Over the past seven years, EveryDrop flow meters have been installed by a mixture of DIY homeowners and irrigation professionals. As avid DIYers ourselves, we know there is a wide spectrum of people out there, some of whom will tear their hair out, while others produce work equivalent to that of professionals. It mostly depends on experience and a willingness to learn from mistakes. You may be a really good woodworker, but have little experience with irrigation systems. A man (or woman) has got to know their limitations!
When in doubt, we recommend enlisting a professional installer. A good one will have "seen it all" and know the right thing to do in each situation. Our meters are not at all hard to install, but making a mistake will probably mean having to cut out some PVC, ordering a set of replacement unions, and redoing things.
That said, here are some things to think about when deciding to go the DIY route.
Tools. It doesn't take much to install an EveryDrop flow meter. For a normal PVC installation it's important to have a way to cleanly cut PVC pipe at a right angle to the pipe. A ratcheting cutter like this one is ideal and makes a nice clean cut:
A hacksaw will do in a pinch, but make sure you deburr the cut to eliminate rough edges. Also make sure the cut is "square", or at a right angle to the pipe, to ensure it seats properly.
Materials. Familiarize yourself with the correct adhesives to use for your application, for example, purple primer and PVC cement appropriate for the temperatures in your area.
Knowledge and Technique. The first time you try to dry fit one of our PVC fittings onto your PVC pipe just to see how it will go together, you're going to get mad and say, "these things are too small, they don't fit!" Here's the deal: our fittings are designed to provide an "interference fit". The inside of our union is slightly tapered, from 1.325" down to 1.310", whereas a standard schedule 40 PVC pipe is 1.315" in outer diameter. This means they won't fit! The key is that PVC primer cleans and slightly softens the PVC, allowing the pieces to fully join. The PVC adhesive then welds the pieces together. Applying primer and adhesive correctly and then joining the pieces fairly quickly and with a twist ensures a solid joint. The interference fit means we have a PVC-to-PVC weld without relying on the adhesive to fill any gaps. This provides the most resistance to water pressure and leaks.
Wiring. Our wired flow meters come with a short length of 18 AWG (gauge) wire. The worst thing you can do is to connect the wires with regular wire nuts to two unused zone valve wires that go back to your controller. Our flow meters consume very little current, and this means they are easily affected by both electrical interference and any corrosion in the connections. We always recommend NOT using extra valve wires, and instead using high quality shielded direct burial cable. Connections should be made with gel-filled waterproof connectors. All of this is more expensive than the cheap stuff, but there's a reason for it. We've had several customers contact us because their meter no longer works where the root cause was corrosion in the wire connections. A quick cleaning and replacement with quality connectors saved the day. Obviously an irrigation system is a very wet environment, and this is no place for wire nuts.
You can buy an installation kit consisting of the right cable and connectors on our website.
Unusual Situations. You may have a system where the flow meter needs to be installed in a section of copper pipe, PEX tubing, or polyethylene tubing. Well, some of these cases are actually not very unusual, and a professional will know the right kind of adapters to use.