Sprinkler system question

[BarbWire]

My sprinkler system has six zones, installed 24 years ago. Two zones have rotary heads for watering the back lawn. The other four zones have pop-up heads.

On zone 5, one rotary head has been capped off (there was no longer grass in its throw area.) I now want to plant shrubs in the old rotary throw area.

QUESTION: can I add a Shrub or pop-up head to a zone that has rotary heads, or is the water utilization (gpm) of the two types of heads so different that I'd have a disaster?

So, can head types be mixed and matched on a sprinker zone?



(The sprinkler guys and HD and Lowe's dont have a clue, and I'm not about to pay $$$$ for a "professional" to replace a sprinkler head which is a 10 minute task).

 

[Jerry1]

My sprinkler system has six zones, installed 24 years ago. Two zones have rotary heads for watering the back lawn. The other four zones have pop-up heads.

On zone 5, one rotary head has been capped off (there was no longer grass in its throw area.) I now want to plant shrubs in the old rotary throw area.

QUESTION: can I add a Shrub or pop-up head to a zone that has rotary heads, or is the water utilization (gpm) of the two types of heads so different that I'd have a disaster?

So, can head types be mixed and matched on a sprinker zone?



(The sprinkler guys and HD and Lowe's dont have a clue, and I'm not about to pay $$$$ for a "professional" to replace a sprinkler head which is a 10 minute task).

The cost to get a new head and try it is cheaper, by far, than consulting a professional. When I put in my pool, a few zones were destroyed. I had a company come out and fix everything. I never saw them making any calculations. They just fixed the breaks and rerouted the zones and put new heads on. Seems as long as water reaches all of the intended places, you're good to go. I sure didn't see them doing anything else other than ensuring full coverage of the areas we were working on.

 

[TripleLindy]

Our sprinkler system is 25 years old. Because of backyard construction over the years, including a pool and outdoor kitchen addition, our zones now span both lawn and planter beds. While I don’t have any rotary heads, I have a mixture of different types of heads in any given zone, including some drip lines. I don’t have any problem with the combinations.

As an aside, I’ve had a guy fixing a leak in my system and he advised me of the pros and cons of the different types of heads. He says those adjustable heads, where you can change the spray pattern by twisting “dials”, are the worst because they allow too many GPMs. Next are the brass heads for the same reason. I had replaced a number of plastic heads with brass heads over the years because the plastic ones break so easily. His preference is Rainbird.

 

[pjigar]

Too few heads have no problem but too many heads can be a problem (not enough coverage/flow). As simple as that when it comes to sprinkler "design". The professionals just wing it based on the past experience.

 

[Bamaman]

I bought a house with sprinkler system in the large front yard. I've never taken time to figure out how to work the electronics.

And I see no water cutoff going to it--just a manifold with 12 volt valves. I'm a little afraid to mess with it.

I suggest get your system up and running right--and then make changes in the heads, etc. after you know where the zones are.

 

[Mark1]

I think you have to assume that the system worked fine when the head (and grass) were in prior use. You can use any type of head/drip off of the system at that location provided that you only use about the same amount of water in gpm as the original head (and the plant you put in that area don't mind being water at the same frequency as the grass on the same zone). You likely have a little excess capacity so if the original head was say 1 gpm, I would suspect that you could use up to maybe 3 or 4 gpm without a huge risk of lowering the overall system pressure too much.

 

[BarbWire]

Thanks all.

The system is up and running well, and I have mapped all the heads in each of the zones. And I am the person who removed the old rotary (which was watering dirt) and capped the pipe last spring. So....

My concern -- and Mark1 may have addressed this in the opposite direction -- is will I have a problem if the the old rotary was using 3GPM and the new sprinkler/shrub head uses, say, 1GPM?

In a multi-zone system, is the water pressure set individually for each zone (say, higher for rotary zones than shrub zones) or is the zone pressure the same everywhere -- whatever the city water system is pushing?

My (perhaps irrational) fear is that there be too much pressure in the One's line and the 1GPM head will go "kaboom!" at 1:00am (when I am allowed to irrigate), giving me a big water bill gusher.

 

[Telly]

In a multi-zone system, is the water pressure set individually for each zone (say, higher for rotary zones than shrub zones) or is the zone pressure the same everywhere -- whatever the city water system is pushing?

There is no "setting" of individual zone pressure by a device. It all starts with your city water pressure. The actual pressure in a zone is determined by the initial water pressure, but is dependent on the flow resistance in the pipes in the zone, to the flow rate of the heads and number of heads.
Example: A zone of say, 5 heads, where each head is 1 GPM, would have a higher operating pressure in that zone than a different zone that has, say, 6 3 GPM heads. In any case, all the heads can take city water pressure.

My (perhaps irrational) fear is that there be too much pressure in the One's line and the 1GPM head will go "kaboom!" at 1:00am (when I am allowed to irrigate), giving me a big water bill gusher.

Not a worry.

