Anyone used Drip Irrigation?

If I had a completely unattended automated system I would want to have what I think is called a "water fuse" - which shuts off if you use more than X gallons in Y hours. That would need someone to check it was running OK every day or so, if you were away, to find & fix the fault and reset the Water Fuse - but it would avoid flood-the-street syndrome (which is expensive if you are on a meter of course). (I guess you could just have a bowl under a dripper and have the neighbour check that, and empty it onto a plant, each day)

"I’m not doing hanging baskets this year"

Shocking! I don't do hanging baskets but am thinking of doing them in Red, White and Blue for the Jubilee this year!

"With my particular system it’s all push fit so it’s difficult to ensure it’s secure"

I'm a big fan of Geka connectors (from the "Show & Tell" at Shiney's last year). Impossible to get apart when under pressure, and being solid metal not cracking-in-the-frost or perishing-in-the-sun like the plastic ones, and the "o"-rings in the are substantial, whereas the ones in Hozelock are very skinny by comparison, so I think fly-apart syndrome will be very rare.

Got mine from www.cityirrigation.co.uk last year.

 

Ah, I see. I thought (but no experience, so interested in yours) that they are all low-pressure hence not going to "fly apart"? The mains ones (and, indeed, a requirement of my water company to be exempt from the Hosepipe ban) have a pressure reducer.

When I've used them they have been pretty tough to get to "mate", so I assumed they would be robust once connected?

I dipped the pipe in hot water to expand it and make fitting easier, but on my recent trawl for Info I read that is a bad idea as it weakens the pipe (understandably!) and they recommended some sort of lubricant - even veritable K.Y. for example.

Having said all that, the only ones I have used so far are 1/2" used to connect my leaky hose with Tee's, and straight connectors to the rigid 1/2" pipe (where it goes under a path etc), and whilst that has worked fine it may not be representative of the drip stuff. But its all here in a big box (Boys Toys ) so I'll be having a play, and reporting back, soon (although its for the Jungle border, so won't be until frost are behind us).