Post by edwin on Jul 15, 2012 15:01:36 GMT -5
Review of Irrigro drip irrigation: The good, the bad and the ugly
Irrigro is micropore drip irrigation. Their web site is www.irrigro.com/.
Last year we decided we spent too much time and money watering by sprinkler. We decided to move towards drip irrigation - and decided to do a sample section of our garden.
After looking around and thinking about it, micropore seemed to have a lot to offer for fixed bed irrigation, and our tendency to crowd. We purchased their "master garden" watering system - which should cover 2000 sq ft for $217.80 cdn. Actual square footage at 5' width 3 lines works out to 1680 sq feet. 1000 sq ft of tape claimed - approx 1020 sq ft of tape delivered.
Irrigro uses tyvec (what they make envelopes out of) paper as its watering tubes. It is disconcerting to use paper to water your garden.
We ended up setting our garden with 4 lines for a 5' wide bed. While three lines has difficulties watering the full with due to our sandy soil 4 lines was a mistake. We need to rotate our plantings 90 degrees and to not worry about loss of some bed area.
The Good:
It provides a very uniform watering environment nicely wetting the entire bed. Beautiful is the word that comes to mind.
It was easy to install with one minor trick - use a Thermos with boiled water to soften up the pieces.
It is low pressure. Really low pressure. We are running around 3 psi. If we wanted to conserve water - 2 psi would probably be ok. Early in the spring 1.5 psi was adequate.
No filter needed. We used our shallow well water without filter. No problem. If I were to use this system permanently, I'd set up a 45 gallon drum and dump in fish emulsion for direct root fertilizing. Manure tea would be fine - though I'd put in some type of mesh filter so that the 1/4" lines would not clog.
The system is slow enough that water is heated significantly before it hits the roots of the plants.
Customer support has been excellent, when available.
The Bad:
The system should be buried. This is actually difficult to do, especially with the very low pressure.
Leaks are hard to notice. Buried leaks are even more difficult to notice.
Oddball sizing. They are running 3/8" mainline tubing and 1/4" drip line connections. That 3/8" tubing should be 1/2". I am wondering if the reason for such an oddball size is to squeeze money out of the customer by making it next to impossible to purchase extra components anywhere else.
It is very difficult to judge just how much water you are using. It is easy to use far more than you think you are. I monitored off the main water meter - very inconvenient.
It is difficult to adjust water pressure when dealing with such low pressures. Perhaps an expensive ball joint valve would do the trick?
They recommend not shutting the water off to avoid insect damage - do-able but not preferable.
Unknown life expectancy but they have a letter bragging about 4 year life expectancy. Not good.
They recommend running an overflow water line as an option. It is not an option. They do have pressure disks to set the pressure. We haven't used it yet - it would not provide the flexibility to adjust the pressure as desired.
Connections are not water tight - they drip at a rate faster than the drip lines meaning that the top and bottom of your beds tend to be rather soggy.
Even with the stronger seams, system seems very fragile for a garden.
The Ugly:
I was unable to leave phone messages because their mailbox was full - for at least a week.
Extremely difficult to get them on the phone. They do not appear to keep regular hours.
Very slow delivery - 2 weeks before they shipped needed additional parts
Not UV resistant.
Very difficult to source parts outside the company because of non-standard sizes.
While the current version seems ok - we initially ended up with an older version of tubing which could not be touched once laid down in the garden. The seam was not strong enough and would split. It just plain makes me nervous seeing what was originally sold.
Irrigro is micropore drip irrigation. Their web site is www.irrigro.com/.
Last year we decided we spent too much time and money watering by sprinkler. We decided to move towards drip irrigation - and decided to do a sample section of our garden.
After looking around and thinking about it, micropore seemed to have a lot to offer for fixed bed irrigation, and our tendency to crowd. We purchased their "master garden" watering system - which should cover 2000 sq ft for $217.80 cdn. Actual square footage at 5' width 3 lines works out to 1680 sq feet. 1000 sq ft of tape claimed - approx 1020 sq ft of tape delivered.
Irrigro uses tyvec (what they make envelopes out of) paper as its watering tubes. It is disconcerting to use paper to water your garden.
We ended up setting our garden with 4 lines for a 5' wide bed. While three lines has difficulties watering the full with due to our sandy soil 4 lines was a mistake. We need to rotate our plantings 90 degrees and to not worry about loss of some bed area.
The Good:
It provides a very uniform watering environment nicely wetting the entire bed. Beautiful is the word that comes to mind.
It was easy to install with one minor trick - use a Thermos with boiled water to soften up the pieces.
It is low pressure. Really low pressure. We are running around 3 psi. If we wanted to conserve water - 2 psi would probably be ok. Early in the spring 1.5 psi was adequate.
No filter needed. We used our shallow well water without filter. No problem. If I were to use this system permanently, I'd set up a 45 gallon drum and dump in fish emulsion for direct root fertilizing. Manure tea would be fine - though I'd put in some type of mesh filter so that the 1/4" lines would not clog.
The system is slow enough that water is heated significantly before it hits the roots of the plants.
Customer support has been excellent, when available.
The Bad:
The system should be buried. This is actually difficult to do, especially with the very low pressure.
Leaks are hard to notice. Buried leaks are even more difficult to notice.
Oddball sizing. They are running 3/8" mainline tubing and 1/4" drip line connections. That 3/8" tubing should be 1/2". I am wondering if the reason for such an oddball size is to squeeze money out of the customer by making it next to impossible to purchase extra components anywhere else.
It is very difficult to judge just how much water you are using. It is easy to use far more than you think you are. I monitored off the main water meter - very inconvenient.
It is difficult to adjust water pressure when dealing with such low pressures. Perhaps an expensive ball joint valve would do the trick?
They recommend not shutting the water off to avoid insect damage - do-able but not preferable.
Unknown life expectancy but they have a letter bragging about 4 year life expectancy. Not good.
They recommend running an overflow water line as an option. It is not an option. They do have pressure disks to set the pressure. We haven't used it yet - it would not provide the flexibility to adjust the pressure as desired.
Connections are not water tight - they drip at a rate faster than the drip lines meaning that the top and bottom of your beds tend to be rather soggy.
Even with the stronger seams, system seems very fragile for a garden.
The Ugly:
I was unable to leave phone messages because their mailbox was full - for at least a week.
Extremely difficult to get them on the phone. They do not appear to keep regular hours.
Very slow delivery - 2 weeks before they shipped needed additional parts
Not UV resistant.
Very difficult to source parts outside the company because of non-standard sizes.
While the current version seems ok - we initially ended up with an older version of tubing which could not be touched once laid down in the garden. The seam was not strong enough and would split. It just plain makes me nervous seeing what was originally sold.
