Soaker hose that compensates for pressure loss?

[Larry Edgerton]

I am annoyed by all the soaker hoses I have bought for the garden, too wet on the feed end and too dry on the dead end. Does anyone know of a soaker hose that compensates for the pressure loss?

Larry

[Mel Fulks]

I use the ones from Harbor freight ,much better than the ones made of tires. Dont use different brands together as some have larger holes. They seem to work best with NO pressure ,since the pressure varies a bit I check them a few times during the day and adjust faucet slightly .

[Phil Thien]

I am annoyed by all the soaker hoses I have bought for the garden, too wet on the feed end and too dry on the dead end. Does anyone know of a soaker hose that compensates for the pressure loss?

Larry

I googled "soaker hose unevent" and found a thread at a gardening forum where someone indicated they like the units below with the canvas-like material, they said they get very even results. Also the reviews at Amazon are very high.

http://www.amazon.com/MELNOR-Flat-Soaker-Hose-75-Feet/dp/B00C1TDFE6

I've been thinking of adding soakers at my daughter's fence line so I'm curious what others have to say.

[Larry Edgerton]

It would seem that logic and a basic understanding of hydro engineering would dictate that the holes would be larger/more plentiful as they progress away from the pressure source, but what do I know.

I am thinking about stretching one out and applying tape in a long vee, then smearing silicone in between the tape and letting it cure, pull the tape, and see if that works. Can't hurt.

[Michael Koenig]

I attach a hose to each end works good for me.

[Ryan Mooney]

I attach a hose to each end works good for me.

I do the same, basically make loops of the feed hose and then run the soaker between them. I've also had pretty good luck with the `1/4" stuff that has extruded emitters rather than just holes as far as more regular watering goes.

[John Huds0n]

I don't know how 'portable' your hose has to be, but I have replaced most of my shrubbery sprinklers with a pressure compensating dripline.

Basically it is 17mm (1/2") tubing with emitters spaced every 12, 18 or 24 inches. They also have different flow rates - 4, 6 or 9 gallons per hour

http://www.rainbird.com/documents/drip/ts_XFD.pdf

https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=XFD-09-12-100

[Bill Clifton]

I use dripwork emitter hoses. Haven't bought for a couple of years but I like everything they sell.

[Mike Lassiter]

I seem to recall those hoses were recommended to be used with a pressure reducer/regulator the last time I tried one. We had a unusually dry spell several years ago, and I got 2 of them to water our garden with. Garden is about 90 feet long and I used 2 of them connected together to work down and back up a couple of rows. I turned the hydrant on at night (we have well water) and thought overnight the good slow soaking would be great and I could move the hoses before leaving for work and keep going across the garden.

What I found the next morning was the first hose ruptured and all night long I had the full stream of water running out into the garden. It got a GOOD watering alright, but had no telling now many hundreds of gallons of water poured out the ruptured hose that night. Washed a crater in the garden and washed some plants out of the ground. I recall reading about the reducer afterwards. I have a 50/30 psi pressure switch on the well and have the high limit increased some to probably 60 psi. The city water pressure at our single wide rental mobile home was reading 105 psi when I replaced all the 20 year old water lines in it and pressure testing my crimp on fittings before putting sheetrock back on the walls inside and covering some of the connections up. The local water dept installed a regulator at the meter because of the high pressure that has the pressure now at 55 psi. I would be afraid to use one of the soaker hoses at all now without reducing the pressure based on my experience with them. I think the second hose was hooked up by itself and it too ruptured. Bad manufacturing, or typical of all of them? Didn't matter to me, I have never used them again.

[Mel Fulks]

I get the impression that some are running those with more pressure than needed. The whole idea is to allow soaking with no run off. Seen some tv showing third world people who proclaim them to be a great gift making it much easier to grow food.

[Larry Edgerton]

What I want Mel is a system that I can move to each row for a finite amount of time. My garden is 40'x100', and I do not want that many soaker hoses. I eventually want a system that rides on a track on the cyclone fence that I can move from row to row, let a row water for 10 minutes and move it to the next row. I may end up having to feed from both ends, but prefer not to have to deal with twice the hose. I am going to try my tapered restriction idea this weekend, if I screw up all I lost is one hose.

I like the soaker hoses because it only puts water where I need it, no sense watering in between the rows.

[Ted Calver]

Check out Netafim, Larry. Puts it right where you want it. https://www.netafim.com/product/family-drip-system

[Larry Edgerton]

Thanks for all the suggestions, gives me some things to look into for next year.

I did try my idea of taping off the soaker in a V and filling the pores in between with silicone caulk. Starting at the feed end with almost all the way around being filled to a point at about 2/3 of the length I filled and let cure for two days.

It now works excellent! Nailed it first time, watering is very close to uniform over the whole length.

Larry