Normally, you'd use a dielectric union or a brass fitting or even a PVC fitting to isolate the copper from the steel.
My well water is so bad (extremely high in iron and magnesium) that it literally eats appliances .......
>>> Anyways, back on topic, what do you guys recommend for monitoring water flow? <<<
Murphy, that's the one I purchased, since it seems to have the best reviews.
So do you guys think I should get this reducer replaced? Is this a 'screw up'? I would hate to pay for more labor time, but would rather get it done right.
So the recommendation for water flow monitor seems pretty clear. Does anybody have a water pressure meter integrated in any way?
My plan is to use a brultech to check when the pump is on and the flow meter to check the gallons per minute and the pressure meter..well for the PSI ofcourse. The purpose of all this is to try and 'tune' the system by using different nozzles on the sprinkler heads (depending in which type of sprinkler you get they come with a bunch of heads for different GPM and PSI) such that i maximize the gallons per minute and minimize the pump cycling. The goal is to get a constant flow..if the pump is cycling the pressure will go up and down between 50 and 70 PSI, so that keeps changing the throw distance on the heads.
28GPM..wow..must be nice... i have a 1/2HP pump and i'm being told i'm getting about 7GPM or so.. so my zones will only have 3 or 4 heads.. lots of zones and valves to compensate for that.
the irrigationtutorials website is really informative and i've gone over it forwards and backwards....it goes into way too much details though..I've spoken to 3 professional installers and none of them actually do the bucket test or anything like that. Once i tell them i have a 1/2HP motor that is pretty much all they need to know.
When i mention pump cycling all of them seem to more of less say that it's not easy to prevent. I think by playing with the nozzle sizes you can tune each zone in (e.g. of a zone has less heads you would want higher GPM nozzles on those) but this takes a lot of time and tinkering which is not good for profitability of a commercial operation.
If i move forward and get a system installed i certainly will be asking for something with exchangable nozzls since the pump cycling is important to me, but from the point of view of wear and tear on the pump as well as the consistency (no pressure changes during the cycles) of the sprinkler performance. The 20PSI change from the high cutout to the low cutin of the pressure tank is way to much for consistent performance i expect.
So does anybody think there is a real benefit to monitoring the pressure? The GPM monitoring seems sensible and relatively easy with a 1 wire pulse counter.. analog pressure readings are probably a whole different ballgame.