After several months waiting for parts to arrive I have finally managed to set up my first Zone.
I haven't set up any schedule yet, I've just been testing with watering manually. My sone is set up with about 45 8lph drippers to water tomato plants. When I start the system up the pump starts and water comes out of the first drippers after about 30-60 seconds the pump starts labouring and shuts down.
Initially I ran one main pipe down the side of the poly tunnel with spurs coming off for each row of plants and each spur has around 6 drippers going to the plants with micro pipe. ( 1 micro pipe T'd off to 2 drippers.
I then tried running another line of main pipe down the centre of the tunnel connecting the spurs and ends together basically creating a large loop. The results seem to be the same though after a short while the pump seems to labour, some times it will run a bit longer but it really seems to be chugging. The end farthest from the pump seems to be getting water but slowly.
Any suggestions for what I could be doing wrong. The are no height issues, all the pipes are installed at ground level and the pump is about 4 ft from the ground. I was careful to cap all the pipes before starting to make sure no dirt could get inside.
HI Alan
It sounds like you might need more drippers or a return pipe back to the tank with a valve to control the return flow, I think the pro pump delivers about 12.5litres per minute free flow 750L / hour, you have 45 drippers @ 8lph = 360lph.
Hi Alan
45 drippers should be fine, sounds like there is some other blockage in the system. Try and isolate it by removing components. Start with the distribution pipe, so water is just coming out of the valves, then remove the valves, try again etc. Once you get free flow on the pump you'll have identified where the block is.
Hi Paul and Chris,
Thank you for the advice, I was hoping you were going to say you've missed this special setting. Fighting through 8ft tomato plants and trying to pull these joints apart is not going to be easy.
I spent several hours on Sunday adding a making the system into a loop and that didn't seem to make any difference and if it was a blockage I would have expected this extra pipe would have bypassed it.
I will try and nock up illustration of layout.
Hi Alan - don't worry too much about the loop itself, you just need to disconnect the loop from the valves to remove any pressure. If there's still a problem, then the blockage is further "upstream", potentially the valves not opening.
The image I uploaded was the original layout ( Excuse the terrible drawing, I'm a Gardner ).
The black lines are the amin 13mm LDPE pipe, the Red lines are 4mm micro pipe and they are connected to the pump with the original Watemate hose.
The micro pip comes out of the LDPE pipe on a single line that is the "T'd" off to 2 drippers.
When this didn't work I added a second line of LDPE pipe running all the way down the right hand side and joined each end all the way down like in the 2nd image.
I guess I could also try adding it to Zone 2 and see if its any different. I was going to make a similar loop for the other side of the tunnel for my peppers with 4lph drippers, but held off until I got it working.
The "wet zone / pipework" is really up to you; every situation is different. We can help you troubleshoot the equipment itself, ie control unit, valves and pump. Try and isolate any fault by removing all your pipework from the equipment and running it "open".
I've just disconnected everything from the system and run the pump only. If I run it for 60 seconds it will fill my 10l watering can. If I connect the pump to the irrigation pipe directly ( without the valves in place ) the pump still seems to start of ok and then gets slower. And slower until it stops.
So that means it's not the solenoid valves causing the issue. So it's either the pump or my pipes.
Hi Chris, I'm not sure this is the issue. The pump starts fine and then as pressure builds it really starts sounding like it's struggling to push water through. I expected the sound of the pump to change as the system started to build pressure, but this sounds like it's really struggling. If I turn the pressure dial on the pump all I'm going to do is make the pump switch off earlier. I need to work out why the pressure is building up so much. It's way too hot to be in the tunnel at the moment, but I will look at some of the pipes and make sure they are all clear. I watched quite a few videos on this before buying it, so have a decent grasp of it's set up. And rewatching the videos today shows people with systems comparable in size to mine and the pump sounds fine.
I should probably add, the pump switching off is not the problem, I think it's doing what it's supposed to, the problem is whatever is making the pressure builds so high that the pump cuts out. I was careful when I built the system to make sure all the pipes were capped so dirt didn't get in, perhaps there's a kink in one that I've missed?
It would have been a lot easier fault fing this if I could have set it up in April when I bought it, but sadly parts availability and lost orders meant that wasn't possible so now if fighting giant tomato plants and ridiculous temperatures.
I've just had another couple of hours fiddling around to try and work out where the problem is.
The last part of the system I haven't tested was the pipe from the solenoids to the irrigation loop ( as it was buried ). So, I ran a new hosepipe directly from the solenoid to the irrigation loop and the pump still begins to labour after about 20 seconds. I've tried both zones and it's the same. If I pull off 4 drippers the pump doesn't sound likes it's stressing. If I just have 1 removed from the system it starts to labour.
