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RP or DC for my layout?
I have a 5/8" water meter in a buried box near the street in a 3.5 ft strip (square really) of grass. My preference is to install an RPBA instead of a DCVA as I may want to use injected fertilizer in my irrigation system, however both are legal in my area if I do not use fertilizer injection. The water meter is about 3' to 5' below the house grade.
Could I just bury a 5-gallon bucket sans bottom and filled with crushed rock under the RP valve and let the water disperse? City static water pressure is advertised at 90 PSI. I will need to install an accessible buried box next to the water meter box as it is pretty crowed in there right now.
Thanks for any advice you may have.
No, you cannot bury the RP. It has to be installed so that there is no possibility of being under water- i.e. 12" minimum above ground.
You could build an enclosure for it above ground, but the enclosure must have a properly sized drain.
Pretty much a ditto on what Tom says.
With an RP, you have to allow for the situation where one of the backflow seals has become compromised and water starts gushing out of the discharge hole in the RP. Under that worst case situation, a 5-gallon bucket is going to quickly be swamped.
About the only situation that I could see an RP being allowed to be burried would be a situation where it's on a hill such that there is an open drain to lower elevation so that the underground chamber can drain at a faster rate than the RP could discharge water.
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