Automatic Lawn Sprinklers

Efficient water application means that your automated lawn sprinklers have to apply water uniformly over the entire area. This requires that you select the proper layout, and the proper sprinkler heads. The patterns of coverage must overlap, and the water pressure must be adequate enough to provide proper water distribution.

While applying water directly into the irrigated area, you have to be careful to prevent overspray from hitting surrounding streets, sidewalks, buildings, etc. Lawn sprinklers can be (and should be) divided into subunits (or zones). These zones can be square or rectangular, depending on the shape of the lawn.

Most manufacturers make sprinkler heads that are easily adjusted so that water can be applied in full circles, or any part of a circle. For example, a 90 degree setting would distribute water in a quarter-circle, 180 degrees would produce a half-circle, and so on.

Typically, the closer to the sprinkler head, the more water hits the ground. So you have to make the water from different heads overlap in order to get uniform water distribution. Sprinkler heads should be set so that an average of 0.2 inches of water is applied every hour.

So, how long you keep them running should be determined by how much sun the area is getting. Different zones should be adjusted accordingly.

My own home has a sprinkler system that is 30 years old. It has 4 zones to cover over 1/2 acre of lawn. My sprinkler contractor told me that if he were to install a new system, it would have 10 zones.

This would achieve better coverage, and greater opportunity to give more water to areas that need it due to extended periods of direct sunlight.

Looking at the third diagram below, the area being watered is a square and each sprinkler shoots water that reaches about 1/3 of the length of any side. Using these parameters as an example, you would need 16 lawn sprinklers in order to accomplish uniform water coverage over the entire area.

Notice that the zone is surrounded by part-circle sprinklers that throw water toward the center of the area. It isn't possible to avoid overspray and uniformly irrigate a lawn with only full-circle lawn sprinklers located within the area. Overspray and wasted water will be a certainty if you use full-circle sprinklers near the edge of a lawn.

In a case where a homeowner has to irrigate long narrow strips of lawn, the heads should be run down the center of the strip, and close enough to each other that the water overlaps by about 10 feet. That would put the lawn sprinklers about 30 feet apart.

When part-circle sprinklers are placed along the edge of a lawn, and next to a street or driveway, the sprinklers can be damaged by a vehicle. To avoid this, place the sprinklers away from the edge by 2 to 3 feet. Then adjust the sprinkler angle of coverage in order to cover the area between the sprinkler head and the pavement.

Always use flexible connectors on sprinkler risers so that pipes will absorb abuse better than with rigid pipes. Flexible connectors will also make it easier to keep sprinklers upright and to make repairs that might be needed.

For more information about this subject, I strongly recommend you look at the website of a real expert in the field at: Irrigation Tutorials

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