Lawn sprinkler system

[ACoyle]

I want to put one in and just read that all the answers that I need on anything are here. So here goes.



I downloaded the manual from Hunter on how to lay it out. It is pretty clear. Are there any special tricks and traps that anyone is aware of? Seems like a matter of knowing your pressure and feed pipe sizes and then some formulae from there. Laying out the pattern of the various heads and dividing into zones that are managable according to pipe size and pressure.



I would appreciate any pointers from any of you who have either had great success or failoures that I can learn from.



Also any suggestions as to good and bad manufacturers products would be appreciated.



Thank You



AC

 

[BFoughty]

My brother,Dad and Brother in Law put in lawn sprinklers. Go with Humming Bird heads. The Hunters are gear driven and will wear out. Are you on a well or City water? You will want to put in a back flow preventer if on city water... with a well it is not that necessary. Lots of drains at the lowest point in the line... not necessarily at the ends of each run. point the drains down at a 45 degree angle and use pee gravel around them. good luck and e-mail me if you have any more questions. Brian

 

[CRuth]

You poor guys in the cold climates. No one bothers with drains around here.

 

[Turbo Tim 1]

I used rainbird stuff also, my brother in law helped me by designing the system and helping me install it. I have 5 zones with 4-5 heads in each zone. I don't have drains in mine I just blow it out with air. I have a small compressor so it takes a couple hours to do and is a good excuse to stand there and drink beer while waiting for the compressor to build back up.



I used the flexible black pipe in 3/4 inch I think it was, I did some re-engineering after the system was done to fix some of the mistakes my brother in law made during design. I had to buy some different nozzles for my exsisting heads because my line pressure would drop too much, I had 75 psi on the static system and would only have 40-45 psi with a zone in service so I changed from 2 gpm nozzles to 1 gpm nozzles and now I have great coverage. I should have probalby had one more zone to move the heads a little closer together.



The big thing is don't be cheap, if design layout says you can get away with 1/2 line go to 3/4, keep the elbows to a minimum, if possible curve the pipe instead of an elbow or use a Y instead of a T. I didn't have any lawn when I put my system in so I had a free reign for trenching the yard up with out destroying an exsisting lawn. Also plan for future additions, if you are going to put a deck on later run the lines where they will be easy to change. For instance the heads that are up against the house actually come from a pipe in the middle of the lawn so that if I add an addition to the house all I have to do is dig up the supply line that is perpendicular to the house and shorten it to move the head out farther instead of moving a complete run along the house out away from it. Does that make sense?