# Low angle nozzle for 13' distance?



## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Hi all, I had an irrigation system installed in May. So far, been pretty good.

I have about a 60x13 patch covered by 4 Hunter PGP rotors. The original design was for spray heads on both sides, but with the plow damage I get every year I didn't want to risk them by the road.

The company obviously really interrupted the spray to make the throw distance shorter. My problem is that I lose a LOT to misting, and I'm not getting even coverage by the road where only 1 head hits it. I get about 2x the water by the heads as by the road, which makes sense since streams aren't overlapping.

So, I'm trying to figure out what to do. Would a low angle nozzle in these help me reduce misting?

Should I put in MP Rotators instead?

Or should I call them and have them come back out?

Thanks for any ideas or advice. I apologize if I am not very clear.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@NewEnglander are there any other heads on the same zone? If not, you will have more options, but if so, then you will need to try to match precipitation rates. Also, you may want to draw a diagram of the area and placement of the heads for a better assessment.


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Spammage said:


> @NewEnglander are there any other heads on the same zone? If not, you will have more options, but if so, then you will need to try to match precipitation rates. Also, you may want to draw a diagram of the area and placement of the heads for a better assessment.


Hi! No, those are the only four on the zone. It's pretty frustrating for what I paid. I will draw up something that better describes my jibberish.

Thank you for your reply!


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## richmoney (Sep 3, 2018)

If you are losing coverage due to misting your pressure is too high. Your best bet is to increase the nozzle size and get rid of more water. This will also reduce your operating pressure and run times.


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## unclebucks06 (Apr 25, 2018)

richmoney said:


> If you are losing coverage due to misting your pressure is too high. Your best bet is to increase the nozzle size and get rid of more water. This will also reduce your operating pressure and run times.


Pretty sure he is getting misting because the rotor is being excessively reduced in radius.


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

With a strip 13' wide, I'd go with popups and MP Rotators. If you don't mind some inefficiency and water waste, you can avoid having popups along the road. A row of popups 10' on center right along the non-street side with 14' radius will provide full coverage (but also nicely water 1' of the road).

I just did a strip 10' wide by over 90' long. Popups were placed 8' on center on the "non-street" side, 11' radius. I used MP SR800s. I was worried about coverage uniformity on the street side but that has not been an issue.

If you multiply the spacing by 1.4 to get the radius, the coverage is full (but somewhat inefficient).


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Thanks for all of these tips. I do like how he MP rotators work, but haven't used them myself.

I don't mind getting some overspray. I get like 4' in the road right now even with the distance screw turned all the way down.

Good to know about pressure, I hadn't thought of that.

Thanks guys!


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## Ballistic (Mar 19, 2018)

Do the PGPs not have the LA grey nozzles? I have the Hunter I-20s w/ Grey LA nozzles.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Ballistic said:


> Do the PGPs not have the LA grey nozzles? I have the Hunter I-20s w/ Grey LA nozzles.


They do, but trying to reduce throw to 13' is probably the biggest issue.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@NewEnglander you never posted a diagram, and I was trying to see the layout of the heads, but have you checked into the Rainbird square spray nozzles 15sqc1? They could be a good fit for your situation.


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

Try as I might, I'm having trouble envisioning where the 4 PGP rotors are placed in order to try to water a 60x13 area evenly. The heads can't possibly be in the 4 corners. Are they on one long side only, with one in each of the two corners, and the other two spaced along the same long side, about 20' apart each?


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Yeah reading it back I didn't explain it well. Will post a picture! They're all on the non-street side, 2 near corners and 2 between those.


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Hi all, thanks for taking a look. The strip averages 15' wide, not 13 like I originally thought.

Here are two pics. On the drawing, the numbers are approximately how the heads are spaced.


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

Ok, the heads are 12' apart with nothing in the corners; slope is away from the wall and towards the road. A quick fix would be add a popup in each corner and change the existing rotors to popups. The 12' spacing times square root of 2 is just shy of 17' (a right triangle with equal length adjacent legs has a hypotenuse length of square root of 2 times the leg length). So for full coverage, you would need MP rotators with roughly 17' radius. It would not be completely even coverage but with the slope towards the road it would likely be "good enough." It would also unavoidably water 2' of the road in a semicircle opposite each head. It would be much better than what you have now.

To do it "right" you'd have to add another row of popups along the road at 15' spacing and change the existing heads to 15' spacing to create a full head to head coverage situation which, with the water distribution pattern designed into the nozzles, would be very even coverage. The row of heads along the road would likely be destroyed from time to time by cars and snowplows.

I'd go with the less perfect method due to the maintenance headache of the "right" method.


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think I should call these guys and have them come back to fix it? It was about $3,500 all in, which I feel justified then coming to make it right.


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

NewEnglander said:


> Thanks for the feedback. Do you think I should call these guys and have them come back to fix it? It was about $3,500 all in, which I feel justified then coming to make it right.


You don't have much to lose by calling them. Ordinarily irrigation proposals include a layout and customer acceptance of that layout. Did you sign off on that layout or what was your agreement with the install contractor?

Looking back at your original problem, part of it includes uneven coverage. If you want really even coverage, you have to have heads along the road.


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

@Delmarva Keith They didn't do a layout, but they did a proposal that I signed that included one more zone and more heads than I actually received.

On the day of, they talked to me about switching from spray heads to rotors on this spot. I said I didn't care as long as I got full coverage, which it doesn't look like I'm getting. So technically yes I agreed to it, but with the contingency that I would get full coverage.


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

NewEnglander said:


> @Delmarva Keith They didn't do a layout, but they did a proposal that I signed that included one more zone and more heads than I actually received.
> 
> On the day of, they talked to me about switching from spray heads to rotors on this spot. I said I didn't care as long as I got full coverage, which it doesn't look like I'm getting. So technically yes I agreed to it, but with the contingency that I would get full coverage.


Well you're definitely not getting full coverage with that existing install. Coverage will be bad on the 12' from each end and plenty of water all over the road. I think it would be fair to ask them to fix that. I think they should discuss your options and tradeoffs. Why they would install rotors in a 15' wide strip escapes me. There is probably a good reason but I can't see it from here. Small and irregularly shaped areas are the hardest to cover.


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## mattcoughlin (Jul 8, 2018)

My whole yard has slowly been converted to mp rotators and i love them. Hardly any mist and almost 0 maintenance.


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