High pressure irrigation issue with regulators and flow rates.

[WaitWut405]

So this journey started when i realized my submersible pumps were junk, and being replaced every 6- 12 months wasn't cutting it for me. Along with the in consistencies of low pressure watering, if everything wasn't completely level one of my hydro halos would water unevenly. So I bought Netbows from netafim, 2.0 gph emitters a 1/2 inch poly tubing, spaghetti line, a disc filter, but no pump because I couldn't find anything i liked for awhile. Well i finally stumbled upon a Hydrolock inline water pump after scouring the forums. Only problem is its a little high pressure for my uses, so I bought a pressure regulator from Lowe's. Horrible idea that cheap Hendrickson regulator blew out in a matter of 15 minutes. I then stuck my 55 psi inline pump on a system with no regulator, and watched the sucker surge and slowly push the spaghetti lines off the barbs on some of the emitters, so obviously a better regulator is needed. This is where I'm stumped, I can buy a regulator that will work for my intended uses bring my psi down to 25, but its flow rate is .5gpm-.7gpm. I'm currently using 18-2gph emitters so I'm at about .6 gpm, my pump has a flow rate of 3 gpm, I notice it getting hot but i imagine its designed to come down in flow rate but probably not that much? Couldn't the restriction in my flow rate be an issue? I'm thinking of moving to 4gph emitters and just cutting the interval in half that my watering cycles run. that would mean about a liter in 3 minutes and 15 seconds opposed to 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Something I'm comfortable with but its still only going to bring my systems overall flow rate up to 1.2gpm. I know this is probably something i should run by the manufacturer and I'm in the process of doing so, just thought I would pick the wonderful minds of this forum. Happy growing y'all.

 

[phxazcraig]

I'm looking for a better solution myself. I don't have a complex system, and I only run 2 grows a year, with a drain to waste coco system. 30 gallon reservoir with cheap submersible pump. The flow rate when the reservoir is full compared to empty is way different. At least I don't need so much pressure my lines are blowing out. Just four 6-inch halos.

So I've thought about a number of workarounds and solutions. First, a positive-displacement pump. Seems impossible to find a small, submersible one, but I think that's the ideal. Something that pumps the same volume of water regardless of pressure.

Then I thought about some way to keep the water level constant in my reservoir. This might actually be more simple than other solutions. I have a 30 gallon reservoir and a 14 gallon one. I have been mulling over a way to use one reservoir to hold the bulk of the water, and then pump it into the other one and controlling the flow between with a simple float system. Just to keep the same water level at the pump. This seems like it would work best with the pump in a small 'pumping chamber' fed by a large reservoir.

Another thought, which the engineer in me likes a lot, would be to put two flow meters on my input and drain lines so I could measure both input and runoff amounts. I would build some sort of Raspberry PI-based controller to take the input flow rate, convert it to volume and turn off the pump when it hits the desired target. Measuring the runoff amount would allow me to closely tailor the watering amounts and frequency. Taken to (a logical) extreme, flow meters could go on individual halo lines. Taken to an (illogical) extreme, if I could then add powered shutoff valves to each halo, I could potentially have a plant-by-plant control.

I know, too much time on my hands.

 

[Anthem]

I'm looking for a better solution myself. I don't have a complex system, and I only run 2 grows a year, with a drain to waste coco system. 30 gallon reservoir with cheap submersible pump. The flow rate when the reservoir is full compared to empty is way different. At least I don't need so much pressure my lines are blowing out. Just four 6-inch halos.

So I've thought about a number of workarounds and solutions. First, a positive-displacement pump. Seems impossible to find a small, submersible one, but I think that's the ideal. Something that pumps the same volume of water regardless of pressure.

Then I thought about some way to keep the water level constant in my reservoir. This might actually be more simple than other solutions. I have a 30 gallon reservoir and a 14 gallon one. I have been mulling over a way to use one reservoir to hold the bulk of the water, and then pump it into the other one and controlling the flow between with a simple float system. Just to keep the same water level at the pump. This seems like it would work best with the pump in a small 'pumping chamber' fed by a large reservoir.

Another thought, which the engineer in me likes a lot, would be to put two flow meters on my input and drain lines so I could measure both input and runoff amounts. I would build some sort of Raspberry PI-based controller to take the input flow rate, convert it to volume and turn off the pump when it hits the desired target. Measuring the runoff amount would allow me to closely tailor the watering amounts and frequency. Taken to (a logical) extreme, flow meters could go on individual halo lines. Taken to an (illogical) extreme, if I could then add powered shutoff valves to each halo, I could potentially have a plant-by-plant control.

I know, too much time on my hands.

Your water pressure/flow rate changes as the Rez water decreases because of the head pressure created by the water volume in the Rez. water pressure entering your house is between 50 to 100 PSI. All of the components need to be matched to work at the same pressures. The little submersible pumps move great volume but do not handle any pressure. I believe that is a formula for vertical lift to pressure that you can look up. Pressures need to stay pretty accurate for the automated watering system to function ideally.

 

[WaitWut405]

https://www.senninger.com/irrigation-product/psrtm2 So I think this is the regulator i should buy, its seems best suited for my uses, flow range of .5 gpm- 15 gpm so very versatile. operating inlet pressures are from 1.7 bar up to like 7.4 I believe. Now to solve the issue with the pump being overworked assuming its a combination of restricted intended flow rate and surging which im assuming is possibly from everything not being clamped? I have a better barb fitting im going to put on the vacuum side and see if that helps the surging.