Irrigation Notebook: June 1999, Proper Head Replacement

You or one of your employees just destroyed an irrigation head while performing normal site work or maintenance on a client’s project. Now, according to your contract with the client, you have to replace the irrigation head. Which one of the 100+ available spray or rotor bodies and nozzles should you use?

The best way to replace the damaged head is with the same manufacturer’s body and nozzle that was destroyed. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it doesn’t matter what body or nozzle you use as a replacement. All bodies and nozzles are not the same.

If you have to replace irrigation heads or you are installing new heads, here are some helpful items to consider when selecting spray or rotor bodies and nozzles.

BODIES FOR TURF. Generally speaking, always select a spray or rotor body pop-up height by the variety of turfgrass being irrigated. If you try to save a couple of dollars by using too short an irrigation head, you will ultimately be haunted by this decision with problems such as continually using string trimmers around the heads, raising buried heads to tripping height or nozzle blockage problems. In addition, the wrong size head can waste water and money for the client.

What is one of the most basic facts we know about turfgrass? It grows between mowings. That is why the grass height between mowings is a required consideration in selecting sprinkler heights.

For spray bodies, always select a body pop-up height that will put the fan of the spray nozzle above the unmowed height of the grass. Remember, just one blade of grass can easily destroy the throw pattern of a spray nozzle.

Unlike the fine, thin fan of a spray nozzle, water generally comes out of a rotor nozzle in a single solid stream. This near solid stream generally has enough water volume and force to make most grass blades lay down. This eliminates most grass blade throw and pattern disruption problems. However, you still want to generally use the highest possible rotor body pop-up height to get the nozzle above the unmowed grass height.

As a secondary consideration here, limit the use of concrete donuts around spray or rotor heads in lawn installations. With what you charge for installing the donut, your charges for string trimming around the donut/head and the original cost to install the shorter pop-up height spray or rotor head, you can save yourself (and the client) time and money by selecting the right pop-up height in the first place.

Generally speaking, when mounting spray or rotor bodies on a riser in shrub beds, you always want to have the nozzle in the body several inches above the plants being irrigated. Again, if you try to save a couple of dollars by using too short of a mounting height, it will come back to seriously haunt you with problems such as continually coming back to raise heads, treating higher insect/disease/fungus problems for the plants, wasted fertilizing, etc.

And remember, the leaves and branches of shrubs are generally bigger, heavier and stiffer than grass blades. Therefore, one leaf or small branch can easily block the throwing distance and watering pattern of a spray or a rotor body.

If your client doesn’t want the sprayhead or rotor to be readily visible when it’s not in use, try to use the highest possible spray or rotor pop-up body height mounted on a PVC riser. This way, when it retracts between uses, it will be hidden by the plants and still place the nozzle below the plants for waterings.

If your client doesn’t mind the spray or rotor head showing when not in use, you don’t necessarily need to use a pop-up body. Many manufacturers make shrub riser adapters for their spray nozzles or rotor bodies that don’t pop-up for shrub bed installations. But be sure to mount the spray or rotor head, and nozzle, above the plants.

NOZZLE USE. Despite what people may tell you, all spray or rotor nozzles are definitely not equal. Because there are no required national standards, most manufacturers have different ways of testing and measuring throwing distance, distribution of water, etc. Even within a single manufacturer’s advertised matched precipitation rate on a spray or rotor nozzle line, the precipitation rates can vary from 5 percent to 50 percent or more.

If you install exactly the same nozzle as the one you destroyed, you should not create any problems for yourself or your client. But there is a relatively simple way of checking and comparing nozzles, if you want to use another manufacturer’s nozzle. Compare the other manufacturer’s published precipitation rate in inches per hour, throwing distance, gallons per minute, rotation speed (if it is a rotor head) and/or pattern at the same water pressure as the destroyed manufacturer’s nozzle. If they are very close, (say within 5 percent or less), then it should work fine.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS. Think about using the above information as a marketing/selling tool. Educate your clients and potential clients about how the uneducated landscape/irrigation professional can easily waste their water/money and create other problems for them with improper installations or repairs. Show them how you are looking out for their interests by using the proper components and the best installation practices.

The author is president of David Wickham & Associates, Inc., Lake Mary, Fla.

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