Resistant 1/2 in. Dia.
This has the drippers built in and they don't clog.

My whole irrigation setup is that 1/2" poly tube with the fittings you just wiggle onto the tube. Cheap, effective, and some of it is 15 to 20 years old and still fine.

Another plug for Rainbird here. Their 1/2" tubing is way easier to wiggle the fittings on to than the others and holds fine at the fairly high pressures I'm running.

What I went to was an inexpensive overhead setup using very inexpensive sprinkler nozzles screwed into 1/4" tubing, the 1/4" then plugged into the main 1/2" line with the fittings where you punch a hole in the 1/2" to connect the 1/4" tubing from the sprinkler to the 1/2".
The nozzles and tubing were electrical taped to 6" bamboo stakes, which turned out to only be good for a few years, and are gradually being replaced with 1/2" concrete rebar.

Here's a link to some of the cheap sprinkler nozzles:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087CWFKML/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The fittings to plug the 1/4" tube into the 1/2", you'll need to get a punch to make the holes in the 1/2". The ones where this link goes come with a punch but most don't:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093PT26Y3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

with the overhead I can put ferts through that work for foliar feeding and fertigation with no clogs.

bugs do like to make homes in the nozzles off season but easily cleaned out with a wire, compressed air,  or replace the nozzle.

I run the system at well pressure, which varies from 45 to 60 lbs.

A 360 sprinkler covers about an 8' radius with this pressure and tube size.

You can't run much more than somewhere between 100 to 200 feet (depending on how much is uphill) without losing pressure at the far reaches.

I use a siphon to pick up ferts into the water and that has minimum and maximum number of sprinklers that will make the siphon work right.
With what I have 12 - 15 of the cheap sprinklers is about max without dropping the effective radius (distance they'll cover) of the sprinklers quite a bit , not sure what the minimum would be but you do have to have a certain amount of flow, requiring a certain amount of sprinklers, before the siphon starts drawing.

Thank you so much, Dave, for your explanation.
Would you mind posting some pictures of your overhead setup?  I love the sound of it, but can't fully picture everything in my mind. I have been struggling with irrigation and am about to set something up for this season because the rains in my area are stopping.

Dave Bross wrote:
My whole irrigation setup is that 1/2" poly tube with the fittings you just wiggle onto the tube.

Would you mind posting a link to the tubing that you use? It may be a no-brainer, but I'd appreciate it.

Dave Bross wrote:
What I went to was an inexpensive overhead setup using very inexpensive sprinkler nozzles screwed into 1/4" tubing, the 1/4" then plugged into the main 1/2" line with the fittings where you punch a hole in the 1/2" to connect the 1/4" tubing from the sprinkler to the 1/2".

I hope you can post a picture.
About how tall are your bamboo stakes?

Are the sprinklers that you had in the link the ones giving you 8ft of spray diameter? That is fantastic.

Dave Bross wrote:
I use a siphon to pick up ferts into the water and that has minimum and maximum number of sprinklers that will make the siphon work right.
... you do have to have a certain amount of flow, requiring a certain amount of sprinklers, before the siphon starts drawing.

What exactly is the siphon you are using? Do you have a link to that? And what type/size container are you siphoning out of?

Whew! Sorry for all the questions.  

I got all my supplies from rain flow , never had a problem

https://www.rainfloirrigation.com/irrigation/drip-tape/t-tape

Sure, questions are fine, I don't have any pics but I'll go take some and post later

the tubing

https://help.dripdepot.com/support/solutions/articles/11000060550-poly-tubing-drip-tape-drip-line-and-soaker-hoses

main feed line

https://www.dripworks.com/1-2-polyethylene-mainline-tubing-0-600-id-x-0-700-od


compression fittings for the poly main feed tubing

I reuse them counter to what the vid says. Fold them in on themselves with a screwdriver and pull them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r130oCXCJA4

least expensive ones I've found.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H8PXGN1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


electrical tape is used for leak repair, lashing the 1/4" tube and sprinkler to the stakes and to terminate main feeds by bending them back on themselves and taping in that position.

Bamboo stakes started out at 8' but are much shorter now as the bottoms rot in the ground and I re-plant them after they snap off from the rot.
Save yourself that hassle and start with rebar if you can.
1/2 inch EMT electrical tubing works too, but not for as long as rebar.

yes, those sprinklers will go 8" diameter provided not too many of them to drop the pressure.

