Repairing Drip Irrigation
Repairing drip irrigation is something that you will have to do sometime. Lines get old and brittle. Pets will go romping thru your drip system. Here’s a fix that I have had on several occasions. I buy the type of sprinkler that has a stiff riser. It is held in place by a tall stake. This has the emitter above the plants. While it is watering it spreads the water farther. Unfortunately, the threaded/barbed fitting is hard to find and expensive. Replacement fittings can cost as much as a new sprinkler assembly. If it should break it is almost if not impossible to replace. So this my solution to this problem.
The Problem
The broken fitting leaves you with a stiff thick-walled riser tube. A normal barb cannot be pushed into it. The normal part is threaded on one end and has a barb on the other end. The threaded end screws easily into the thick-walled riser. The barbed end will not go into the riser. Also, the cost of the replacement barb/thread connector is almost as much as a new sprinkler assembly.
I regularly fix old 1/4″ tubing that is very stiff. Over time the tubing develops a memory. Manual massaging of the tubing will sometimes soften the plastic. On occasions where that method doesn’t work. I have used heat to soften the material. Enough heat to allow the barb to enter the tubing easily.
The Solution
I was recently working on old tubing when I broke one of these threaded type fittings. I had been using heat from a barbecue lighter to gently warm the 1/4″ tubing. That’s when my epiphany moment slapped me awake. If heat would work on thin walled tubing, why wouldn’t it work on thick walled tubing? So armed with my new found idea. I tried it and it worked beautifully.
When working with thin-walled tubing the technique for softening the plastic and not melting it is as follows. The thin-walled tubing is heated very briefly. It takes a few seconds to soften the thin walled tubing. If you hold it too long under the flame, the tubing wall will get too soft. It will buckle when trying to insert the barbed connector. I use the barbecue lighter and wave the flame under the tubing. I rotate the tubing the whole two or three seconds it is over the flame. It takes very little time to get the material warm. By rotating the tubing the flame is contacting all sides of the tubing wall. The tubing wall is heated evenly. The thick wall of the riser required some more time under the heat but the technique was still the same.
Practice first
If you are going to attempt this modification I suggest that you try it on some regular 1/4″ tubing until you have perfected the procedure.
Conclusion
So if you have a broken riser connector barb, try this modification with a barbed connector. The barbed connector, a riser in need of a barbed connector, a barbecue lighter and a few seconds of heat rounds out this modification.
Related Articles: Articles on Drip Irrigation
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