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TheWaterbug
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Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Monitoring Actual Water Flow?

I've been using hose-end watering timers from Orbit and Melnor over the years, and every single unit has failed me at some point, either because the batteries died, or the solenoids died, or something it wasn't even the fault of the timer, because someone turned off the hose spigot. Or I've had the opposite failure where a fitting burst, and the water ran for 48 hours before someone shut if off.

I've been considering buying a fancy-pants Internet-enabled timer, which would solve only failure 1, e.g. if I can't talk to the timer, then I'll know something has failed, and I'll be prompted to go look. Or to have someone go look, because in a normal, non-quarantine year I have 5-6 week-long business trips over the summer.

But it won't solve failures 2 and 3, both of which have happened at times. Many plants have died (or almost died) when I was traveling or just super busy for a 3-4 days at a stretch, and haven't been able to check my entire garden, including several different vegetable areas, my passionfruit vine, my dragonfruit area, my pot garden, etc.

The ideal case would be a timer system that also monitored actual water flow per outlet, but I'm guessing that would be very expensive, if it even exists.

Next best would be an internet-enabled water flow meter that I could install upstream of each of my watering areas. Then I'd just have to compare measured flow against programmed flow. I found this meter, but reviews are mixed.

In total I have 8 timers in 3 different areas, so I don't want these to be hideously expensive. I could probably justify spending $150 in total, but not $150 x 8 or even $150 x 3.

Anyone have a solution to a problem like this? Thanks!

pepperhead212
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Posts: 2851
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

I have almost my entire garden running on battery operated timers, and surprisingly, 2 AA batteries last the entire summer in the Melnor 4 timer systems, as well as a single timer system. However, in the beginning I had some brands of batteries die on me, so I have since bought the Duracell red tops, and have not had a problem since. I replace them in the spring, but put the old AA batteries in some batteries, as they still have power! But I am home to check these, and a couple of years ago, I had the newer 4 timer system die on me, I think at 4 years, while the oldest one is still going at 6 years! You just never know with any of them!



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