I love them. Learned the hard way to invest in good quality (read brass) qudruple bib - that's four nozzles coming down from one faucet - and make sure each nozzle has it's own cut-off handle. Also buy back back-flow valves, they are cheap and good insurance. 2nd most useful is to invest in water timers! One for each hose going to a particular type of plant, cuz what might need an hour's soak once a week is different from those plants that need 3 hours of water every 3 days, etc. Which kind of timer you get is up to you - and how good you are at figuring out directions (some are simple, some need a resident geek). Check leevalley.com for a selection of the best-quality ones, and yes, that simple cheapie works just fine! Be sure the timer has an over-ride/cut-off because you don't need to irrigate while it's raining; and you don't want to spend an hour re-programming the timer after each rain. 3rd most useful is related to 2nd - LOOK at which plants are going to get the water! Sounds obvious, but run the hoses so that plants which want/need minimal water get it from hose A, while moisture-lovers get watered from hose B, etc. I am gradually switching over to transmitters for better water control with fewer hoses. The only place the soakers are really non-wasteful is down a garden row or fastened into segments with non-soaker between (customized for each plant and boy, does it take time to set this up!). Again, look at leevalley.com - they have really good descriptions of the different methods of watering, including soakers and drip irrigation. However, I do not recommend any of the sprinkle-through-the air types. A waste of water (as much as 80% can evaporate before getting to the plant!) and increases the chance of mildew. 4th, don't overwater. Unless you are gardening in sand or containers or growing pumpkins, most plants need only occasional watering to make up for the lack of rain, rather than a scheduled drenching. Then, don't squirt lightly - for most plants, it is better to water well and deeply once a week than it is to sprinkle every day. However, DO MEASURE how much water is actually reaching the root area - it can take a long time to drip a gallon. 5th, cover soakers and squirters with a strip of landscape fabric and then mulch over that (helps prevent blockages and keeps away the weed-roots); the hose will last longer and there will be less waste of water. Again, check to be sure how much water is actually getting to each plant. A fast way to check (assuming you have at least average garden soil) is to stick your finger in the ground. Really. If you can't put your finger into the soil up to the 2nd joint, you either need to let the water run longer; or you have a blockage in the hose or emitter which is preventing the water from dripping; or you hit a rock while poking (that hurts, so be careful).

Hi, Sorry! I've been laying out my tubing, and figuring out 1/2" tubes also come in 1/2" ID sizes. Back & forth to the store for different sized adaptors ... I have a 25 psi regulator on the water source set-up. I'll also get a pressure gauge, you're right, it would be good to know the pressure to the house anyway. I never thought about the flow rate ... I'll measure it all in a bucket before I start actually watering - jeez! Sort of important - thank you. :) I have 4 - 1/2" hoses, with no more than 40' or so of each. They will each have varying lengths of 1/4" hose running off them, no more than 10-12'. I have several 1 GPH heads along each hose, most at least 18" or so. Only one 1/2" hose station, the one for the shaded bed where the valves are located, will have heads running directly off of it, but only 8 or so; it's not a long line. So, just to be clear - I add the # of GPH's, and they need to be under 80% of hose bib total ... I've got some calculating to do! I'll be running each station for a different length of time, for a different # of days (vines vs. succulents vs. shade, etc). I have 153 plants so far, so I've already exceeded that, right? I'll have to water on different days. I'm not setting up the anti-syphon valve system, including attaching my hose to a separate valve, until I have the irrigation hoses all laid out and working, and the watering timed right, just to be safe. The current manual set-up is cheap enough, although not very sturdy, and my kitchen timer goes up to 9 hours. I don't even have my shaded bed planted yet; I'll wait for the permanent valve set-up (so I know what I have to hide). When I do get it set up, then I'll add the multi-station timer to work with the solenoid/anti-syphon valves, and the kitchen timer won't be used any more. It'll work for this manual system for now, so when 1 station is done being watered, I can turn off that valve, and then the next valve can be shut off when that's done and so on - that is if they're all being watered at the same time, which I don't think I can do with the pressure issue. OK, I'm off to finish the hoses and do some math - I always liked a good word problem! Thank you!

Hi Westover, No disadvantages. Most of the problems with drip is just hooking up to a source and getting enough pressure in the system to operate. Same in your case. Your drip hose or drip tape is doing the same job as the emitters and your drip hose already has even spacing for the outlet holes. Individual placed emitters on separate poly lines just give you more flexibility in placement of the water that is all. If you can put an in-line filter between the source and drip hose that would be better. Drip hoses can get clogged. Good Luck and Aloha.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not sure I fully understood however and I should clarify that the PVC pipe would be in the ground, not above. I think that you are suggesting is to attach a tee to the water source (in this case the PVC pipe) and then on one side of the tee, install a hose bib for the garden hose. The hose bib would allow me to keep the hose turned off when I want to water with the drip irrigation but wouldn't the drip irrigation still run when the hose is on? I think the concept of installing two valves from a tee splitter would work (one to the drip irrigation and one to the garden hose) but if possible I would prefer to keep is as a single switch. Since this is likely to be located in the ground, I was hoping to minimize the space required and if possible fit this in an in-ground valve box. Thanks!