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Inline dripper

June 29, 2019 — BarryK

I posted about the possibility of having a dripper external to the solar water distiller:

http://bkhome.org/news/201906/testing-pope-2-litre-per-hour-dripper.html

I was able to construct such a dripper, using irrigation parts from Bunnings. Note, for readers outside Australia, Bunnings is a nationwide hardware store, by far the biggest chain, in fact, is just about a monopoly. The only competitor in Western Australia is Mitre 10, a chain of individually-own stores.

Dripper, 4 litres/hour, openable
$1.55
https://www.bunnings.com.au/pope-4l-h-turbo-key-dripper_p3121722
Reducing joiner, 19mm-13mm
$1.05
https://www.bunnings.com.au/pope-19mm-x-13mm-barbed-reducing-joiner_p3126227
Glue for plastic
$7.98
https://www.bunnings.com.au/selleys-3ml-all-plastic-fix-primer-and-adhesive_p1230083
or: https://www.bunnings.com.au/loctite-2g-and-4ml-2-part-all-plastic-superglue_p1210073

I used a hacksaw to cut the 19mm barbs off the reducing-joiners, and the 4mm barb off the dripper. Then used a flat file to make the surfaces smooth.

I bought the Selleys glue, though don't how know how it will stand up to water immersion. The Loctite glue does state "water resistant", whatever that means. Here is the assembled "inline dripper":

inline

The dripper has a screw thread, so can be opened for cleaning. Inside, there is a separate piece:

insert

It works by interference principle, as the water swirls around the channel. The water enters at the center, travels clockwise to the end of the channel, and there is a hole through to the other side. The hole is not visible in the photo. On the other side, there is the same type of channel, the water flows around, then exits from the centre.

I bought the 4 litre/hour dripper, as that was the fastest-flow dripper that was sold separately, and also openable. If higher flow rate is required, a bit of surgery can be performed on the channels.

Note, there is also a 8 l/h dripper, available as a pack of 10, and they cannot be opened. They could be cut open, if desired, to extract the internal piece. 

If I use this external dripper, the internal water dispensing inside the distiller will need to be redesigned. But that is another story -- haven't yet figured out how to do that. 

Tags: nomad