Best Drip Irrigation Kits UK 2026
Retail drip kit runs £20–£350 on published brand pricing — a fraction of an installed system — and fed from a water butt it is the watering method that stays legal through a hosepipe ban.
The kits compared
Some links on this page may earn BestBuilders a commission at no cost to you. It never changes what we recommend — every range here is the same published pricing our cost guides use.
| Brand & range | Published pricing | Best for | Find it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardena Micro-Drip-System | £30–£350 | Building out over time; everything interconnects | Current price |
| Hozelock Easy Drip | £25–£200 | First kit; spares in every UK garden centre | Current price |
| Claber drip kits | £20–£150 | Value; pots and small borders | Current price |
Professional component brands (Hunter, Rain Bird, published £15–£300 per component) belong in installed systems — if that is the scale of the job, start from the irrigation cost guide or get quotes above.
Running a kit in a ban year
Feed the kit from stored rainwater and it is exempt under the standard ban framework; plumb it to the mains tap and it is restricted like any hosepipe. The butt-and-pump arrangement is on the ban-proof watering guide, and the butt itself on best water butts.
Drip kit FAQs
Hozelock Easy Drip is the UK tap-end default — parts in every garden centre. Gardena's Micro-Drip-System is the one to grow into: everything clicks together and the range is deepest. Claber is the value pick, strong on timers.
Yes, with height or a butt pump for pressure — and butt-fed drip is exempt during a hosepipe ban, which mains-fed kit is not. Check the kit's minimum pressure; gravity from a raised butt suits short runs best.
Once you are zoning a whole garden, burying supply pipe or irrigating a lawn, you are in installed-system territory — published at £600-3,000 against £20-350 for retail kit.
That is their point: water lands at the roots instead of the air, which is why drip uses a fraction of what a sprinkler does — and why it is the exempt method in a ban year.
Sources & methodology
Price ranges are the published installer and retail pricing used across our gardening guides; BestBuilders does not yet hold enough quote history in this category to publish averages of its own. Hosepipe-ban rules follow the standard Temporary Use Ban framework — confirm against your own water company's exemption list.