 

[NW-Bound]

If the total GPM flow of all the heads in a circuit (zone) is not excessive, it will work.

A problem I had in the past is that different head designs have different coverage areas. A 3 GPM head that sprays in a 15' radius will provide less watering than a 3 GPM head that sprays in a 6' radius. I ended up with uneven watering of my lawn.

I think that mixing bubblers with spray heads should be OK. Most likely, you will throttle down the bubblers to avoid overwatering the shrubs relative to the grass serviced by the spray heads.

 

[levindb]

You may want to consider the newer sprinkler controller...I have used Rachio. This allows settings, via app on your phone, to describe each zone (grass, annuals, shrubs, etc.) along with type of soil and type of spray heads. It then calculates the duration of watering based on the zone description and the current weather. I have some zones that are drip only and use a flow restrictor for those heads. I have replaced 1 pop up head with a drip manifold with 6 drip lines on that old pop up. Things are very different from 25 years ago.

 

[Ronstar]

My sprinkler system has six zones, installed 24 years ago. Two zones have rotary heads for watering the back lawn. The other four zones have pop-up heads.

On zone 5, one rotary head has been capped off (there was no longer grass in its throw area.) I now want to plant shrubs in the old rotary throw area.

QUESTION: can I add a Shrub or pop-up head to a zone that has rotary heads, or is the water utilization (gpm) of the two types of heads so different that I'd have a disaster?

So, can head types be mixed and matched on a sprinker zone?



(The sprinkler guys and HD and Lowe's dont have a clue, and I'm not about to pay $$$$ for a "professional" to replace a sprinkler head which is a 10 minute task).

Yes. I have one zone with about 6 rotors and 6 sprays. No problemo.

 

[Souschef]

I bought a house with sprinkler system in the large front yard. I've never taken time to figure out how to work the electronics.

And I see no water cutoff going to it--just a manifold with 12 volt valves. I'm a little afraid to mess with it.

I suggest get your system up and running right--and then make changes in the heads, etc. after you know where the zones are.

I have a drip irrigation system, and there was also no water shutoff. I replaced the pipe going to it with a ball valve, 2 close nipples and a union.

 

[BarbWire]

Thanks, all.

So it sounds like I should be good to go with any head I put on the capped off space.

Now I have to find something that will cover an wedge-shaped space with an arc of about 270, and the "needs to be watered" area between 6' and 15' from the sprinkler head.

Ah, Saturday morning! Standing in the HD irrigation aisle, coffee in hand, scratching my head and with eyes slightly crossed. ;-)

 

[isisdave]

You just need to select shrub heads of the size and quantity so that they give the correct amount of water in the time the rotary grass heads need to run. You can look this up and calculate it, but if say your grass needs to go 10 minutes, and each plant needs a gallon (probably less than that, but ...) then one 1-GPM bubbler could feed ten plants through 1/4 inch tubing, eh? It would discharge 10 gallons in 10 minutes, 1 gallon to each plant.

There are also things called alternating valves. It's like a two-way switch. You turn it on once, water flows through outlet A; the next time you turn it on, it flows through outlet B. I can't find the one I used on Amazon; ask at a sprinkler supply place. It works best if both cycles are the same length, as it is possible for it to get out of sync.

And there is an electrical thing called a DOUBLER; this one's on Amazon. This lets you wire two valves to the same controller circuit, and they alternate. Again, it works best if both valves need the same time. Expensive, but less trouble than digging a new trench, depending on where your valves are.

 

[NW-Bound]

You just need to select shrub heads of the size and quantity so that they give the correct amount of water in the time the rotary grass heads need to run. You can look this up and calculate it, but if say your grass needs to go 10 minutes, and each plant needs a gallon (probably less than that, but ...) then one 1-GPM bubbler could feed ten plants through 1/4 inch tubing, eh? It would discharge 10 gallons in 10 minutes, 1 gallon to each plant.

There are also things called alternating valves. It's like a two-way switch. You turn it on once, water flows through outlet A; the next time you turn it on, it flows through outlet B. I can't find the one I used on Amazon; ask at a sprinkler supply place. It works best if both cycles are the same length, as it is possible for it to get out of sync.

And there is an electrical thing called a DOUBLER; this one's on Amazon. This lets you wire two valves to the same controller circuit, and they alternate. Again, it works best if both valves need the same time. Expensive, but less trouble than digging a new trench, depending on where your valves are.

Never knew of the above things, and the enquiring mind wants to know.

Have not found the alternating valve, but here's the Doubler. No kidding about it being expensive ($114). The description said it was to avoid running new wires.

Another way to add another zone without running wires is to use a battery-operated valve ($30). One claims to work for 1 year on 2 AA cells.


https://www.amazon.com/DOUBLER-Valv...mzn1.fos.d977788f-1483-4f76-90a3-786e4cdc8f10

 

[street]

Yes, it should work, it does for me. I have rotors and sprayers mixed and have no issues. If you added more mixed or not mixed in that zone, than that would be a problem.