A novel type of emitters—star layout microtube emitter was designed in this study, and the hydraulic properties of star layout microtube emitters were experimentally investigated at free flow. The experiment results show that, within the scope of test pressure, 1) the flow exponent of star layout microtube emitters changed in the range of 0.59-0.65; 2) the coefficients of manufacturing variation were lower than 0.09; 3)the manufacturing variation of star layout microtube emitters is independent of the pressure changes. According to the analysis of the influence of flow exponent (x ) and manufacturing variation ( Cvm) on the coefficient of variation of the total flow (Cv ), we found that emitters with high flow exponent but low manufacturing variation can still meet the demand of irrigation uniformity in the hydraulic design. As a result, the star layout microtube emitter designed in this paper has highly value to apply and popularize in the small farmholders and hilly areas.