Lawn Sprinkler System Cost

[Skipholiday]

Hunter makes a good head. We use the hunter sub surface heads on ballfields.

I use Nelson for the 5 year warranty and ease of use. Rainbird makes an excellent product at a good price. The spray nozzles on nelson and rainbird are interchangeable.

I agree with Jeff, stay far away from the mechanical controllers.
Toro makes a good product but they are more complicated to adjust.

Orbit is not a very good product.

You can ask your meter reader and I bet he will know your pressure.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Jeff, if I install a system, I can't imagine any reason to have something that I can grow or expand later, since I'm just on a city lot. "Officially" it's only 70' x 135', although another 20' of length, while supposedly part of the street right of way, is my front yard.

The potential for expansion is not so much in the area of turf, but in planting beds. Mrs. Bird (there is one, isn't there?) might decide she would like to add a bed of flowers you hadn't planned on. With an expandable controller you can just plug in a chip and you're good to go (at least that part of it ).

There are always so many brands of anything we buy that it's hard to decide which is best. As you can see, Skipholiday says he uses Nelson, but that Rain Bird and Toro are also good. I use things now like Nelson sprinklers and quick couplers but don't know where to buy the sprinkler system parts. Home Depot has both Rain Bird and Toro, as well as Orbitz. My brother and his son are happy with their Rain Bird stuff and at least it's available.

The pros I consulted when I built my system steered me toward either Rainbird or Hunter. I haven't looked closely at Nelson at all, but Orbitz is pretty cheesy stuff. Toro has a great reputation, but some of their stuff has a reputation for being a little finicky to maintain. Toro's rotors have the most attractive spray pattern of anything I have looked at. If I hadn't heard the maintenance stories and they had been easier to come by in my area, I probably would have gone that way.

We do have a contractor's supply house where I've bought other plumbing and electrical items much cheaper than Home Depot, but I haven't yet checked to see what, if anything, they carry in the irrigation line.

Take a look in the Yellow Pages. You want an irrigation supply house, not a building trades supply house. Ewing is a chain or irrigation supply houses that has a lot of locations in Texas -- check them out. I used them for all my stuff.

And Hunter? Good ceiling fans; never heard of them for sprinklers. As I've said before, I have much to learn. So thanks for the additional information.

Different Hunter. But then you knew that.

http://www.hunterindustries.com/

Good luck with your research, and I'll be glad to share what I learned.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Jeff, I had looked at Hunter's website earlier today; just wasn't familiar with that one.

And Skip, it was water department employees who put the gauge on my faucet and said I had 110 psi. I was standing behind the guy so I couldn't actually see the face of the meter myself; just assumed he was telling the truth. I knew we've always had strong water pressure here; just didn't know it was quite that strong.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Yeah, Jeff, I had looked at Hunter's website earlier today; just wasn't familiar with that one.

And Skip, it was water department employees who put the gauge on my faucet and said I had 110 psi. I was standing behind the guy so I couldn't actually see the face of the meter myself; just assumed he was telling the truth. I knew we've always had strong water pressure here; just didn't know it was quite that strong.

At this point, if you have a Ewing, I would check with them about how to deal with the high pressure. I don't think they'll suggest you just pipe it through. I think they'll suggest flow control valves or a master pressure regulator.

So, I might suggest a different approach to the bucket test for GPM. Take a five gallon pickle bucket to the faucet closest to your water meter. With as little hose as possible and a watch with a second hand, time how long it takes to fill the five gallons. 15 seconds = 20GPM. 20 seconds = 15GPM, etc. If you're on a standard outdoor faucet that goes through a significant amount of 1/2 inch household plumbing pipe, this will be a very, very conservative estimate of how much flow you have to work with. I just helped a friend build his system, and our bucket test suggested about 10GPM, but when we tapped into the line by the meter we had over 20. When I did mine, I had a freeze-proof hydrant in the yard, and it measured 20GPM. I designed my zones based on 16GPM available throughout the system, and don't have any problems at all.

 

[Skipholiday]

With 110 lbs of pressure I would say you're safe on the volume unless your pushing your water through a straw.

A 1 inch regualtor cost around $70 to $80 bucks here in Bama.
What happens when the pressure is to high is that the valves will not turn off or they are slow to turn off. No harm is done.
A quality valve should handle well in excess of 110lbs.

You can install a master valve at the meter and connect it to the pump circuit of the control box.
I like doing this on systems that do not have any added hydrants on the trunk line.
The master valve shuts off all water at the meter when the watering cycle is complete. Very good idea if your out of town allot.

Goodluck if and when you install your system Bird.

If you need any assistance don't hesitiate to call.

Terry~!

 

[Bird]

Jeff, I don't have a 5 gallon bucket right now, but I do have a 3.5 gallon bucket, so I made sure the measurement was right and filled it in 15 seconds, so that would be a flow of 13.5 GPM, and that was at the outside faucet at the rear of the house. The one at the front is closest to the meter. And before I do anything, I'll wait to see what kind of plan and design Rain Bird sends me, but I have no doubt that I'll have to use a pressure regulator.