# Hunter sprinkler heads



## Ryanmorales88 (Apr 30, 2020)

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have experience with the rotary style hunter sprinklers? I am going to have an irrigation installed in my front yard (1,250 sq ft) and I want to get with the mp rotator heads for that since it is smaller and they cover very evenly with a nice light mist. Eventually though, I am going to have my backyard (5,250 sq ft) done as well. I am guessing it would take a lot of the mp rotator heads to cover this much ground, so they mentioned they would use rotary heads back there but have heard the rotary heads don't water very evenly as this underwaters the highest arch area. I talked to the sprinkler company that will install them and they mentioned they will have them not shooting too far so that it is not creating that issue, but wanted to hear from people that have experience with these? Let me know your thoughts, thanks!


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

I don't have the MP's since I have very hard water and have heard they don't handle the hard water deposits very well plus my system was layed out like garbage by the orignial homeowner. Even on new zones that I have added I have used conventional sprays or rotors as my soil is very sandy and I don't need to pace the precipitation levels as I can never achieve puddles or runoff. I do love the concept and look of the MP's though.

I historically have been a Hunter PGP guy but I will tell you that I replaced some of those heads this year with Rainbird 5000's and am very happy with them. In the future I plan on phasing out all of them to Rainbird 5000 Plus that has a shutoff valve in the top of the head. The Rainbird's rotation speed is fast compared to the Hunter's. I like this because when a big gust of wind knocks the water off target the head quickly makes it's rotation and recovers the area where with a slow head that water is never recovered.


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

With a head to head coverage you can get fairly even watering. Enough go get great grass growing.

I rehabbed my system from PGJ to i20s. You can get either SS if you have very sandy soils though they are an over kill. You can get plastic ones at very decent price if you buy at a 20% off from any of the online retailers. I have seen them as low as 12.50 a few weeks back. The great thing about i20s apart from the better nozzle and springs is the flo stop feature where you can turn the head water flow off with a small turn. This makes changing nozzles infinitely easier. Also you can turn a head off during a reno if you are overwatering etc.

As far as distance goes it is not advisable to limit spray pattern with the screw because it distorts the pattern too much. The stock pattern is fairly even if you have head to head coverage. If you need less distance use the smallest nozzle and while the flow is less the distance will be the minimum which is 30ft I think. You can always overcome flow by watering for a longer time.

Just get a diagram layout of how they plan to put it and people will help you out here. As a basic concept make sure that each head is within 30ft of the other in any direction.


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## RVAGuy (Jul 27, 2020)

I have a whole MP Rotator setup that I just designed and installed this summer. I couldn't be happier. As you can see in the precipitation profile below, it's fairly linear with it being a little heavier near the sprinkler. This means that if you do head-to-head coverage, you will have a pretty even distribution across the lawn, with a little more water around the heads. With a small lawn too, you want as low of a precipitation rate as you can get. That prevents runoff.







Note too that the heads emit more of a "stream" than a mist. This enables it to resist wind better.


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## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

MP Rotators all the way if you have the proper GPM and the system is designed properly. I've had both and the MP Rotator cover much more evenly in my experience.


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## dj80d (Nov 15, 2020)

depending on the size of coverage i would go with pgj low angle nozzles.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

I have Hunter rotors in my front and back yards. I like them - they are very easy to fine tune.

You can also swap out the spray head nozzles to adjust the flow pattern of each spray head.

There are multiple options for how to adjust the spray flow, and then dial in the spray stream itself.

I really like how easy these are to service or repair. Parts are readily available, and very easy to fix.

In term of watering, they can really lay down some water. I have mine slightly overlapping.

I even like to watch mine run when I am BBQing or grilling; it is kind of mesmerizing, am I right?

The stainless steel rotors are practically bombproof, BTW, but they are pretty pricey. I run plastic.


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## Pmac (Jan 9, 2021)

I did a irrigation remodel last March, changing out the old rain bird pop up spray heads for new Hunter pressure reducing spray bodies with mp-rotators. The installation required adding 5 additional heads to get head to head coverage and all existing heads had to be relocated (21 in total) from 1 to 5 feet from their original location. It's a small lawn (1500sf) with narrow strips of turf, requiring the high number of heads.

I have been truly impressed with the performance. I no longer have any dry patches and my water consumption has been reduced by 30% just like the advertising said it would. Hear in Chandler AZ we pay about $1 per 1000 gallons, so I anticipate the premium price for the Hunter pressure reducing spray bodies and mp-rotators will pay for themselves in a couple years.


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## gorgedude (Jul 5, 2020)

I did a full lawn renovation summer of 2020 and replaced a mixture of older Rainbirds and Orbits with Hunter MP Rotators. Mostly 3500's but also a mix of 3000 and 2000 for shorter throws. I had to install more heads but my total system GPM went from 40.66 to 17.22. I run my zones longer but the coverage is much more even. I'm very please with the new system.


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## burntfire (Dec 10, 2020)

Do you have a rough layout with distances?

I would say it really depends on the layout. MPs are fantastic and are matched precip which is great but if you have multiple spots less than 8' it might not make sense. They do have the new 800s that go down to 6' but it no longer matches the precip rate of the 1000s.

I'd consider going to rotors if you have mostly wide open spaces.. say over 25ish feet.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

I have 10k square feet of lawn. 5k in the front and 5k in the back. Both have MP rotator systems and work great. The cost to install is higher (I think it was ~10-15% higher for me) since you need more heads, but the benefits in even coverage balance that out for me. Check my signature for a link to my lawn journal if you want pictures of the lawn. It is all very open.


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