DIY dripper for cheap tutorial

[petoly]

Here is a tutorial on how to make a regulable dripper but this principal can be applied to make a whole daisychained system.

What you will need:

• an empty plastic bottle with lid. I recommend the big poweraid bottles as they have a nice big lid and hold a good amount of water. Smaller poweraid or gatorade bottles will work too. make sure the bottle you use is used for a beverage
  
• bottle cap
  
• an aquarium air valve (the white thing. you can find them at petco for pretty cheap. you can also use the little t shaped ones too, but you can't regulate those like this valve I have in the picture
  
• a piece of rigid aquarium tubing the same length of the bottle minus like 1/8"
  
• a piece of silicone or rubber aquarium tubing longer than the bottle. this can be as long as you want as long as it's well longer than the bottle so you can easily work with the device
  
• some pliers
  
• a drill with a drillbit one size smaller than the rubber tubing. If you can fit the drillbit in the tubing without forcing it in and it feels snug, that's the right size.
  

Instructions:

1. take your bottle cap and drill two holes. use the drillbit that is a bit smaller than the rubber tubing
   

2. Cut one end of the rubber tubing into an angle

3. From the outer top of the cap, stuff one of the holes with the angled cut of the tube so a bit sticks out on the other side. Take some needle nose pliers and pull carefully on the tubing to get it all the way through. This creates a seal. don't pull it too far you just want a little bit sticking out on the inside of the cap

4. this is how much rubber hosing you should have hanging on the inner side of the cap

5. On the inner cap side, slide the rigid aquarium tubing so it fits snugly, on the other side of the rubber tubing attack the aquarium valve

6. Fill bottle with water, open valve all the way suck from the valve till you get a bit of water and close the valve. Place device on top of tank and stick the valve through one of the holes of the screen top. you might have to push it or mold the plastic valve a bit to get it through. Slowly turn the valve knob counter clockwise until you get the desired drip per second. it's pretty accurate. It takes a little bit but I have had mine set at 1 drop every 2 minutes. you will occasionally have to adjust the flow as the water level lowers.

This concludes the guide. Thanks for checking it out I hope you found it helpful. you can use the t valve and regulated valve and get creative and daisy chain a bunch of bottles to one big tube with different regulated extensions . They will be difficult to regulate but you can have multiple locations with one cheap setup. I have done it before.

...Next Up DIY rheostat for cheap that can control up to 1000Watts of devices.

 

[agent A]

what do u do with the inner cap? does the inner tube have to be rigid or can it be the same material??

 

[petoly]

you could probably make it the same material, I just find it cleaner and easier to manage with a rigid part on the inside of the bottle. after you built the cap you just screw it on the bottle

 

[Paradoxica]

Very cool, I was wondering about this kind of thing.

Thanks for sharing it.

 

[agent A]

i would almost pay u to do a tutorial for a cheap rain chamber!

 

[petoly]

you could probably make one with this in a way. Use gallon jugs connect them to one hose, spread the hose to a whole buttload of branching hoses with aquarium T thingies, Just have a valve at the beginning to turn it on or off. I don't think it could be regulated very well.