Netafim for waterwise irrigation DIY

I spent some time this week playing with Netafim and it has me intrigued enough that I am contemplating switching out my front yard irrigation. For those of you who don’t know Netafim, it is a company that specializes in low water irrigation systems. Their popular product, Techline CV, is a series of interconnected underground flexible piping with built in valves at every drip whole. The pipes connect with a simple snap together method that is under so much tension it is impossible to pull apart (definitely the lego’s of the low water irrigation world).

To install it, you connect it to your existing irrigation valves with a new filter and pressure reducer, then snap together the “net”. The whole net goes underground about six inches and emits water very slowly to saturate the root zone of the plants. If you space the net correctly (for shrub areas about 18″ from pipe to pipe) you get a very even saturation of water. You cut the loss down from evaporation and don’t have to deal with snaking dripper lines all over the garden.

I like the system for quite a few reasons: it is underground, so less likely to get damaged during weeding; it has been around for a long time, so tried and true; it holds the water in the pipes when it is off, so it works for gentle slopes without over-watering the bottom; and it is something a chick like me can put together herself without any of the blue irrigation glue.

So I have to ask: Anyone have any bad experiences with it? If so, leave me a comment so I can look into it!