We have a birdbath in the back. We decided to put in a dripper to make it more attractive to the birds. They like moving water.
I couldn’t find a dripper kit online that everybody didn’t hate the control valve. I bought one anyway, knowing the valve wasn’t going to work well. Everybody was right. The plastic valve only rotates ¼ turn from full on to full off; not nearly sensitive enough to damp the flow of a faucet down to single drips without just turning all the way off.
So off we went to the hardware store and bought a good brass needle valve. I installed it in the drip line by the faucet.
Better, but still not good enough. It drips too fast, or it’s totally off. What can we do to gain finer control over the flow? How about two needle valves in sequence; would that help?
My question is: is there a difference between pressure and flow? If the problem is too much pressure, then installing another valve in series with this one won’t help. When the pressure builds up the water will run by the second valve too. If the problem is flow, then all we need is a series of valves, each reducing the flow, until we get just what we want. I installed a second valve in the drip line out by the fountain to see what would happen.
Two brass needle valves. I turn the first one down as far as it will go without shutting the water completely off then turn the next one in line down until it is almost completely shut too, and Voila! The perfect drip every time!
About one drop per second.
The birds love it. So far we’ve got cardinals, doves, (grackles and sparrows of course), and groove-billed anis. We have a family of three anis that come in to bathe, drink, and gargle the bathwater every afternoon.
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