Chapin 4701 HydroFeed 24-Ounce in-Line Auto-Mix Fertilizer Injector System, 24-Ounce, Drip Irrigation System (1 Feeder/Package)

I’ve had this a couple weeks now and I have had zero problems with mine. If I had one complaint it would be the small filler hole. But it’s well made and worth the money and saves me so much time by not having to take out the sprayer!

These are somewhat better than the cheaper black ones made by another company.Don't expect to not refill the fertilizer often. These will be diluted beyond what you meant to apply after about 12 gallons for the 16 oz, 18 for the 24, and 24 or the 32. Having used much bigger volume proportional injectors before, I wouldn't want that much fertilizer sitting around for just my garden beds anyway... it would go bad. But, if you are thinking you will fertilize an entire yard like this, you may be refilling the fertilizer every day.The 24 and 32 oz are way easier to mount as they have holes. The 16 oz require some fussing with to stabilize.I arrange these directly in front of the bed they are fertilizing. I use 1/2" elbows to bring the 1/2" line up, connect one of the 1/2" screw on end caps without the end cap to connect to the male thread, and connect the female thread to a 1/2" twist lock adapter. I also use the extra cap on the bottom of the unit to replace the metal one that comes with these. The metal corrodes rapidly and is not any more convenient than unscrewing a plastic end cap.These can be linked in series easily. I link three in a row for different, incompatible stock solutions.The units are always cheaper in the winter. If you like them, don't wait for spring.

Even the largest of the three offerings of this product only delivers 32 gallons of fertilized water per fill. Therefore, fertilizing with this device is not a hands-off procedure for anything but the smallest of applications.Here's what it's like in my case:I have a largish yard with about 200 plants, 2 dwarf fruit trees, a 10-ft Eastern Redbud tree, a Blue Potato Bush, a Fescue front lawn and a "generic" grass lawn in my back yard. These are all watered through ten irrigation valves connected to a Rachio controller: five drip zones and five sprinkler zones.WAY over-simplifying my use case, and not addressing my lawns, here's how using this injector plays out:1. Each of my 5 drip zones requires about 14 gallons of water per 17 minute run.2. The 24-ounce injector will provide 24 gallons of fertilized water (I should have gotten the 32-oz injector)3. In my case, the injector needs to be topped off between each zone: I have to refill it four times, once every 17 minutes between zones.4. The optimal time to run drip irrigation is after sunset.5. During growing season - when fertilizing is needed - the sun sets in CA as late as 9PM or so. Obviously, refilling the injector at 10PM in the dark is not ideal, so...When I want to fertilize (about once a month during the growing season) I skip one of the after-sunset watering sessions and, early in the morning, I go through a manual process of watering each zone one-at-a-time and refilling the injector between zones. This takes about two hours if I only fertilize my drip zones, but I can spend the time between re-fills doing other chores in my garden. If I also fertilize my lawns with the injector it ups the time to about three hours.To simplify the refilling process, I mix all the fertilizer I'll need in a 5-gallon bucket and use a $10 hand pump to fill the injector.This sounds like an ordeal, but it's still better than fertilizing each plant with a hose-end sprayer, which would take more time and NOT leave me with those 15 minute blocks of time between refills that I can spend on other tasks.Just know what you're getting into and make the call for yourself.

I’ve have this running on my drip system for my garden for two seasons and it has work great. Fill it up with liquid or water soluble fertilizer and it’s ready to go. I have four raised beds and 5-10 pots with adjustable flow heads and I only need to refill about once a week maybe ten days. Granular fertilizer seems to last longer than liquid. It’s easy to drain and refill. I have mine under my elevated deck so it is protected from sunlight. I would recommend protecting it from the sunlight as it’s plastic and it will reduce its lifespan. Also when using granular fertilizer be sure to get it off the Oring before screwing it back on and you don’t have to tighten it down a lot or you will have some trouble getting it back off. Securing the top to something is a good idea too because it makes it way easier to get the bottom off to refill.

Finally got a chance to install what I thought would be a great solution to fertilizing my garden. It is a good concept with very poor design. The inlet connection is similar to a compression fitting that snaps over a ring. There is a very fine line to being tight enough to not leak and too tight that it pops off the ring. I was able to use the Hydrofeed two times before I noticed the fitting leaking. I tightened it farther (by hand) to where it was no longer leaking. I woke up this morning find the connection had popped off the ring sometime during the night, leaving the water flowing freely flooding my back yard along with two of my neighbors! Glad I was home when it happened and only wasted water for several hours and not gone for a few days. So I guess I spent $55+ to fertilize my garden twice, plus the cost of all the water I just flooded my neighbors and my yard with. VERY POOR DESIGN!