Soaker hose in polytunnel/greenhoues beds?

[bario1]

Can you explain more clearly what you mean by airlocks, Alison? I would like to troubleshoot my system before i go and ruin my hose!

[Alison]

Can you explain more clearly what you mean by airlocks, Alison? I would like to troubleshoot my system before i go and ruin my hose!

Sorry, not really the right terminology. I mean an air bubble which doesn't get moved on due to the low head. It effectively then forms a restriction in the pipe. Most likely at bends or splits. Might not be your problem but my system is a bit susceptible.


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[bario1]

I see. Mine is a simple loop fed from a splitter, could it be that when i turn the water on it fills from both ends and creates an air bubble in the middle? If so, i can't see any way around this - as the hose is porous, surely the water drains out of it when not in use and the loop is full of air again?

[Bill HH]

I see. Mine is a simple loop fed from a splitter, could it be that when i turn the water on it fills from both ends and creates an air bubble in the middle? If so, i can't see any way around this - as the hose is porous, surely the water drains out of it when not in use and the loop is full of air again?

A devastatingly good point there.

[bario1]

Actually, as the hose is porous, shouldn't the water pressure force the air out? Now my head hurts....

[Ananke]

This is a great thread for me. I was planning the same kind of setup this year and this has been really helpful.

I think I'll be leaving it for now

[Alison]

Actually, as the hose is porous, shouldn't the water pressure force the air out? Now my head hurts....

Only parts of mine are porous, the bit from the water butt into the tunnel and to the splitter is normal hose as I didn't want to lose water outside. The splitter then feeds hosepipe carrier pipe around the edge of the tunnel with porous spurs off the on Ts into each of the beds. If you're porous all the way you probably can't get the same problem but it would be worth checking you're getting a decent flow out of the splitter just to be sure but am guessing you can see the water bubbling / seeping through. It might be you just need to lengthen the time you water for.


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[Alison]

One other thing, us the porous pipe buried or above the soil?


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[Bill HH]

Is the timer working properly, have you checked the flow from it?

I have a gun attached to a butt which stopped working and there was a huge worm blocking it despite the butt having a lid and the water coming off a roof 40 feet high.

[johnjohn]

Well I thought i'd post an update on this, I spent all winter setting it up and am now testing it in preparation for a ten day holiday in June - the problem is, there just doesn't seem to be enough water coming through the hose... I bought a good quality branded soaker, which is much stronger than the cheap crap one i had, but barely any water comes through it. At the rate it comes through i would think it would evaporate before it got past the first inch of soil on a hot day. I've had my timer set for two 120 minute 'soaks' a day, but i see barely any moisture on my soil... just a line directly under the hose.

So the system is pretty useless, i guess the 225lt tank is not producing enough pressure the drive the water through the hose.

I've been looking at this again as I lost a load of soaker hose when the sheds were torched. I use 2 types of hose, one that I attach to the mains and one to the water butt.

Apologies if this has been covered already.

The one to the mains is this one:
Soaker Hose 50 metres - Soaker Hose
The product spec is here:
Soaker Hose Specification - Soaker Hose
As you can see the optimum pressure required to drive the flow is 0.5 bar.

One bar is the force needed to raise water to a height of 10 meters therefore to use a water butt with this hose you need an ideal height of 5m- not really suitable so really makes sense to attach it to the mains.

My other hose (the one I've lost) was a low pressure one. Looked just the same but didn't need the butt to be raised (higher than a normal stand). I don't know what the exact spec was but it didn't need 0.5 bar or anything like it.

The other thing to consider is the timer. Some timers like Hozelook need at least 1 bar of pressure to work in the first place.

Perhaps the hose you have isn't a low pressure hose- if you goggle it you will see them advertised, example below:
http://www.greenkey-garden.co.uk/wp-.../340%20(2).jpg

If you are using a timer it would need to work at low pressure such as:
Electronic low Pressure Water Timer
Otherwise nothing/very little will get through.

Hope that helps....

[Alison]

The other thing to consider is the timer. Some timers like Hozelook need at least 1 bar of pressure to work in the first place.

Don't write off all the Hozelock timers, mine doesn't need any head at all and simply opens a valve by means of a battery timer device, you can check it without it being connected to anything.

Didn't know about the different types of hose though, have only ever seen the low pressure stuff. Interesting.

[bario1]

Aaargh, so many variables! My hose and timer are Hozelock, the timer works absolutely fine as Alison has said, there is no restriction to the water flow. The hose I'm not so sure about, is it supposed to be covered in beads of water? Mine has maybe a dozen beads of water for every foot of length, seems like that would hardly keep a bed watered even if it was on constantly?
Alison, mine isn't buried as I'm still experimenting with the flow, was planning to bury it eventually, or cover it with a mulch or something. It has two non-porous sections that are buried under the cenral path of the tunnel.
Maybe i should buy the Greenkey hose and compare - that would be my third hose though!

Thanks all for your continued interest in this!

[Bill HH]

If the hose and timer are Hozelock then phone their customer help line, they are reputed to be very helpful.

[Alison]

Mine has maybe a dozen beads of water for every foot of length, seems like that would hardly keep a bed watered even if it was on constantly?

Most of mine is buried but on the bits I can see it looks like it's beading all over and the whole pipe looks wet.

[Kleftiwallah]

I've done just that but there is a lot of soaker hose between the plants you want to water. I changed to a standard hose and smaller pipe offsets directly at the stem of the plants to get the water where it needs to go.

Cheers, Tony.