It's as if the pump doesn't like the back pressure, but I wouldn't expect it to be a problem on a loop with 45 x 8 lph drippers.
Hi Paul,
They are free to flow. I spur 1 x 4mm dropper line from the ldpe about 15cm then insert a T and add 2 lengths of 4mm to that with drippers on the end.
When we started the system like this with the 4 drippers removed the system ran ok. A reasonable amount of water was coming out the 4mm lines. We added them back 1 at a time , when we got to two left off the system it was ok. But when it was only 1 missing it started to labour again, but not as much as when all drippers are in place.
The alarm also goes, sometimes without anything other than a hose connected. When we were testing the zones we ran a straight hose back into the water butts.
Hi Alan
What make Drippers are you using?
I use Shrubbers as seen on Harvst's website, set on a good flow rate for a short time, this help to lower the line pressure & seems easier on the Pro Pump plus lengthen battery life.
Hi Paul,
I'm using the Blue 8LPH drippers from Harvst. All of the equipment in this loop is Harvst product. one of the delays I had in setting this up was waiting for the extra dripper kits to come back in to stock.
I bought 60 of each size of dripper so I could use different sizes for different crops. As it stands though there's no point setting up the 2nd zone as that's mainly peppers and chillies so most of the drippers would be lower rate which logically means the problem will be even worse.
It's all turning into a real time sink, I'm spending all my allotment time trying to get this working instead of gardening, pretty frustrating.
Hi Paul,
I'm pretty sure that would work. But it's a 24ft long tunnel and not really a long term solution. Especially as it's likely I would have to do it on the other side too. How do you get on with your system, did it "just work"? Have you got many drippers on each of your zones?
I Have 2 Solar Pro Pump units 1st unit in a 20ft poly with 16 adjustable Shrubblers on each zone, this worked fairly well from the start, the 2nd unit is in a small greenhouse with about 12 Shrubblers, this had a lot of pump problems and would only work well with all of them fully open.
Going back to yours, you could take two of the drippers off near the tank and use them as a return? or try more outlets?
If the "pump is labouring and then stops" then the high pressure cut-out will be kicking in. That's not actually a problem if the drippers are dripping, it's there to stop the system blowing open. When the pressure drops off again, the pump will restart and keep the pressure up. Is it possible you're chasing a problem that's not actually a problem?
Hi Chris, I could be looking at this wrong. How is the pump supposed to work? I just assumed that it would run for the amount of time set and then stop?
Are you saying that it's supposed to stop and start? So if I've set it to water for 5 minutes then it SHOULD stop and start as the pressure builds and falls. And if there is no pressure, like if I'm using a zone to run a hose, it will just run for the 5 minutes?
The control unit turns the pump power on for your chosen time period.
If the pressure builds to the point where the pump decides the pressure is too high, the pump will shut off until the pressure drops and then it will restart ( assuming the control unit still has the power on )
If the pump is open flow it will just run for the full period as there's no pressure build up.
Most systems will have enough water flow for the pressure not to build up.
You can adjust the pressure point using the screw on the front of the pump ( see the manual that came with the pump )
Hi Chris,
Ah, that makes more sense. In that case I think I need to adjust the screw on the pump as it seems to be working way to hard before it cuts out.
I will give it a try and report back. It will be useful for others to see in the future.
Regards Alan
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I haven't set up any schedule yet, I've just been testing with watering manually. My sone is set up with about 45 8lph drippers to water tomato plants. When I start the system up the pump starts and water comes out of the first drippers after about 30-60 seconds the pump starts labouring and shuts down.
Initially I ran one main pipe down the side of the poly tunnel with spurs coming off for each row of plants and each spur has around 6 drippers going to the plants with micro pipe. ( 1 micro pipe T'd off to 2 drippers.
I then tried running another line of main pipe down the centre of the tunnel connecting the spurs and ends together basically creating a large loop. The results seem to be the same though after a short while the pump seems to labour, some times it will run a bit longer but it really seems to be chugging. The end farthest from the pump seems to be getting water but slowly.
Any suggestions for what I could be doing wrong. The are no height issues, all the pipes are installed at ground level and the pump is about 4 ft from the ground. I was careful to cap all the pipes before starting to make sure no dirt could get inside.
It sounds like you might need more drippers or a return pipe back to the tank with a valve to control the return flow, I think the pro pump delivers about 12.5litres per minute free flow 750L / hour, you have 45 drippers @ 8lph = 360lph.
Regards Paul
45 drippers should be fine, sounds like there is some other blockage in the system. Try and isolate it by removing components. Start with the distribution pipe, so water is just coming out of the valves, then remove the valves, try again etc. Once you get free flow on the pump you'll have identified where the block is.
