Garden Irrigation Watering Rings

Watering rings for precise watering of individual plants. Conserve water by maximizing watering efficiency.
In the contest Garden Hose Helpers
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updated June 24, 2025

Description

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*** Update ***

I added internal baffling to the manifold to even out the distribution to the 10 outlets.

 

 

I was using a soaker hose to water my garden, but I found it had a few shortcomings.

  1. I was watering areas between my plants that did not need water. 
  2. I have to completely re-route the soaker hose when adding or removing plants throughout the season.
  3. The plants at the end of the hose seemed to get less water than the plants at the beginning because of the pressure drop along the hose.  

So I designed these watering rings (two sizes) and a distribution manifold to have precise and modular watering to each plant. I also made TPU caps for the manifold so lines can be closed off when not in use. 

Each ring uses a customizable orifice jet to regulate the flow. After some trial and error I realized that the size of orifice needed was too small to accurately and reliably print on my FDM printer so I just started printing the hole undersize and using micro size drill bits from Amazon (typically used for electronic circuit boards or watch makers) to precisely drill the hole to final diameter. In my testing 0.8 -1.0 mm is a good size range.

In order to ensure the water ONLY flows through the jet orifice I added a double O-ring seal (Uses 109 O-ring and 205 O-ring). After printing the rings the bores need to be reamed with a 3/8" and ½" drill bits to clean up the bore diameter. 

I was going to design a 2 piece clamshell clamp to clamp the garden hose to the hose barb ends, but that would still require purchasing hardware (screws and nuts) so I decided it was just cheaper and simpler to use SS hose clamps.

Just cut up an old garden hose to the lengths required and assemble as needed. 

 

Parts and Tools to Buy - links provided for the things I bought (not affiliated) 

Hose Clamps:  https://a.co/d/frHzw3t

Drill Bits:  https://a.co/d/i0qsX9E

109 O-ring:  https://a.co/d/1cVsx2c

205 O-ring:  https://a.co/d/buzYte3

3/8" and ½" twist drill or reamer

Standard Garden Hose

Utility knife

 

Printing Instructions:

All models done in inches. Scale to 2540% for mm. 

I recommend printing from PETG or PCTG, but use your own judgment. 

Normal FDM printer configuration works fine (0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm layer height)

Support is only needed at the bottom of the hose barb OD.  If you have a machine with decent cooling you can get away with no support on the inside of the hose inlet (It will need to be reamed out with a drill bit for the rings anyway.) 

Print nozzles Inlet side down. 

Everything prints at 100% concentric infill, or all walls, except the Jet removal tool. That can be printed at 3 walls ~40% infill.

 

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