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in-line filter for drip irrigation system

14 years ago

I bought around 900 ft of drip irrigation line. I have a rain barrel setup with around 65 ft of one half inch pvc going out to my garden area. I bought 5 or 6 in line filter and thought that would be a good idea. My question is should I place the filter at the barrel or before the drip irrigation starts. Im also afraid its going to greatly reduce my flow. I dont even know for sure if I need a filter for the drip line. The drip line is 1/4 in diameter and has emitters every 12 inches. Its non pressure regulating as well. If anyone has any info that would be great.

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Comments (4)

lehua49
14 years ago
hi Brand,

What type of source water are you using? Well water pumped to your barrels, roof run-off into your barrels or house water piped into your barrels. Are the barrels covered or open to dust and dirt in the air? As you have guessed by the questions that water can get contaminated and require a filter to remove the particles that get into the water. This is a maintenance chore to clean the filters regularly or they will obstruct the flow and rob you of needed pressure, especially in a gravity fed system. Try your filter and see if you really need it. If you don't get rid of it. Glad to read you don't have pressure compensated emitters. Their torture track pressure regulation causes even small particle to clog the emitter in a short time. the best for low pressure systems is a pipe with tiny holes in it to let the particles escape and not build up in the pipe or just stay on top of cleaning the filter. After a season of growing, cut a piece of tubing and look inside the pipeline to see what is happening at the emitters. Good luck and aloha
brandond
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the reply and once again, you have great information. The water Im receiving is roof run-off from a galvanized roof from a machine shed. My gutters collect from around 900 sq ft of roof. Its a gravity fed system. From my experience in the past if I get some grit or small particles stuff it goes into the bottom of the barrels. I ordered 900 ft of irrigation tubing and will eperiment with such a system as the parts are interchangable and I can do what works. thanks for the info
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According to the Hunter Technical Handbook .. it does not sound like a good idea ... I don't know what 1/4 " product you are using but Rain Bird's 1/4 vinyl tubing would lose 100 PSI for every 100 feet of tube ... so in your case you may lose about 40 PSI at the end of your run ... so you need 65 PSI at the connection .. and that is only friction loss due to the pipe. Small homes are often 50 PSI at the source ? 1/2 " tubing would only use about 3 PSI over 40 feet. That sounds a lot better to me ... Schedule 40 1/2 " PVC even less pressure loss and a much sturdier system. It's in general though best to avoid using too much 1/4 " tubing at all in a drip system ... myself I don't use any .. too many seem to think drip means using 1/4 " tubing. The emitter defines a system as "drip" .. it's possible to use all hard plumbing in a drip system and when convienient it should be the first choice. Good Day ...
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Sherwood Botsford (z3, Alberta)
14 years ago
Yes you need to filter. Drip irrigation you need to filter quite fine. -- 140 mesh to 200 mesh filters are what's usually recommended. Look at disk filters. (Netafim has some small ones) Filter it at the source. You lose the same pressure no matter where you put it, and if you keep crud out of your pipes, you get less algae growth.
brandond
Original Author
14 years ago
I will probably try the in-line filters since I already have 4 of them. I do use very fine screen to filter leaves and other debris from the barrels. Im thinking that the filters will reduce the flow quite a bit, but I will try it. thanks for the info though

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