Thank you for the advice, I was hoping you were going to say you've missed this special setting. Fighting through 8ft tomato plants and trying to pull these joints apart is not going to be easy.
I spent several hours on Sunday adding a making the system into a loop and that didn't seem to make any difference and if it was a blockage I would have expected this extra pipe would have bypassed it.
I will try and nock up illustration of layout.
The black lines are the amin 13mm LDPE pipe, the Red lines are 4mm micro pipe and they are connected to the pump with the original Watemate hose.
The micro pip comes out of the LDPE pipe on a single line that is the "T'd" off to 2 drippers.
When this didn't work I added a second line of LDPE pipe running all the way down the right hand side and joined each end all the way down like in the 2nd image.
So that means it's not the solenoid valves causing the issue. So it's either the pump or my pipes.
Any suggestions?
It would have been a lot easier fault fing this if I could have set it up in April when I bought it, but sadly parts availability and lost orders meant that wasn't possible so now if fighting giant tomato plants and ridiculous temperatures.
The last part of the system I haven't tested was the pipe from the solenoids to the irrigation loop ( as it was buried ). So, I ran a new hosepipe directly from the solenoid to the irrigation loop and the pump still begins to labour after about 20 seconds. I've tried both zones and it's the same. If I pull off 4 drippers the pump doesn't sound likes it's stressing. If I just have 1 removed from the system it starts to labour.
It's as if the pump doesn't like the back pressure, but I wouldn't expect it to be a problem on a loop with 45 x 8 lph drippers.
Is it possible the pump has a fault?
When you pull off the 4 drippers, are their outlets capped or free to flow when testing?
Regards Paul
They are free to flow. I spur 1 x 4mm dropper line from the ldpe about 15cm then insert a T and add 2 lengths of 4mm to that with drippers on the end.
When we started the system like this with the 4 drippers removed the system ran ok. A reasonable amount of water was coming out the 4mm lines. We added them back 1 at a time , when we got to two left off the system it was ok. But when it was only 1 missing it started to labour again, but not as much as when all drippers are in place.
The alarm also goes, sometimes without anything other than a hose connected. When we were testing the zones we ran a straight hose back into the water butts.
Regards
Alan
What make Drippers are you using?
I use Shrubbers as seen on Harvst's website, set on a good flow rate for a short time, this help to lower the line pressure & seems easier on the Pro Pump plus lengthen battery life.
Regards Paul
I'm using the Blue 8LPH drippers from Harvst. All of the equipment in this loop is Harvst product. one of the delays I had in setting this up was waiting for the extra dripper kits to come back in to stock.
I bought 60 of each size of dripper so I could use different sizes for different crops. As it stands though there's no point setting up the 2nd zone as that's mainly peppers and chillies so most of the drippers would be lower rate which logically means the problem will be even worse.
It's all turning into a real time sink, I'm spending all my allotment time trying to get this working instead of gardening, pretty frustrating.
Regards
Alan
To try and get it working, would it be worth leaving the last one or two drippers out and piping them back to the tank as an experiment?
Regards Paul
I'm pretty sure that would work. But it's a 24ft long tunnel and not really a long term solution. Especially as it's likely I would have to do it on the other side too. How do you get on with your system, did it "just work"? Have you got many drippers on each of your zones?
Regards Alan
I Have 2 Solar Pro Pump units 1st unit in a 20ft poly with 16 adjustable Shrubblers on each zone, this worked fairly well from the start, the 2nd unit is in a small greenhouse with about 12 Shrubblers, this had a lot of pump problems and would only work well with all of them fully open.
Going back to yours, you could take two of the drippers off near the tank and use them as a return? or try more outlets?
Regard Paul
Are you saying that it's supposed to stop and start? So if I've set it to water for 5 minutes then it SHOULD stop and start as the pressure builds and falls. And if there is no pressure, like if I'm using a zone to run a hose, it will just run for the 5 minutes?
You mentioned Shrubbers, is that the brand of dripper that Harvst use?
Regards
Alan
The control unit turns the pump power on for your chosen time period.
If the pressure builds to the point where the pump decides the pressure is too high, the pump will shut off until the pressure drops and then it will restart ( assuming the control unit still has the power on )
If the pump is open flow it will just run for the full period as there's no pressure build up.
Most systems will have enough water flow for the pressure not to build up.
You can adjust the pressure point using the screw on the front of the pump ( see the manual that came with the pump )
Ah, that makes more sense. In that case I think I need to adjust the screw on the pump as it seems to be working way to hard before it cuts out.
I will give it a try and report back. It will be useful for others to see in the future.
Regards Alan