Zone Irrigation - Switch from drip to garden hose with ball valve?

11 years ago

I'm having a new irrigation zone in my backyard installed professionally this week. He's going to stub the PVC pipe and from there I am planning to take over myself and install a drip irrigation system.

My question is, since I don't have a garden hose in my backyard, would it be possible to split the PVC pipe and have one end route to the drip irrigation system, and the other end route to a garden hose? If I used a ball valve splitter would this work? I would not use both the drip irrigation and the garden hose at the same time.

I understand that I would need to run the zone to use the garden hose and that's OK with me. I'm more concerned with issues around the approach. Would this leak? Would there be water pressure issues? Are there things I'm not thinking about?

It seems pretty simple but finding a cheap 3-way ball valve that fits a <1" pipe has proven challenging so I'm wondering if that's a warning sign that I'm missing something. Thanks in advance.

Featured Answer

zeuspaul

11 years ago

It's generally recommended to use a filter for drip. The valve does not work as a filter. Your emitters probably have a spec for filter mesh size. If you have a good clean municipal water supply you might get away without it but you would need to keep an eye on the drippers. Filters are cheap insurance.

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Comments (7)

zeuspaul
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Assuming 3/4 inch PVC. Ask the plumber to leave you with a tee and then 3/4 male pipe thread. Then you can attach a 3/4 hose bib to one side of the tee and a valve and then your drip system to the other side. Make sure it is high enough off the ground so that you have room for your drip filter etc. Call the plumber before he/she arrives to ensure the fittings you want on the stub.
pduddy
Original Author
11 years ago
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!
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zeuspaul
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
You can find three way splitter valves at McMaster Carr. Put ball valve in the search box and select diverting brass ball valves.

http://www.mcmaster.com

How are you going to attach a garden hose to an underground valve? Are you going to use a filter for the drip? pressure reducer? That's a lot of stuff to put underground.

If you use a tee you open one valve at a time...drip or hose. You can do it underground or above. It is up to you.
pduddy
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for this suggestion, it's essentially what I am doing except I have two ball valves since that's all I could find. The pressure reducer was installed after the tee so as not to affect the pressure of water going through the hose. I have a solenoid valve for the irrigation zone, does that work as a filter or would I still need one for the drip irrigation?
pduddy
Original Author
11 years ago
Got it, thanks for the advice!
Michael S
11 years ago
Digging trenches is the high labor high cost portion of an install. I would just pay him to run a second pvc pipe for the hose bib and keep it separate from the drip system. This way you won't have to turn on the drip system every time you want to use the hose big.