Choices

If you have been an irrigation contractor for more years than you would like to admit, you can remember the days when installing irrigation systems was simpler. You didn’t have many choices – you installed a spray sprinkler or a rotary sprinkler to properly irrigate an area. You may have on occasion branched out to a stream spray or even a bubbler. It didn’t matter much whose equipment you used because a spray head was a spray head and a rotor a rotor. Ah, the simpler life.

Today’s irrigation systems are a bit more sophisticated. Whether dictated by water conservation, regulation or client wishes, there are now choices, and lots of them. In today’s irrigation world you need to sift through the myriad choices available to you and come up with an irrigation system best suited for the landscape, the client and for your business.

This requires effort, not just installing what the local distributor representative wants to sell you. It takes educating yourself, looking at the various features of the products and their performance. It might require learning more about uniformity and efficiency so you can compare one sprinkler to another and it could involve learning – or relearning – about precipitation rates so you can better utilize the water window available to you or change your programming habits.

To see how new technologies have provided abundant choices you only need to look at the spray sprinkler, both the body and nozzle. Although two separate pieces together they provide the means to apply water to what are considered short radius areas, 0 to about 25 feet. The body has a few options, pressure regulating or non-pressure regulating, check valve in the bottom or not, pop up height (minimally 2-, 4-, 6- or 12-inch) and flow stop or not. Most spray sprinklers are designed to operate at 30 psi. However, the majority operate at much higher pressures. Using a pressure regulating spray sprinkler will cost more, but will operate all of the sprinklers at approximately 30 psi, which provides the indicated precipitation rate, the specified distance and proper uniformity.

There have been improvements in the sprinkler bodies, but it is nozzles where the choices have mushroomed. No longer do we have the standard 5, 8, 10, 12 and 15 series nozzles throwing their respective distance using up to 4 gallons per minute with very high precipitation rates. Today there are U-series nozzles, precision nozzles and multiple stream, multiple trajectory (MSMT) nozzles.

Rotary sprinklers offer choices in pop-up height, pressure regulation and matched precipitation rate nozzles. The uniformity of rotary nozzles has improved across the board with most manufacturers in the last five years. Higher uniformity sprinklers reduce water use when scheduled correctly. Each feature needs to be chosen carefully to determine if the system to be installed will benefit from the feature and be cost effective for the project.

Although the “feature” may cost more up front it may have long term benefits in terms of water savings and/or reduced maintenance.

The development of smart irrigation controllers also provides a choice in today’s market. Certainly smart controllers save water, but there are questions as to whether they provide a good return on investment. Additionally, since they are programmed to provide the plant with its optimal moisture level, they are not appropriate in areas were deficit irrigation takes place. Soon the market will also have a number of soil moisture-based smart controllers. These controllers also have substantial water saving potential.

Choices are not limited just to products either. You can choose to be the cheap, low bid contractor or the value added contractor. You can choose service what you sell or leave it to others. You can choose to be green and sustainable installing systems that use water efficiently or not. There are many choices available in both products and in business practices. In the current economy it is important to choose wisely and set yourself and your company above the average irrigation contractor.