Any irrigation experts in here?

[Divin Dave]

Ok so your GPM might be ok, but what about your water pressure? Looks to me like you have a lot of length of pipe on the zones for it to go through and you will suffer pressure loss in every foot of it, and at ever coupling and every turn.

You need GPM and you need Pressure for the sytem to work.
you have to know what that is.

You can measure your water pressure at a water spicket using a pressure gauge available at any hardware store, Home Depot and Lowes for 10 dollars or so. Measure your GPM using the 5 gallon bucket method. use a watch and time exactly how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket then do the math to figure our your available GPM.

If any zone exceeds your available GPM. The zone will not work.
If any zone pressure loss exceeds your available water pressure, then the zone will not work.

In the tutorial I posted to you, there are pipe loss charts and you will have to use that chart to figure out the pressure loss of each zone.
Do read that tutorial. Every question you have and all you have not thought of yet are answered in it.

Other folks were right in telling you to use different zones for the trees and bushes and what not. Its a good idea to consider the water requirements of the plants being watered.
If you have a plant that needs only 5 gallons of water a week and another that need 10 a week on the same zone, then at the end of the day, one of the plants will not do well.

 

[HX_Guy]

That seems low but if that's what the math comes out to be, then that's what it is... Did you figure the correct radius as well?


Unless that pool is only 20' long, judging by your drawing, even at the max 6' spacing, its gonna take more than 18 to do it properly. going by your drawing, I would do at least 3 zones... I could be mis-interpreting your drawing though...

The pool is quite small actually, as is the yard. The pool itself (not incluidng coping) is about 23' long and 17' wide. The yard is 43' deep and 60' wide.

 

[HX_Guy]

Ok so your GPM might be ok, but what about your water pressure? Looks to me like you have a lot of length of pipe on the zones for it to go through and you will suffer pressure loss in every foot of it, and at ever coupling and every turn.

You need GPM and you need Pressure for the sytem to work.
you have to know what that is.

You can measure your water pressure at a water spicket using a pressure gauge available at any hardware store, Home Depot and Lowes for 10 dollars or so. Measure your GPM using the 5 gallon bucket method. use a watch and time exactly how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket then do the math to figure our your available GPM.

If any zone exceeds your available GPM. The zone will not work.
If any zone pressure loss exceeds your available water pressure, then the zone will not work.

In the tutorial I posted to you, there are pipe loss charts and you will have to use that chart to figure out the pressure loss of each zone.
Do read that tutorial. Every question you have and all you have not thought of yet are answered in it.

Other folks were right in telling you to use different zones for the trees and bushes and what not. Its a good idea to consider the water requirements of the plants being watered.
If you have a plant that needs only 5 gallons of water a week and another that need 10 a week on the same zone, then at the end of the day, one of the plants will not do well.

Dave: I went out and got a water pressure gauge and at the spicket where it T's off to the irrigation system, I'm getting right around 70 PSI. I also did the 5 gallon bucket test and it took 50 seconds to fill, so I'm looking at 6 gallons/minute, at least coming out of the spicket. I can't really test the actual irrigation pipe, at least not until I actually run it to the backyard (right now it's capped off).

Pipe run wise, it's about 60' from the irrigation T to where the valves will be located and from there, it's another 90' from the valve to the end last sprinkler on the line (that is for the right side sprinklers, I didn't measure the left valve as it's shorter).

Do the number seem ok? What else do I need to know?

 

[stebs]

at 70 psi, you either have a very small spicket or somethings off somewhere. if that spicket you used is right at the t to the irrigation, you should have more than 6 gpm... how did you do the test? if you can get the bucket under the faucet, open it up all the way, and then start timing once you put the bucket under there... You might try the test at the house using as short of garden hose as you have to compare notes with.

 

[HX_Guy]

For the test, I put the bucket right under the faucet, opened it up all the way and started the timer. The water flow is pretty powerful coming out, lots of pressure, but the stream isn't very good at all...almost like a jet stream setting on one of those adjustable hose nozzles.

Looking at the Maximum Available GPM Table on this site, it may be that the spicket is a 1/2" pipe size as the flow rate for that size is 6 GPM, which matches my results perfectly. And looking at the picture above, the pipe size after the faucet handle does seem pretty small, smaller than the surround pipes which are 3/4"

http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/gpm-psi-municipal-water-source/

 

[Divin Dave]

Im glad you have so much pressure. Mine isnt so good at only 50 psi and 12 GPM, so I ended up with a lot of zones.

I would recomend you install a shutoff valve just after Tee'd off the main line in front of the meter so you can isolate the entire sprinkler system from the mainline and the house. this in case you have a sprinkler main pipe burst, or have to replace a valve, you can close the shutoff valve and not have to turn off the water at the meter (and the whole house) to fix it.

Measure the GPM right out of the water main when you put the shutoff vavle in, then you will know for sure how many GPM you have.

Keep reading the tutorial, you're doing good. Do all of the worksheets. If you follow it and dont try to cheat, you will do just fine.

 

[Divin Dave]

EDITED to delete Double Post. Somehow I posted the same thing twice!

 

[HX_Guy]

Thanks Dave. The backflow valve that's already in place (Tee'd off the main line) already has a turn knob so I can shut off the water to the irrigation system without shutting off the whole house. You can see it here: