SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

I haven't seem much cooment on the MP Rotator nozzles.
www.mprotator.com
What I have heard has only been positive so far. Any input?

The web site will obviously spout all the positives about these nozzles. The only negatives I found so far are...
1) Cost - Where a Rainbird Nozzle only cost about $1, these cost about $5.
2) Some limits to spray angle - There are three types of these nozzles:
i) 90-210 degree adjustable angle
ii) 210 - 270 degree adjustable angle
iii) 360 degree fixed
So if you need sub 90 degree or "almost" a full circle, you're out of luck.

But otherwise, everything else seems positive. Any other feedback?

I'm not comparing MP Rotators to Rainbird rotors. I'm comparing MP Rotators to Rainbird spray nozzles that the MP Rotators replace (i.e. they fit into the 1800 spray heads inplace of the nozzles).

As for something under 90 degrees, there's plenty of places where people have sidewalks that are at an angle other than 90 degrees to their house, driveway, etc. So there are lots of situations where you'd want to place a spray head in a corner, but that corner is tighter than 90 degrees. For these situations, there are adjustable nozzles that can adjust down to pretty much 0 degrees. So in those places where you'd otherwise use a nozzle set at perhaps 45 degrees, if you replace that nozzle with a MP Rotator, you will be watering more than your 45 degrees desired.

I've also got a situation where the landscaping is in odd narrow shape. One possible arraingment would place a sprayhead at the edge of this landscaping and require a spray angle of about 300 degrees if I only want the lawn watered. Again, Rainbird adjustable nozzles would allow me that 300 degrees. But the MP Rotors make me choose between 270 degrees, 360 degrees, or adjust the position and/or count of spray heads. (Because I've liked the idea of the MPRotators so much, I've just opted for 360 and water the landscaping with the lawn.)

BTW, I've now got a small set of these MP Rotators installed, so I've now seem them in action. Even at less than 90 degrees, they would still be rational. It's just that if the angle is small enough that you might not have both a "long" beam and a "short" beam at the same time.

And since we're on the subject that I've installed some of these, here's my feedback so far...

I love how easy it is to set where the end of the arc is while they are running. But having to shut down the system, open the spray head, and attempt to gingerly adjust that positioning ring in the spray head is a pain. Obviously the Rainbird design of the spray head is partally to blame, but it would be nice if there were a simple way to adjust the MP Rotators Left Side start position while the system is running.

I've also found the MP Rotators difficult to adjust for distance. First of all, the screw is so small that using a screw driver is very difficult. It takes a lot of force, relative to the size of these little screw drivers, so it's easy for the screw driver to slide off the screw. Additionally, it seemd that some of the MP Rotators just would not adjust no matter what I did with that screw. But if I swapped out the Rotator for another one (same size/type), I could properly adjust it.

So the bottom line feedback I have on the MP Rotators is that I like their performance, tuning them is a painfully arjuous task if you're working by your self. (Of course the same might be said of the nozzles, I'm just not sure. This is my first irrigation project, and the research I did seemed to say "use MP Rotators rather than Nozzles).
bottom ring on the sp

I didn't realize the little white thingy in the bottom of the pop-up works like a ratchet. I'll have to look into that more. I've been shutting off the water, openning the pop-up, and popping off the white thingy to reposition it.

Thanks for the input. I'll see what I can make of it tonight.