On Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:18:48 -0700 (PDT), Higgs Boson wrote:

Sounds too high-tech for moi g

Cheap and easy to run. Lasts long enough that I figure I get my money's worth.


backflow preventer:

? Why would I need that on such a simple installation? Alerted by you, I read the (terrifying) Wikipedia article, and wonder how I survived all these years using my first basic PVC watering device.g

Perhaps helped that it was downhill from house? Frivolity aside, would it really be needed for small garden beds not uphill from house water supply?

It's required by code in most places; and a cheap and simple Darn Good Idea. For instance, in a warm
climate, you might introduce some of the jollier amoebae into your water system, like Naegleria fowleri
or Entamoeba histolytica. Or some nasty bacteria or waterborne virus.

In our case, since we're on a well and don't chlorinate, I could possibly contaminate the entire aquifer. Most of us have pretty good immune systems most of the time. Sometimes our luck runs out. I try not
to push my luck too far. At any rate, I'd hate to be known in Wikipedia forever as the biologist who
did not fully understand the lessons of the Broad Street Pump Handle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_%28physician%29

Downhill helps... siphons don't run uphill, though you can siphon over a hill. For $5 and a few inches of
teflon tape, I don't mind installing anti-siphon devices.

Kay