What’s the benefit of Pressure Compensating Drip Emitters? I currently have flag Non-Pressure compensating drip emmiters. Is it worth it to buy Pressure Compensating Emitters and swap out the flag emitters?
Pressure compensating emitters simply keep a more constant flow when pressures vary. If your house’s water pressure varies a lot (if you water when your neighbor does, do you see a variation from when they’re not watering?), it would help. And they’re not much more expensive. But if your water pressure doesn’t vary that much, I wouldn’t bother changing them out, if it were me. To test, you could water for XX minutes at different times, and measure the water used from your meter. If it varies a lot, you might consider them.
Pressure compensating emitters also decrease the misting effect caused by high pressure through spray nozzles. The benefit is that more water falls on your landscape than blows away and evaporates.
I my emitters are under mulch, so there’s never any misting. In fact, none of my emitters emit fast enough to mist even without mulch .5 to 2 gph doesn’t result in misting.
In addition to helping when varying water pressure, if your water pressure is consistently high, compensating emitters allow you to deliver only the amount of water your plants really need. And, when the compensation is done at the emitter (rather than for the whole line), you can dial it in for each plant (assuming you dedicate one emitter to one plant). Else…approximation. Healthy plants. Less “wasted” water.