If your emitters are failing: 1. Keep your drip heads above your mulch to keep the dirt out. 2. If it is a new system, flush the lines before installing the dripper heads. I have installed about 1000' of 1/2" tubing and another 1500' of 1/4" tubing to my approximately 800 dripper heads. A rather large system on four zones. Three years ago (first year), I had two dozen or so failures, but I didn't keep the heads off the ground. Now I do, and failures do not occur. Then again, I also switched manufacturers for the replacements, but the original ones not replaced are still doing fine. I use 1/2, 1, and 2 gph drippers, they all work equally well. I also had used a soaker hose, the 1/4" kind with a hole every foot or so. NOT!!! The holes clog and was totally ineffectual. I pulled almost all of it out, I have a few sections that are still working, but they are only watering very xeric plants that get enough water if even 2/3 of the holes were clogged. My system uses cistern water (10,000 gal tank buried in the front yard, water pulled out with a shallow-well pump), so hardness isn't a problem. The pump puts out 30-60 psi, I do not reduce it, and the only time an emitter has blown off it has been because of operator error. If you are using well water, then you may be getting sand and junk inside your lines clogging your emitters. Install a filter and you should be in business. Incidentally, I live at 7000' just east of Albuquerque, and the area around my house looks like a dense jungle of nothing but native plants with penstemons (at least 8 varieties), coneflower, chocolate flower, hyssops, yarrow, yucca, golden currant, sand cherry, salvias, thymes (non-native, but I wanted the groundcover), sumacs, and at least 20 other native species, all irrigated by emitters. Wouldn't do it any other way! Scott

I just hate seeing broad statements on the internet that later get taken as gospel because "I saw it on the internet, it must be true" Well, my agenda is different then. I just want to see folks ask the tough questions. It bugs me when I see people calibrate requirements using brand line offerings essentially saying brand-X (Miele, Bluestar, other) offers said feature therefore I must need it; Brand-Y doesn't have that feature and therefore it is a lesser-being. Fahrenheit-451: internet was evolving from an academic purpose to a universal purposesome saw the light, others fought it until the reality set-in But I'm not advocating fighting "it", F-451! I'm actually advocating emulating the academic and asking the elemental questions: what does this feature do? why do I need it? why is it better? etc. Academics are actually a tough-sell because they look for answers to questions like the above and loyalty to *anything* or *anyone* is not in their genetics. There is a famous aero-astro prof. out of a top-ranked engineering school in the NorthEast who would always say of any research proposal you went to him with: why is this good? Why should you do this? And then: When will you know you're done? It was maddening at the time but it is an excellent principle for any sort of research venture. Aerospace or appliances. (BTW, the outcome of all of that was, that knowing the questions to ask is the singularly hardest part of any venture). obviously embarking on a service based system not unlike Mercedes, and BMW did when they realized that they were in need of a different approach Alright excellent! Here's my experience with BMWs. I have had BMW-1 for several years (excellent car) and we have just bought BMW-2, so I obviously like their products (BTW, we did look for more than just BMWs when looking for car-2 *grin*) This life-altering parts-saving, pre-emptive service policy however, ... not quite so life altering. I've had inconvenient failures on my car about as often as I've had inconvenient failures on the Toyota (the one that is being replaced by BMW-2). Furthermore, every time I've taken the car in for service or repair, I've brought it back (within the week 90% of the time) for post-service relief for some sort of resetting of the system because not only had their on-board system not detected the original failure, even in the shop, they can't even quite calibrate a newly reconfigured installation. Ask about the sensor-based, anticipatory service paradigm and basically the answer is that they collect what data they collect, process what data they can process, but ultimately upkeep is simply "not that different" from another car, as per the "BMW service advisor". Basically, this is a hard problem and just collecting data isn't a palliative. A lot of the time, it is hard to know what to collect, and for most of the rest of the time, it is hard to get a sensor rigged where you need it and sending the data back to the computer to store it (i.e. comms). Now, we've bought a second car from them, so obviously we like the products they sell and like the service etc. they can offer. But I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that their service paradigm - as data intensive as it may be - is at the end of the day all that different from any other. One of the biggest fallacies of the day is that high-technology=data-on-a-chip. NASA will tell you and the military will tell you - okay, they won't admit to you but they will tell some of us - that they are drowning in data they've collected and don't know what to do with. There are terra-bytes of data collected that has never been looked at by any program. Modeling failures is not that easy. It is still an active research area to see what to measure and how to identify when a mechanical, electrical, or electronic subsystem has failed (failure detection) is failing (modeling failure modes) AND THEN to identify just what part it is that has failed or is failing. And to the best of my knowledge, that is being done in academic labs, not in engineering companies: ie. it is basic research as opposed to applied research Anyhow, this is at least many OTs from the subject. Miele is an excellent company. Go forth and prosper with their stuff, but just dial down the rhetoric.

