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Gardening/Vegetable growing tips
- Thread starter Slainte
- Start date
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
My experience of Hozelock-brand timers is that they work for a few years, but then start to have problems with the servo valve system that they require due to being battery operated and thus having limited power available to operate the valve, especially after the winter lay-off. I got around this by using a mains plug-in timer to drive a washing machine filling valve. That has operated faultlessly for ten years now. I did find another battery one the had a motorised valve which was mechanically reliable but then the timer packed in. When you say that your Lidl one is faulty, was it connected to the water main when you tried it? If it is a servo valve type then it may not open without some reasonable pressure there.
Rikki
Well-Known Forumite
^ Thats a good idea. I might try it but with a central heating motorised valve as I'll probably have an old working one somewhere.
I tried it pressurised but it didnt work then either. Kept saying battery was dead and wouldn't even let me change from the timed setting to manual(on) or off. Took it back today but they didn't have any left so had to get a refund, checked B&Q but their own brand one is £25. Was gonna try looking online but i'll give the above idea a whirl first.
I tried it pressurised but it didnt work then either. Kept saying battery was dead and wouldn't even let me change from the timed setting to manual(on) or off. Took it back today but they didn't have any left so had to get a refund, checked B&Q but their own brand one is £25. Was gonna try looking online but i'll give the above idea a whirl first.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I have just Lidled and, sure enough, there are no electric ones left. There are a dozen or so of the clockwork run-back timers and six or eight of the irrigation sets.
The home made one will be vastly superior to any commercial domestic water timer that I have ever seen. The valve will be much more reliable and, if you pick the right timer, then you can have up to 20 or so one minute pulses through the day - much better than a big flood now and then. You can also site the timer part almost wherever you like, it being a seperate item from the valve. You do just need to be confident of the security of the hose - if it's going to be left pressurised for long periods. I plumbed ours in. With more than one valve you could even switch in different modes, drip feed, mist nozzles, etc. Our home-made version has worked for about 12 years now with no problems whatsoever. I put three valves in so that a quick changeover would be possible should a valve fail, but we're still on the first valve.
The home made one will be vastly superior to any commercial domestic water timer that I have ever seen. The valve will be much more reliable and, if you pick the right timer, then you can have up to 20 or so one minute pulses through the day - much better than a big flood now and then. You can also site the timer part almost wherever you like, it being a seperate item from the valve. You do just need to be confident of the security of the hose - if it's going to be left pressurised for long periods. I plumbed ours in. With more than one valve you could even switch in different modes, drip feed, mist nozzles, etc. Our home-made version has worked for about 12 years now with no problems whatsoever. I put three valves in so that a quick changeover would be possible should a valve fail, but we're still on the first valve.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
Lidl also have a few pairs of yellow gripper gloves which they are selling as gardening gloves, but they are in fact made from kevlar and are almost uncuttable. Very useful when dealing with sharp stuff, although points will still go through, of course. Excellent for the greenhouse owner when dealing with glass. They didn't come up on the scanner when I got mine to the till so remember the price if you get any, but they are the cheapest that I've ever seen.
My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
Did anyone get one of those micro-irrigation kits from Lidl?
I'm away on holiday for almost three weeks soon and thought if I hooked one of those up to my water butt and left it "on" then it would water the plants for me while I was away.
Question is how much water would it go through and would it last for the three weeks without running out?
I'm away on holiday for almost three weeks soon and thought if I hooked one of those up to my water butt and left it "on" then it would water the plants for me while I was away.
Question is how much water would it go through and would it last for the three weeks without running out?
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Got one, but not used it yet.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
It doesn't take much to block up small orifices and butt-water often has a lot of small floaty things in it. I would experiment before committing myself to it, you would then also get an idea of how long a buttful might last. I suspect that it would slow down as it empties, due to some orificies blocking and the head getting lower, if the rain doesn't maintain it!gk141054 said:
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I am so sorry, I was merely trying to be concise - perhaps I should edit it to replace 'butt-water' with 'water from a water-butt', 'buttful' with 'quantity of water that the water-butt holds' and 'head' with 'height of water surface in the water butt above the height of the outlet orifices'? It just seems a bit overly wordy, don't you think?
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Nice one, where at mate?
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Thats good, you still got time to plant stuff or is it a bit late now? Suppose there's still the boot sale for grown on stuff, and wilko have loads of beans!
Rikki
Well-Known Forumite
Not too late for most things, got all the seeds sown today inside the greenhouse which should bring them on quicker. I was going to have surplus of alot of stuff before i got it. Got a fair bit of work to do to the allotment before I can start planting anyway. Not totally overgrown but I want to try and reclaim a bit of a weedy area and create some bordered off areas to make it a bit more managable.