# New Irrigation Project for 3 Acres. Hunter HCC or ICC2 with Hunter I-20 Rotors



## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I am in the planning process of installing irrigation on 3 acres. 

I am looking at installing either the Hunter HCC or ICC2 for control. The main difference seems to be the difference between the online software. HCC uses Hydrawise and the ICC2 uses Centralus. Have any of you used either of these controllers? Does anyone know the difference between Hyrdrawise and Centralus?

As far as rotors, the irrigation company suggested that we use Hunter-PGP, but I am thinking of upgrading to the I-20 in hopes that they last a very long time. I have quite a few failures with my existing Rainbird 5000, so I'm willing to try Hunter this time around. Does anyone here have experience with the PGP or I-20?


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## bradg (Sep 18, 2020)

I had a 2 acre system installed two years ago. Cool season lawn, HCC 28 zone controller (only using 25 zones) with I-20 rotors (5 rotors per zone). I'm very happy with it. The Hydrawise software is not perfect though. It is fine for the most part, but has a few minor bugs if you setup complicated programs (nothing significant that you can't work around). I don't have any experience with ICC2.

As for the I-20 rotors, I heavily utilized the ability to shut off the rotor, at the rotor, while I swapped nozzles and made adjustments. My installer just used the default installed nozzle and did not adjust for differences in the arc of the rotor (ie. 90/180/270/360 degrees) or attempt to maximize the available flow rate. I ended up swapping most nozzles. Now that it is setup, I haven't had a need to use the flow control / shutoff feature. I do have a significant slope in my yard and the I-20 has a check valve. I still notice some short term spitting/sputtering when my zones turns on, so the check valve is not perfect. I can only speculate it is still better than if I had used the PGP. Otherwise, as far as I've heard, the PGP is a great rotor. I did have to replace a couple rotors this spring because they cracked over the winter. I did my own winterization/blowout, so that was likely my fault.

The only thing I would consider doing differently, if I could accept the added cost, is use the 6 inch popup. I cut around 3.75 inches in the Summer and my grass grows so fast that I end up with these flattened out areas around my nozzles where the grass is getting pushed over by the water stream. I'm also injecting fertilizer into my irrigation water at times, this causes the grass around the rotor to grow taller than the rest of the yard.


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## SPman (5 mo ago)

I switched to the HCC (14 zones) zones this year after RainMachine made their changes. I have been very happy with it. Yes, it's not perfect either but it gets the job done well. I'm not sure you'd benefit from the ICC2 from what I've read, it appears to be geared towards irrigation and maintenence contractors who manage multiple customer sites (more so than the HCC) . 

My system is old, originally built with PGP heads that I replace with the PGP ULTRA as needed. Great suggestion about the 6" heads, I do wish I had those as I do maintain a 3.5" HOC at times. As things change over time, I'm adding risers here and there.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

bradg said:


> I had a 2 acre system installed two years ago. Cool season lawn, HCC 28 zone controller (only using 25 zones) with I-20 rotors (5 rotors per zone). I'm very happy with it. The Hydrawise software is not perfect though. It is fine for the most part, but has a few minor bugs if you setup complicated programs (nothing significant that you can't work around). I don't have any experience with ICC2.
> 
> As for the I-20 rotors, I heavily utilized the ability to shut off the rotor, at the rotor, while I swapped nozzles and made adjustments. My installer just used the default installed nozzle and did not adjust for differences in the arc of the rotor (ie. 90/180/270/360 degrees) or attempt to maximize the available flow rate. I ended up swapping most nozzles. Now that it is setup, I haven't had a need to use the flow control / shutoff feature. I do have a significant slope in my yard and the I-20 has a check valve. I still notice some short term spitting/sputtering when my zones turns on, so the check valve is not perfect. I can only speculate it is still better than if I had used the PGP. Otherwise, as far as I've heard, the PGP is a great rotor. I did have to replace a couple rotors this spring because they cracked over the winter. I did my own winterization/blowout, so that was likely my fault.
> 
> The only thing I would consider doing differently, if I could accept the added cost, is use the 6 inch popup. I cut around 3.75 inches in the Summer and my grass grows so fast that I end up with these flattened out areas around my nozzles where the grass is getting pushed over by the water stream. I'm also injecting fertilizer into my irrigation water at times, this causes the grass around the rotor to grow taller than the rest of the yard.


Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't thought of doing 6" version, but it makes sense to go ahead and do that from the beginning in case that grass in the yard every gets a little too tall. Have you had to replace any I-20 heads yet? I am having pretty bad luck with my Rainbird 5000 rotors. They were installed in 2019, and I've probably had to replace 70% of them. Maybe I need to lower my expectations on how long these are supposed to last. Since I'm trying to manage 3 acres, time spent fixing stuff takes away from time spent doing other things, so I really wouldn't mind paying premium for things if they will last longer. I don't have to worry about freeze damage in my area. We only spend a few nights a year where air temp drops below 32.

My installer is really good so he knows how to nozzle the rotors correctly based on how much of an arc they cover, but I still think the ability to shut them off at the head could be beneficial at some point.


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## bradg (Sep 18, 2020)

I have not had to replace any I-20's except for the two I mentioned. My system is only 2 years old though. I bought a few extra when they were on sale just to have some ready in case. 

One other thing I just remembered, another benefit of the flow control for those that winterize. I found some heads were not popping up come springtime restart. I couldn't find them in the grass. So I started turning off each individual rotor that was working until the pressure was high enough to force the stuck head to free itself. 

Good luck with your plans. I'm sure you will be very pleased and your neighbors will start saying how good your 3 acres look!


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