Let me save you and others from a potentially huge mistake. I have no grudge here. I only share my witness to a system that is not worth my time and has severely devalued our pool's appearance. This is probably not an option to consider if converting from another system. Converted from Salt one year ago and within one week the system began stealing my life. With the salt system, my pool service was invisible except for needing to pay for their work by check once a month. We had a beautiful pool. The Cu distributor kept promising results and installed a pH system and wired the Cu unit to my panel for automation. This system does not stop algae while at the same time it penetrates your plaster with copper stains until your bright white plaster becomes black. Where I never did anything before but enjoy the pool and receive compliments, I am a slave to shocking it 2 or 3 times a week and scrubbing algae every few days or so. Whatever the parameters are of my pool (Dallas TX, white plaster over Gunite, glass filter) - this system has destroyed the $85k appearance of the pool to something that would be better replaced by landscape. Algae develops no matter what the Cu or pH level. It's sneaky stuff. It begins as a clear slime you can detect on the cleaner hose. Then you can see its presence when you stir up the pool floor or steps with a brush--it kind of clouds when you stir it up. Then it begins to turn a very light lime green ever so slightly until BOOM you have a full tilt bloom in the water and on the walls. Your water clarity drops to about 30 inches. The only thing that returns clarity is shock (I use two pounds in a 17k gallon system) and to keep the system running. This is way more work and way more chemistry loading than ever was necessary with Salt. Our pool service winces each visit wondering how he can make it look like he was able to make it look with Salt. Guests look at the pool and ask, "What's wrong with your pool?" The distributor refuses to acknowledge the system does not work at this installation and insists on tweaking things. Tweaking things is not making the Cu staining go away nor decreasing the aggressive recovery of this Cu defiant algae. I can temporarily remove Cu stains with shock or acid, but the Cu staining is aggressively defiant as well at returning. We are insisting the distributor return the pool back to the condition it was prior to this black magic equipment was installed. He is in a difficult position now, but he gave his word he would replace it if it did not perform to our satisfaction. His work is of good quality, it's the equipment that just doesn't work as advertised at this installation. Consider yourself informed.

OK. I have decided on a Kohler 20RESL. But i am having a heck of a time getting information from Kohler. I am going to buy online... and all Kohler will do is send me to a local dealer for info... which I am not quite sure why they would want to help me when I am not going to buy from them... Does not make sense that Kohler can't answer these questions for me directly. If anyone here can help, I'd appreciate it... 1) The 20RESL comes with a transfer switch. Docs say RRT, 200A, 3R enclosure with no load center. Is the RRT the best Kohler transfer switch? Do their other ones have any other features that I might want to get the generator alone and different transfer switch separately? 2) The 20RESL comes with DC controller... the 20RES (no ATS) comes with RDC controller? Anyone know what the heck the difference is? 3) I want the OnCue software... but the docs imply that it requires an interface board that goes in the generator (ethernet connection). Does that board come with the generator or with the oncue software or separate from both? I have no idea what to order... generatorsdirect and lowes do not list OnCue as accessories at all. 4) Kohler docs say the carburetor heater is recommended for below 32 F... again, I find no listing for it to order. Is this really worth the $$ spent to keep it warm all winter? is 32 really the threshold or will it reliably start without the heater at lower temps? 5) Can these units be run at full rated load continuously? ie. this unit is rated at 18kw on NatGas. Can it run continuously at max load for a few days if it had to without issue, or should all my load calcs be done assuming only 80-90% load? 6) I have been told that an air cooled generator will not have any issue running for days continuously unless the outside temp is > 90 degrees, in which case it might have to take breaks to cool off... is this accurate? So in winter it would be fine with an extended power outage... but middle of summer may have issues? 7) Specs show peak motor starting kVA at 40.5... so I am guessing that if generator is near full load and my well pump or geothermal unit continuous current would max out the 18 kVA during run time, it will still be able to handle the inrush from them starting... is this correct? 8) Can't seem to find out if Kohler has any kind of load shedding devices the ATS can control... ie. an inline switch I can put on my geothermal to shut it down if other more important loads start to exceed full gen load. Most other manufacturers seem to have these device... outside the transfer switch... but I see nothing from Kohler... Thanks for your help!