I've been using the old Hozon 15 to 1 siphon mixers for years, the folks at the company are just awesome, as were the siphons...but....they changed the design and now i have a lot of trouble with them clogging on tiny debris, losing siphon, etc. If you read the Amazon reviews a lot of folks are unhappy with them now.

I was able to solve the clogging pretty much by using a pressure washer soap pickup filter but still have to watch it constantly to make sure it isn't messing up.

I have the parts to try a homemade siphon, a soap mixer for a pressure washer and a gallons used gauge to dial in the mix at 10 or 15 to one, but this is theoretical and untested yet.

hozon siphon

https://www.amazon.com/Hozon-Siphon-Mixer-Connects-Garden/dp/B015X6H3MS

pickup filter

https://www.amazon.com/LASCO-60-1683-Replacement-Pressure-Chemical/dp/B00HSHMI4O/ref=sr_1_6?

One more problem with the bamboo stakes.
I have a fleet of barn cats and they love to rub on them, snapping them off or knocking them over.

Pics attached

One more thing....

I tried many sorts of shutoff valves that did not work well before I found this one that I'm very happy with:

https://www.dripworks.com/1-2-coupler-w-valve

An update to my original post, starting this thread:

The Rain Bird came and I installed it. HMMMMMM   Same problem as with the orbit.  

Reading the ON LINE version of an operating manual for the Rain Bird, BUT not mentioned in the accompanying operation information, was that having four zones start at different times would cause the system to go into an endless loop. Just like the Orbit.  Said another way, all the zones had to start at the same time, or, MAYBE, on other days, to avoid the endless run problem.

This is sad. Forty years ago, a beginner electronics student would be required to build a simple timer circuit.  Someone with a bit more background could, easily, tell the project to shift to a second circuit, when the first was done and so on, then stop when there were no more circuits to run. This is basic stuff.

That said, I was miffed, because the Rain Bird was $100.00, versus the $50.00 for the Orbit, but it did the same thing, thought it at least admitted to it.

I was also miffed by that, it is reasonable and common for someone to NOT want to run four sprinklers at once, because it would drop the pressure so low between all the sprinklers they would all operate at far below peak efficiency.   Accordingly, why have zones you could choose to set up for different times if they have to run at the same time? I could have done that with four outlets and a single timer.


I experimented with both the Orbit and the Rain Bird.  To get the system to run through four different sprinklers set to start after another had run, you have to FOCUS ON THE PROGRAMS AND THE ZONES.  To be more specific, you have to set the first sprinkler to come on in "Program A,"  AND  "Zone 1."  The next has to be set up on "Program B"  AND  "Zone 2" to, for example, run an hour later.  The third sprinkler has to be set to come on in "Program C"  AND  "Zone 3" at its different time and length of run.

Keep in mind, if you set two or more programs to run the same zone, each zone which represents a sprinkler operated via a solenoid valve, the same sprinkler/zone will run. So each sprinkler must be treated as a hard wired zone.

The simple of it is, both the Orbit and the Rain Bird can run different solenoids/sprinklers at different times and lengths of runs, but you must set them up via program and zone.  

NOTE: My controls are for four sprinklers, BUT I am only running three, AND I only have three programs, so I might not be able to pull this off if I have a fourth solenoid running at a different time. I do not know what the 6 valve and 12 valve systems offer in the way of programs. If only three, you'd have to deal with doubling up and reduced pressure issues.

I do some hoses for watering, but I went to cans last year for my transplants. I "plant" a can with drilled holes next to the transplant, then the cans are filled and plants are watered deep. We are in the 3rd year of a drought. My well can't take another dry summer. We are down 3" of rain for May, and June we are suppose to get an inches (5.5") more than May.  Spuds I use soaker hose. Smaller plants can get the sprinklers.

A suggestion for folks facing into trying to garden in unusually dry circumstances without irrigation...

Steve Solomon's book, Gardening When it Counts, goes into great detail on how to pull off growing in drought conditions and still get a great harvest.

He figured this out when he lived in Oregon, where it just does not rain at all all summer. He eventually moved to Australia and added to what he knew by watching the old timers there, who never did have much access to water.

The best thing is that he gives you a table of how far apart to put the plants for different levels of water available...including none.

I had read about dust mulching (keeping the top of the soil loose and dusty) in old southern garden books but he goes into it in detail, with plenty of info that was new to me.

the chapter you want is Watering...and not.