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1

Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 7:47am

Brown Spots at Sprinkler Heads

I have a 40' round lawn area with perimeter and central pop-up heads. It has done well since I started it 3 years ago, but this year I have brown grass in a radius pattern directly in front of three of my 22 sprinkler heads on the perimeter. At one it extends out about 30-36", the others are somewhat less. I water every day, 6 minutes per zone, at 7:30 am. Any thoughts??? Many thanks for your input

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

2

Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 9:52am

What make and model of heads and nozzles?

3

Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 12:27pm

Sprinklers are Rainbird 4" Sure-Pops and have been in use for 3 years, pressure is about 80 PSI.

HooKooDooKu

Supreme Member

4

Thursday, June 21st 2007, 4:49am

<i>pressure is about 80PSI</i>

Could that be the problem?

Almost sounds like you've go so much pressure that none of the water is landing right around the heads. If you don't have complete head-to-head coverage, I could see where right around the heads no water is falling.

I do know that it's generally recommended that once you start talking about pressures over 80psi, a sprinkler system needs a pressure regulator.

The easiest thing you could try would be to throttle the valves down IF you have valves with flow control. If they do have flow control, there should be three things that can be turned on the valves:
1) The solenoid to manually operate the valve,
2) Bleeder valve
3) Flow control

5

Thursday, June 21st 2007, 11:05am

I had thought about the dry area issue, but I have 22 identical heads, on two zones, and only a few have the problem, although, as you say, overspray from adjacent heads may be compensating. My lawn is round and I am using 180 degree heads which means that there is a lot of overspray on some heads.

HooKooDooKu

Supreme Member

6

Friday, June 22nd 2007, 6:14am

So do a test and see how much water is actually hitting various spots.

Get something like a bunch identical catch pans (like pie pans, used tuna cans, or anything with a low lip). Place a few of these in the brown grass and some more in other areas of the lawn and run the irrigation system. Then compare how much water is in the different pans.

Of course the irrigation stuff may just be a coincidence to what ever is really making the lawn brown. I know I've got a brown spot in my lawn right now. When I saw it in the distance at first, I though it was in the corner of the yard where I know my irrigation system does not get adequate coverage. But later I took a closer look and came to realize the brown patch is well inside the area that IS getting plenty of water.

7

Friday, June 22nd 2007, 7:46am

Thanks for the great idea with the pans. I will set them out tonight and check them in the morning after the system has cycled.

Tom

Supreme Member

8

Saturday, June 23rd 2007, 12:32pm

try the undercut nozzles from rainbird which offer an additional orrifice to water the area close to the head


hi.todd

Supreme Member

Posts: 417

Location: Houston, Texas

9

Friday, July 18th 2008, 8:54pm

These are all great ideas the sprays should be at 30 PSI as Kookoodookoo noted. 80 psi is way too high. I am also interested in the spacing of the heads (how far apart are they?) What kind of nozzles are on all of the heads, 18',15',12',10,8',6',5',4. Are the nozzles clogged? Where is the 80 PSI measured? 7 minutes in Houston is not that much in June, July, August.
It sounds like it is time to get wet.


Some more Ideas.


Good Luck
:thumbsup:
:thumbup: :thumbsup:

HooKooDooKu

Supreme Member

10

Monday, July 21st 2008, 12:01pm

These are all great ideas the sprays should be at 30 PSI as Kookoodookoo noted. 80 psi is way too high. I am also interested in the spacing of the heads (how far apart are they?) What kind of nozzles are on all of the heads, 18',15',12',10,8',6',5',4. Are the nozzles clogged? Where is the 80 PSI measured? 7 minutes in Houston is not that much in June, July, August.
It sounds like it is time to get wet.


Some more Ideas.


Good Luck
:thumbsup:

#1 Why are we reserecting this thread after nearly a year?

#2 Kookoodookoo ??? that's not very nice :huh: ( HooKooDooKu)

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