# Irrigation Problems Everywhere



## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

OK, it's summer in DFW and I'm having to walk out each sunny day to water all of the places that my sprinkler didn't reach. I'm not quite certain where to start, but here are some observations below...

1. All my sprinkler heads are misters.
2. I've got a couple of sprinkler head that can't effectively clear my St Aug cut high at 4 inches.
3. There are a number of spots not getting adequately water - particular in those spots up against the curb.
4. I've got some spot where the area about 6" around the sprinkler head is getting watered, but the grass from 0-6" is not getting the water it needs.

Etc., Etc.

Where to begin? I was thinking of buying some Orbit catch cups to isolate the problems but as it is right now the dying grass seems to highlight the worst points.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Sucks. I recently tried a 5" pop up in a spot that wouldn't clear my st aug. Worked well.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@ionicatoms , Agreed. I'm planning to cut high from here on out, so any heads that need to be adjusted up will have to be done. I'm not certain but if I am going to have to adjust height I will need to get a new can. What I don't know is if the underground pipe will permit a deeper can and if it doesn't then what? I'm not really a plumber and this irrigation system is about 10 years old so the valves are starting to show their age. The lawn has had changes as well where shrubs/beds were installed and they are no longer there and vise-versa.

I would really like to go to a drip system in the beds and I have the routes from the spigots to accomplish this without a ton of work.

As it is I'm having to go out daily to keep some hotspots and recent sod lays from dying. Not fun when it's 95°+ outside.

Without a lot of tree coverage, my strategy is to simply keep the St Aug from dying through the Summer months. If it doesn't look great during the hottest hours of the day then that is ok. Besides...nobody is outside anyway in these hot hours.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

One more thought...these 'mist-type' heads are getting to be too much trouble. I'd like to get to a lower number of heads, buy maybe something with more volume. Maybe turn off the six mist heads in a zone and then go with two larger heads. It would be cool to have some of those impact sprinkler. The noise they create would bring back good memories from being a kid.

:lol:


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## BadDogPSD (Jul 9, 2020)

When you say mist type heads, are you talking about regular spray nozzles?

First steps:
Map current system
Measure volume & pressure
Do the cup test to determine how much water is getting to the lawn
Evaluate short comings and develop plan to address

Depending on you terrain and soil type, sprays might not be bad, but if too far apart for head-to-head coverage, you will need to either add additional heads or switch to heads that will spray farther. Hunter MP & Rain Bird RVANs typically can spray much farther, but the amount of water applied in the same amount of time is much less so you'd need to water longer.
I have a combination of RVAN's, Rotators, and 3500's for my +/-10.000 sq ft and my cycle time is almost 9 hours for all 12 zones to water .5" per zone.


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## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

Look forward to enjoying hours of head digging. My system required nearly every head to be addressed-

body/nozzle cleaned or replaced 
heads raised or lowered
nozzles changed for required flow
heads moved, removed, or added

I'd hit 2 or 3 on a Saturday, and it took a few months going through getting everything cleaned up. I found a lot of concrete donuts buried under inches of dirt and grass. Now on the backside of it, none of my heads leak (saving many gallons that were otherwise just flooding the soil around them), and my coverage is much better.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@BadDogPSD & @pp6000v2 , I just ordered some measuring cups to really do some analysis across the lawn. While not certain, I have a number of issues that I can already see. What I do know is I have hotspots that are getting burned daily that I have to fix with regular hose trips.

I have tried the RVAN's before and I did not like the results. It was probably picking the wrong distance nozzle and the can itself is just not getting high enough to clear the StAug grass blades. While I am not a fan, it sounds like the only way to change height of the nozzle is to replace the whole can. That might get expensive. If I have to do that then it sounds like it may be more cost effective to just cap off all of the smaller nozzles and get a larger rotary.

I have a few corners that are very hard to irrigate without spraying onto my driveway or curb concrete. Since the grass next or behind the head will simply not get enough water, I was thinking a donut might be a good approach to at clean it up visually.

Let's see what the rain gauge measurements show and I guess I can go from there. At least now is the time of year to see if fixes remedy these issues.


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## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

That's the way to do it. I spent quite a while with a whole lotta tuna cans measuring out what I'm actually getting down. Back yard had areas getting an inch+ due to overlap of zones. My driveway rotor was spraying my garage door near to the top to have an arc that sufficiently covered toward the street; I had to trench that head about 6 feet further towards the road to get it midway for coverage. Then I had to change out the nozzle to a lower GPM because turning in the range screw was creating too much misting. Then I had to increase my center yard rotor's nozzle. And so on and so forth. But after all the tuning, I managed to get from ~2900 gallons per cycle down to ~2200, and with a much more even and consistent 1/2" coverage.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@pp6000v2 , thanks for the insight. I'm sure I'm on the same journey. Water costs lately have been very high so tuning it will be a nice adjustment.


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## BadDogPSD (Jul 9, 2020)

With the exception of the Blue 8-14' nozzles, I've been pretty happy with the RVANS. The medium (Tan) and large (Red/Burgundy) work well. The Blue's always need attention.
The irrigation system at our new house was a random bunch of different types of spray heads and had multiple zones that had sprays and rotors mixed together and most of the lawn did not have head-to-head coverage. All of the sprinklers were installed on the perimeter, none on the interior part of the lawn. Very stupid design. 
I trenched and added a bunch (20?) new heads, replaced all the spray bodies with the PRS45's and got rid of all the mixed zones. 
The outfit that installed the landscaping did a very random install. No rhyme or reason to what they did (that I could figure out), sometimes they used 1" PVC, sometimes 3/4", some 120, some schedule 40. The wire they used for one valve box didn't have enough wires, so they wired two valves together.
The lawn looks MUCH better this year, and my water usage is down about 30% ... but man it was a lot of work.
Due to the design of the lawn area, free-from with lots of curves, I'm still wasting water watering planter areas, sidewalks, pool deck, etc, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to make it any better.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

The previous owner's landscape company did a weird configuration on zones. Lawns and beds are the same zones for every bed. I have one section of lawn that is about 40' deep from the curb that has two zones with interior heads. I have a neighboring lawn section that is about 80' deep, all on one zone even with an elevation drop...think dry too quick at the top and stay too wet at the bottom.

It's almost like everything they did was shortest path, not really adjusted to what the landscaping design was.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

Here are some views of the dry hotspots in the lawn. I picked up some catch cups and I'll do my first measurement in the morning. I'm getting tired of running out daily to hand water during the hot summer months.


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## BadDogPSD (Jul 9, 2020)

Those don't look too bad, your hand watering efforts must be helping! Have you done the screw driver test in those areas? In my lawn, the trouble areas are next to concrete, and it looks like yours are too. Mine have a bunch of aggregate/base that the landscapers didn't bother to remove prior to putting down the sod and with all the rock and the heat collected by the concrete, it dries out much faster than the rest of the lawn.


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