Here’s an immediate reply from our friend, Mr. Richard Chapin, founder of Chapin Living Waters and original pioneer of gravity fed bucket irrigation:
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your email.
Your approach sounds interesting.
I have always said that the more manufacturers that get into the
supplying Drip Kits to the poor people around the world the better.
No one company or organization is large enough to take care of the
WHOLE WORLD!
I wish you sucess in your concept,
Dick
> I have had time to set up 3 5-gallon kits and one 30 gallon kit at the Empire Research Station.
> The parts list per 5 gallon kit is as follows:
> 1- 5 gallon bucket
> 1- 1/2″ inch threaded pvc coupler (Spears part # 430-005) retail
> cost of about one USD
> 1- 1/2″ male poly adapter (Spears part # 1429-005) retail cost of
> about 1.25 USD
> 1 standard garden hose washer….. retail cost about 10 cents
> 1 1/2″ poly tee (Spears part # 1401-005) retail cost about 50 cents
> 2 1/2″ poly elbows (Spears part # 1406-005) retail cost about 50
> cents
> 100 feet of Rainbird 1/2 ” drip pipe (Rainbird part # XBS100) retail
> cost 13 USD
> 80 to 100 Rainbird transfer barbs (Rainbird part xbf1conn )
> cost 6 cents ea. total cost of 5 to 6 USD. Henceforth called ‘emitters’
> here’s the funny part….. 30 PIPE CLEANERS cost for all: 1 USD
>
> Total cost for materials at RETAIL : about 20 USD. I did it for ten dollars with my employee discount Ha Ha. If we get the parts subsidized the cost goes down to about 5 USD per bucket
> kit. You guys can figure out that the coupler and the washer and the
> male adapter are used in the hole that is cut in the bucket and that the
> fittings are what establish the rows off the header ( for more than 2-50
> foot rows we would need to add the expense of another tee).
>
> The innovation occurs in the way we let the water out of the pipe. The
> transfer barbs -emitters- are straight flow thru (they are not pressure
> compensating, that’s why they are so inexpensive) so even under only 6
> inches of head pressure, the water ‘fountains’ out of the “emitter”
> about 3 inches and the bucket drains in about 45 seconds and as you
> might imagine the distribution is not equal along the length of the
> pipe… but these emitters are very unlikely to plug! Steve Swaney suggested that we stick about an inch of pipe cleaner in the emitter opening to retard the flow. We did this to every emitter and we
> ended up with about a drip and a half per second and the bucket took
> about 7 minutes to empty! Distribution, judging by the wet spots, was
> very equal. After a couple of days the flow slows down because the pipe
> cleaner starts to collect debris. I have NO FILTERS in place as yet.
> The astute observer (the gardener) simply lifts the pipe cleaner out of
> the emitter and slides it back in and flow is immediately resumed.
> Plus, when the pipe cleaner is removed, water rushes out of the pipe and
> gives that section of garden bed the water it may have been missing.
> Rinse the pipe cleaner in the little fountain, slide it back in, and one
> drip per second is immediately restored. This system appears to be self
> flushing!
>
> I am using the absolute minimum of head pressures at this point because
> I want head pressure to be my ‘ace in the hole’, meaning, we can always
> raise pressure if we need to by raising the bucket, but that’s a last
> resort. At this time I have 2 kits setting 16 inches off the ground (on
> cinder blocks) and one setting 6 inches off the ground and there is a
> tiny bit of fall between the buckets and the far end of the pipe. With
> this low head pressure, no clamps are needed between the pipe and the
> fittings- just slide them together and they do not leak.
>
> On purpose, I’m letting quite a bit of dust, dirt, algae and debris run
> thru the system because we are at the point where we are trying to make
> it fail. Then we’ll back off on the primitiveness, put an old tee shirt
> over the bucket and try to make the system fail again.
>
> In summary: so far it appears that a single family, 5 gallon kit can be
> supplied for about 10 USD our cost. All parts are universally available
> (I can get all the pipe and fittings I need in Bloemfountain) and the
> high density pipe and fittings will last 25 yrs. If I have to bring in
> the Spears parts I can get enough for about 300 bucket kits in my extra
> checked suitcase. The weak link is probably going to be the pipe
> cleaners, they seem so fragile and the little metal center wire will
> soon be rusting, I’m sure. It’s only been a week but things are looking
> very promising. Will eventually need help with a little weeding and harvesting
> and fence building…..
> OK, what do you think? Chris Skellenger
This is where 11 Oaks Leadership Team and other concerned folks can communicate in an ongoing journal.
Please go to 11oaks.org for a detailed description of our activities past, present, and future. Thanks for visiting,
Chris Skellenger
Director, 11 Oaks
