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

The idea between the right { T } and wrong way to do it is that the "right" way is to minimize the pressure losses between the 1st head and the last head. Pressure losses increase as you increase distances the water has to flow and it also increases as you push more water through a given pipe.

In the wrong method, all of the water flowing to the last head had to flow to all the pipes going to the previous heads. But with the Tee method, you quickly start dividing the water flow.

So it's all just minimizing the pressure losses and the pressure differential from the 1st to last head. If you only have three heads, the way you do it likely doesn't have much of a difference.

it really doesnt make a difference when its a residential system. i have installed 1000's of jobs professionally for almost 20 years and i have never had a problem running a zone of sprinkler heads in on straight line. now for really long runs (600 ft or so) and for commercial applications, its wise to tee some heads off or double supply the zone. but if you are doing a 3-6 head typicall rotary zone, you wont have any problems assuming you have the pressure to run the 3 heads.

Pro systems with poly pipe, will have heads in a line, because it installs quicker, even if they use more 1-inch poly than might otherwise be required.