reid@Glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (04/30/85)
Like Mike Klein, I have installed a fairly extensive automatic sprinkling and drip irrigation system over the last couple of years. I am an inveterate tinkerer and keep trying to find ways to improve it. I'm certainly going to run out and buy a Rain Jet sprinkler head and use it to replace one of my Champion heads. I'll report if my experiences differ from Mike's at all. I would like to add 3 more recommendations for specific technology. (1) Rain Master controllers. Rain Master is a company in Simi Valley (California) whose primary business has been agricultural irrigation systems; they have recently branched out into residential controllers. I tried 2 different controllers (Richdel and Rain Bird) before switching to the big time and buying a Rain Master. My RM-11 controller has 11 different channels, of which I am currently only using 7. It also has 3 different "programs" (a program, in sprinkler-controller talk, is a sequence of actions that can be independently scheduled). It has no limit on the length of time that one station can be turned on (drip lines like to run for a long time), it has a queueing system built into it so that if you want your fuschia misters to come on every two hours, except that once a week your established-plant sprinkler comes on for 30 minutes, and that 30-minute period overlaps the start time of the fuschia misters, the misters will just be queued until the sprinkler is done. Finally, the RM controllers come in battleship-grade steel boxes that can be mounted outside and connected directly to 110V, instead of having to have an interior-mounted transformer running 24V to the controller, as most of the cheaper ones do. (2) Adjustable pressure regulators made by Rain Drip. These are the only pressure regulators worth using. Almost all of the other "pressure regulators" are really volume limiters, and when you install more than N drippers on line circuit you have to make sure that you have a volume limiter that will permit N gallons per hour to go through the pipe. The Rain Drip adjustable regulator is a true pressure regulator, and has a 2-inch-diameter dial gauge on it to show you the pressure; you can get exactly 10psi or 20psi or whatever you want, regardless of the incoming pressure and regardless of the number of drippers on the line. (3) Addimix Automatic Fertilizing System. I have recently installed one on one of my sprinkler lines, and am about to install it on another. This wonderful $20 gadget is a plastic bottle that taps into a pressure line after the backflow regulator to inject a metered amount of liquid fertilizer into the system. It isn't necessary for drip lines, because the drip companies all make good solid-fertilizer dissolver chambers, but for sprinklers it is a big win. Manufactured by Fradel Enterprises, 346 So. Woodrow, Fresno CA 93702. (209) 251-5563. I have model 204-Q, but I don't think they make more than one model. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA