# New home with terrible sprinkler spacing...MS paint pics inside..help!



## knguyen120 (May 26, 2019)

Alright I drew this up on MS Paint for you! The biggest issue is that the middle of the lawn is thin, and brownish because there's no head to head coverage down the middle (they are all 12' nozzles). The right side of the lawn (with the 21' gap vertical gap) is actually very healthy for some reason. I think my neighbors sprinklers is irrigating that area, lol. I don't know why they designed the system like this -- no sense at all.

I was thinking of replacing all nozzles with 18' VAN from Rainbird but then some of it will spill onto the sidewalk. It's not ideal, but it's better than paying for another row of irrigatin heads down the middle. I really like the 15' HE VANs but it's a few feet too short. What's the best remedy for this situation?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I can barely tell apart the purple from the light blue. Is all the top row one zone and all the bottom one another?

Im not familiar with the vans too much. I think they are match precipitation, so you could mix. The left column at 15ft, the middle column at 18ft and right column at 18 too. You will overwater the center, but I don't know what else to do without moving heads and redoing it all.


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## knguyen120 (May 26, 2019)

Yes you are correct. Top row is blue zone 1 and 2nd row is zone 2.

I was looking into rotary for the top row. I have clay soil so maybe that'll cut down on the amount of water I use.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Soil type doesn't change the amount of water used (ET). A low precipitation rate will help with water penetration on clay soils.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

knguyen120 said:


> I was thinking of replacing all nozzles with 18' VAN from Rainbird but then some of it will spill onto the sidewalk. It's not ideal, but it's better than paying for another row of irrigatin heads down the middle.
> 
> What's the best remedy for this situation?


The 18' VANs will have an adjustment screw that can be turned to reduce the radius to as little as 13', allowing you to fine-tune the radius of each head.

I would suggest getting the 18' nozzles, and adjusting them to the exact radius throw you need for each head.

For a video from RainBird of how to do this, see https://ww3.rainbird.com/homeowner/support/video-VANadjustment.htm


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## knguyen120 (May 26, 2019)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll go with the 18' rotary nozzles. The breezes in the morning are enough to blow the current spray nozzles all over place. The rotary nozzles should be better against wind. Lower precipitation rate and even distribution. My grass needs all the help it can get since my sprinkler placement is stupid.

I estimate that my working pressure at the head is 45 psi from a chart I obtained from Hunter. Which is just right for the rotary.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

knguyen120 said:


> The breezes in the morning are enough to blow the current spray nozzles all over place.


There is usually less wind before dawn. A good solution to minimize wind ruining spray patterns is to irrigate earlier in the morning, so that everything is watered by shortly after sunrise.

I have my irrigation set to finish around 6:00am to take advantage of the air being generally calmer between about 1:00am and 6:00am.


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## TC2 (Sep 15, 2017)

If you're going with rotors, don't forget to tune the GPM of the nozzles to match the requirements of the position ie a 90 degree rotor puts down more water than a 180 because it has a shorter travel distance.


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