The Gardena connecting point offers a stable, flexible and visually appealing way of directing water from a tap or other above-ground water source into the underground irrigation pipeline. This blog post explains the advantages of using such a box, for which application scenarios it is conceivable and what alternative options there are.

So straight to the essential question: Do you really need such a box? Why not just connect the pipeline directly? Answer: You can do that very well, it just doesn’t look as nice and is more difficult to handle on a daily basis. If that’s not a problem, then you can get by without a water connector box. These are the alternatives:

Direct connection of the pipeline pipe

The simplest and cheapest way of connection is to connect the pipeline pipe directly to the water supply using a suitable connector and let it run from there into the ground:

The pipeline pipe leads directly from the tap into the ground

Disadvantages: The pipeline pipe can only be bent to a limited extent and so a relatively large bend is required to guide the pipe into the ground. This doesn’t necessarily look good when the pipeline pipe runs several feet through the garden. The pipe can also only be separated from the tap with a little more effort by opening the connector and carefully pulling the stretched pipe out of the connector – without kinking it. When reinserting the pipe, you have to be careful not to accidentally kink the pipe. You can’t temporarily remove the pipe completely.

Connection via a 3/4 inch hose

It is a step more elegant to run the visible part from the water tap down to the ground with a flexible 3/4 inch hose and only connect the hose to the pipeline pipe just a little above the ground. This allows the hose to be routed directly below the connection to earth and it can also be easily disconnected from the tap with one click or from the tap and pipeline pipe with two clicks.

A hose is routed from the tap to the pipeline pipe

What remains as a small disadvantage here is that when you uncouple the hose, a small piece of the pipe with the connector sticks out of the ground. Which brings us to the connection box that can be used to avoid this disadvantage.

Connection via a 3/4 inch hose and a connection box

The box is permanently installed in the ground and connected to the pipeline pipe there. The box has a fixed 3/4 inch tap fitting at the top. The hose is then connected to this and connected to the water tap.

A hose is fed from the tap into the connection box, to which the pipeline pipe is connected.

This is how the connection box is connected (on the left picture connection to the water tap, on the right connection to the connection box)

Other possible uses

In practice, in addition to connecting directly to the water tap or the pump, there are a number of other configurations in which the junction box can be used:

Connection to an irrigation computer

Here the water tap is connected to an irrigation computer. The outlet of the irrigation computer is connected to the connection box in exactly the same way as described above. The pipeline pipe then starts at the connection box. Irrigation computers with 2 outputs are to be connected to 2 junction boxes.

Connection via an irrigation computer with 1 or 2 outputs

Connection to a valve box

A connection box can also be used when connecting to a valve box for control with solenoid valves. The water tap is connected to the connection box, and a pipeline pipe is routed from the connection box to the valve box.

Connection to the connection box and from there to the valve box

Connection to an automatic water distributor

In this szenario, the water tap is connected to an irrigation computer. A hose connection goes from the irrigation computer to the Gardena automatic water distributor (Amazon Link).

Connection to the automatic water distributor and from there to the connection boxes

This is how the connection box is installed

Since the connection box is open at the top and the surrounding water can penetrate, it must be bedded down with gravel. In this way, penetrating water can drain off quickly.

Connection box lined with gravel

The connection box is installed at ground level, or to be precise, about 0.5 inches above ground level. In this way, it protrudes slightly above ground level, so that no dirt is washed onto the box. And nevertheless it is installed deep enough that there are no problems with the lawnmower.

Completely installed connection box

Purchase

The Gardena connecting point is available in hardware stores, irrigation online shops and from Amazon:

In addition to the connecting point with the water socket and the regulation and shut-off box, Gardena offers two other box types that look almost identical but have a completely different purpose. You can learn more about these boxes in two separate blog posts: