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Rotors vs. Popups

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Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

11

Wednesday, May 3rd 2006, 3:26pm

But do you install additional heads when a big tree(s) block the spray from one head reaching the next head? If not, then you have not adhered to the true head-to-head philosophy of every square inch of lawn receiving water from at least two heads.

There is a point where the head-to-head philosophy could be seen as saying that you do not trust in your sprinklers to be capable of stand-alone coverage. There is enough crummy equipment out there to make that a motivation, but one should be using equipment they can trust to be effective.

Mind you, I recall the era when the finest sprinkler systems, bar none, were using brass popup sprays (mist heads, they called them) in triangular spacing of about twenty feet. Never, ever, in head-to-head spacing.

There is a parallel between recomending head-to-head spacing only, and recommending RPZ backflow prevention only. You know they'll both work, without knowing any other details.

IrrigationGod

Active Member

Posts: 6

12

Tuesday, May 9th 2006, 6:22pm

Hey Wet Boots, just because you don't like to do things the correct way doesn't mean you should preach to others about doing the same. You should educate yourself a little bit so you'll know that even with modern sprinkler heads it is still necessary to have head to head coverage. You should leave the irrigation to the professionals. Thanks

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

13

Tuesday, May 9th 2006, 10:22pm

Get stuffed, you tiny little person. Are you are trying to tell anyone that a good sprinkler head is incapable of covering its territory from nozzle to perimeter? They had that figured out before you were born.

Take this simple test. How many heads would you use to cover a treeless lawn, surrounded by woods, so that overthrow is not a problem, whose dimensions are that of a circle sixty feet in diameter?

As mentioned before, head-to-head spacing is a good safety net. But it won't prevent an incompetent stooge from doing a horrible job, just as a competent installer can cover an area without it.

IrrigationGod

Active Member

Posts: 6

14

Wednesday, May 10th 2006, 2:15pm

I guess you have no concept of even water distribution. The farther you go from the head the less precipitation you receive, so in order to have uniform coverage, head to head is necessary. Don't worry, you'll figure it out sooner or later.

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

15

Wednesday, May 10th 2006, 4:53pm

Give it up, you little weed. What do you think those coverage rooms in the sprinkler factories are all about? They catch the water from the heads, so they can tweak the nozzles, and even out the coverage. That's been going on for decades. You think those Rain Curtain nozzles were invented for laughs?

Certainly, at the very furthest reaches of a rotor's coverage, the big drops of water can be few and far between, but those aren't counted on for anything.

I can just picture some little snip trying to inform the installers of all-brass popup sprays, that their 20-foot triangular spacing was no good, and would lead to disaster. Those installers would have laughed their a$$es off, before booting the little snip's a$$ off the job site.

IrrigationGod

Active Member

Posts: 6

16

Wednesday, May 10th 2006, 5:44pm

Well $hit for brains, you go ahead and keep doing what you're doing so professional designer/installers like myself can have a good laugh when we see jobs like yours. You seem like the type of guy who also thinks its ok to put spray heads and rotors on the same zone but thats a different subject. Take care and good luck, you're gonna need it.

BSME

Advanced Member

Posts: 67

17

Wednesday, May 10th 2006, 5:45pm

you'll never make it in this business wetboots

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

18

Wednesday, May 10th 2006, 6:22pm

Yeah, I'm doomed. (and I still want to know how many rotors the head-to-head gurus would place in a 60-foot diameter lawn)

By the by, it is perfectly okay to mix rotors and popup sprays, provided you use extra-large-size nozzles in the rotors, which will make them match the sprayheads' precipitation rate.

There isn't anything wrong with head-to-head designing. I just haven't ever seen a homeowner with a decades-old lawn sprinkler system, using triangular spacing, that wanted to rip it all out. The landscape is green and healthy from corner to corner. Why change? When one of you young pups convince them to change over, let us know.

Tom

Supreme Member

Posts: 306

19

Thursday, May 11th 2006, 4:15am

I have yet to see a rotor that can match the precip rate of a spray.

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

20

Thursday, May 11th 2006, 10:19pm

Reduce the distance and arc, and a rotor can match a spray. Also, restrict the spray, by either a pressure-regulating body, or an under-nozzle restrictor, and the match is easier. The last can be employed in an instance of needing one or two small strip sprays to complete the coverage on a lawn being watered by rotors running at higher pressure.

Mixing the two is not something you'd do as a first priority, though. But in cases where there is not enough sprayhead flow to match a well's output, combining them with rotors (properly nozzled) is a valid design technique.
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