I ordered both single barb and double barb 1/2 faucet/hose connectors. For some reason, the single barb items were delayed by almost a week so far. ## Male? Female? Pipe Thread? Hose Thread? Before I review the product, I want to point out something many people understand, but can also be very perplexing. In the United States, there are two common "hose/pipe" connections with threads on them. The come in two "genders": "male" and "female" - those in other domains are called plugs and sockets, or bolts and nuts. The male part fits inside the female part... that's the key to understanding the gender. To make matters more complicated, in the United States there are two common types of thread: National Pipe Thread (NPT or PT for short), and Hose Thread (HT). These two thread types are different and CANNOT be joined together (trying to join them is usually a disaster). There are more threads per inch in the PT than the coarser Hose thread. If you build a sprinkler system, you'll almost ALWAYS be dealing with items that are "PT" (pipe thread). However hose connections are different. To make matters more complicated, there is also LEFT handed thread and right handed thread. Left handed thread is used, for example to connect a gas supply to a propane tank. But I'm not aware of any instances of Left handed Pipe Thread or Left handed hose thread. Right handed thread corresponds to the "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" mnemonic. ## About These Connectors They served me well, but I have a bit of a unique situation. When I first installed my drip system the most commonly available item in our area was a Fiskars solution with push on fittings that worked with a relatively thin walled 1/2 inside diameter tubing. The Fiskars fittings all have Male Hose Thread connectors (MHT) which makes it easy to use these as end caps with those Fiskars fittings. There are, however no other fittings for drip irrigation that have that configuration, Fiskars - which makes great pruners, shears and loppers, no longer makes drip irrigation fittings. THEREFORE: These will only work if you are literally connecting to a hose bib (hose faucet) or a standard US garden hose. OR you use a FEMALE hose thread fitting with a Male Hose Thread to Male Hose Thread adapter. Those MHT to MHT you won't find many of, and you're likely to only find them in brass. ## Order of Connection is Important The next thing to consider... to connect them to the male host thread, you, of course twist them on... ORDER matters. if you connect the 1/4 tubing before you twist them onto the male hose thread, you'll have to ALSO twist the 1/4 tubing. EXCEPT for my Fiskars situation where it is also possible to twist the fitting you connect these too. Likewise, if you want to disassemble them (e.g. to repair or replace the washer you will have to twist them. Standard "FHT" (female hose thread) connectors - like what is literally on the hose end you connect to the faucet - usually have a socket that can swivel without twisting the hose. These connectors do not have that. It's a suitable compromise in my book, because you'd seldom need to take them apart and reconnect them. Also having that separately rotatable component is often where hose connections fail! ## In Summary These work just find, seem sturdy and solve my specific problem, but they are unlikely to be widely useful for drip irrigation systems unless other manufactures produce fittings like Fiskars used to produce. ## About the other options that can be ordered I bought a different set of 1/2 tube connectors from this one. I suspect they are all very similar, however. The best feature of those fittings (called "barb+compression fittings") is that they are relatively easy to attach as compared to the kinds that do not have the compression nut, and are likely to be more secure. However the disadvantage to that system is that that to terminate the system you must use an compression end cap. In my ideal world, you should be able to terminate the system 1/2 male HOSE thread connector with a screw on end cap. With that system you could use the 1 or 2 barb items I reviewed here, and more significantly, it would be easy to take the end cap off to flush/drain the system and prepare for a freezing winter. ## One Last bit of Advice I highly do NOT recommend using barbs to pierce 1/2 tubing for connecting to 1/4 tubing - use the compression fittings that have (1) or (4) 1/4 barbs instead. There are so many reasons for this, but the main reason is that if they get yanked or stepped on (e.g. tripped over), that is where you're going to have a leak. I even had a situation where stepping on such a connector pushed the barb through the other side of the tubing making two holes where there was supposed to be only one. Ok, one more bit of advice: avoid using drip hose or weep hose. The most significant failures I've had have all occurred because the weep hose - or drip hose decayed and sprang major leaks.
