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1

Sunday, April 15th 2012, 8:48am

Converting a drip zone to a shrub sprinkler zone

I have a 2 tier retaining wall running the length of my driveway. The lower tier is approximately 120' long and the upper is approximately 50' long. The total width of the planting area running the length of this area is 12'. I presently have a drip system for this area using a 3/4" supply line that terminates right in the middle of the area. From there three 1/2" drip lines fan out to cover the area.

I want to convert this zone to shrub sprinklers. From the termination point of the 3/4" supply line I want to run a 50' feeder line in one direction supporting four 15' one half circle sprinklers and in the opposite direction I want to run a 70' feeder line supporting six 15' sprinklers.

My big question: Can I use Funnyline for the 2 feeder lines in addition to using it for individually connecting the 10 sprinklers? It is such a simple product to use if it has sufficient flow (I believe the ID is 3/8") and rigidity for runs this long. I would cut the Funnypipe in 12' sections connected by a T with 12" section running from the T's to the sprinklers.

Thanks,
Mikey

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

2

Sunday, April 15th 2012, 10:54am

What makes you think you have sufficient water flow and pressure to accomplish the change? Even if you do have enough water, the 3/8-inch ID pipe cannot be used as you described.

Central Irrigation

Supreme Member

Posts: 364

Location: Central Minnesota

3

Sunday, April 15th 2012, 11:35am

The flow for your proposed zone already exceeds flow rates for your 3/4" lateral line. Not knowing more specifics of your system design, I cannot comment on if your proposal will work. Like Wetboots has stated, funnypipe will not supply that type of flow for the number of heads you wish to supply off it. You would need to run 3/4" pipe to all heads, and even then would probably have to consider low-flow nozzles.

4

Sunday, April 15th 2012, 8:27pm

Update

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

I have changed my plan as follows:
The supply pipe turned out to be 1" instead of 3//4"
I will maintain 1" all the way to the sprinklers using 1" poly feed pipe
I will connect the 14' sections with 1" x 1" x 3/4" T's
i will then connect the sprinklers to the feeder line with 8" x 3/4" Funnypipe assemblies
I will increase my sprinkler spacing to 14' and reduce the number of sprinklers to 8

Do you think I am safe to proceed with the above changes?

Note:
I was basing my plan on the capabilities of my present system which I had installed when we built the house. It is a 9 zone system. The first zone has 12 shrub sprayers covering my front and side flower beds. All other zones have either 5 or 6 rotary sprinklers. Based on this, I thought this zone I am converting from drip to shrub sprayers would support 12 sprinklers like zone. So I felt safe with 10.

Thanks,
Mikey

5

Monday, April 16th 2012, 4:13pm

It Worked!

Built the zone today as described above. Tested it about an hour ago and it works great. All that I have left to do is disassemble all of the threaded connections on the Funnypipe Assemblies, apply pipe dope, reassemble, snug everything down, wait a few days and fill in my trench.

I failed to mention that my drive has a 6 to 8% grade from bottom to top. As my main supply line terminated near the middle of the drive, the feed line to 3 sprinklers runs uphill and the line to the other 5 runs downhill. I have probably 25% higher flow out of the 2 sprinklers at the bottom of the drive as compared to the one at the very top - but I expected that. My sprinkler placement accounted for this and I am very pleased with the coverage of my shrubs from top to bottom.

Thanks,
Mike

Central Irrigation

Supreme Member

Posts: 364

Location: Central Minnesota

6

Monday, April 16th 2012, 4:23pm

Congrats Mikey!

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