# Updating existing irrigation system



## lawnranger (Jun 18, 2018)

Looking for some advice on updating my existing irrigation system-both lawn and shrub sprinklers. System is 8 years old and in good operating condition. My main goal is to deliver water more accurately.

The main concern is that my sprinkler bodies have sunk down over time. The result is that the trajectory of the water is too shallow. In other words I get a lot of water too close to the sprinker and not enough at the end of the arc. In the case of my shrub heads, since I have raised beds, too much water is hitting the stone wall.

Since I am not planning to dig up the sprinkler bodies I am researching nozzles that have a higher trajectory. That's the basic project.


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

Welcome!

These are spray heads? If so, then you might be able to find one with a slightly higher trajectory, but I will caution you that it could potentially create new coverage problems for you due to unforeseen factors such as waste. But in order to weigh in I'll need to know what spray heads and body setups you currently have.

On the sprays in the landscaping, you and I are in the same situation. I'll be honest with you, it's a huge waste of water and you're going to be getting overspray no matter how you do it until you just convert the zones to a drip system or with micro sprays. Since you've already gone underground irrigation, there are a number of kits you can use to simplify this process. You can convert individual heads to 90 degree valves connecting to drip lines or even soaker hoses. You can switch out your valve for that irrigation zone to a pressure regulated and filtered valve, so the entire zone has just the right amount of pressure to run the drip system efficiently. I'm currently in this same battle and just picking one zone at a time and revamping.

Rainbird and Hunter also offer low volume rotator nozzles that span about 4 feet. This might be an option for the beds too.


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## lawnranger (Jun 18, 2018)

Thanks for the note. I like the idea of drip lines for water control. But the spray heads are not actually in the raised beds. They are in the lawn and I am wasting a lot of water this way. Not my design btw. If I go with the low volume rotators, I may actually be able to take one head off-line per bed.


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

Depending on how many heads you have, and how they were originally set, it may not be that big of a deal to dig them all up and set them at the proper depth.

Use reasonable care in removing close in turf to preserve it and dig one up to see what you have underground. Use a trenching shovel to disturb as little as possible. If they were set with a swing joint or funnypipe, just place some sand under it to fill the displaced volume of raising it, refill the hole and replace the turf.

For the shub heads hitting a wall, I'm having trouble visualizing what's going on there. I'm just going to guess that the heads are at grade and the beds were raised with a retaining wall at some later date. In that case, it would be best to move the heads into the beds. A workaround might be to replace the popups (assuming they are popups) with, say, 1812 tall popups and, yes, use a nozzle with a higher trajectory (trajectory is in the nozzle specs). Generally larger max radius = higher trajectory.


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## lawnranger (Jun 18, 2018)

You understand the scenario correctly. Half of the spray is hitting the wall. Not good. The project starts this week. We will see what happens. First things first is to see if it is worth lifting up the heads...as you suggested. Thanks.


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