Golden Rule Soil Management Solutions

Sprinkler Systems Part 1

It's hot, it's dry and you need your irrigation system (a.k.a. sprinkler system) to work well for a healthy lawn this summer. A lawn that is fertilized and has an underground irrigation system SHOULD NOT look overly dry, overly stressed and have brown spots.

Underground irrigation systems have many components that can be out of adjustment or failing. There can  also be design problems from when the system was originally installed that cannot be noticed while the system is running (not by the typical homeowner) so a dry spot is only a symptom of a problem within the system.

Take a look at the pictures and video below (some pictures and video were taken with approval in customer lawns) to learn more about problems within an irrigation system that can affect effective and efficient watering.

Sprinkler Head Anatomy

Sprinkler head above is called a 4" popup head (commonly used in flowerbeds and smaller yards). A "rotor" type head has similar anatomy (rotor heads are used in larger areas such as large backyards)

DRY SPOTS surrounded by greener areas indicate problems with the distribution of water related to multiple possible causes within the irrigation system...

                        

...SUNKEN HEADS (heads that are too low in the ground...THE RESULT - water is being deflected by grass and not covering intended area and dry spots can occur due to a lack of water). Solution: Sunken Heads can be raised to properly distribute water to intended area.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

WRONG SIZED NOZZLES (e.g. a 10 foot nozzle installed on a head that is supposed to cover 12 feet which would need a 12 foot nozzle - 2 feet are not being covered). Solution: Properly sized nozzles can be installed so "head to head" coverage of water occurs. 

HIGH WATER PRESSURE (High water pressure causes water coming from head to mist - misting water usually never touches the ground so all of water from head is not taken to roots where it is needed) Note: In almost every irrigation system we have audited there is at least one zone that has high water pressure. 

How does high water pressure affect my watering of the lawn or flowerbeds?

On a 15-foot, half circle nozzle running at 50 PSI, compared to the optimal 30 PSI (pounds per square inch), it will flow over one-half of a gallon per minute more. Multiply that by a run time of 10 minutes and that one sprinkler flows five gallons more than it needs to each time the zone turns on. Since it is applying the water much less uniformly as well, most of that extra water is not doing what is intended. 

Note Misting of Water in Video below (click picture two times) 

Hissing Sounds like you hear in the video above also indicate high water pressure.

We checked PSI at one head in flowerbed above (see pictures below) 

Another Way to Look at High Water Pressure

A SOLUTION FOR HIGH WATER PRESSURE

How many sprinkler heads are in your lawn? You could save a lot of water and water more effectively.