I would like to irrigate my yard surrounding my pool so I do not have to drag the water hose and sprinkler across the deck everytime I need to water the grass. I would like any recomendations of products (good or bad) that ya'll have. I want it controlled electronically so that I can program the times that the lawn is watered and the amount of water applied.
Yard Irrigation
- Thread starter jasonknox
- Start date
Hunter controllers are the gold standard up here. Although others are good too. Around a pool, you would want pop up heads that spray an arc rather than the round-d rounds.
carlos31820 said:
I am actually going to irrigate my whole yard as well as around the pool. I am not familiar with a timer system. I was looking for a programable system that would water the shrubs everyday for so long and then water the yard every two days and a zone (or I think they call them stationsJ) to water the garden. I would then need to program these zones around the watering restrictions that we have in place. I normally do my own work but have to many unfinished projects that take precidence. I just need some info to check and make sure my contractor does not take advantage of me (they would never do that!!!). I am just performing my due diligence but am subject to "analysis paralysis"!
Yea, what you want is pretty standard stuff for an irrigation controller. Hunter Pro C is a nice one. It's easy to use and program. It does up to 3 programs.
For example, I do my yard zones every morning at 4 am. I run 2 zones 15 minutes, another 3 zones 8 minutes, and 2 more zones 12 minutes. Thats program A
Program B waters the shrubs. 2 times a day for 20 minutes for the 2 drip zones i have.
Program c is blank.
You can do every other day programming, odd/even days, MWF, TTH, etc. It's really user friendly.
Irrigation guys are kinda like pool guys, they have their favorite equipment. Some guys like Rainbird better, but for my money, you cant beat the Hunter Pro C.
For example, I do my yard zones every morning at 4 am. I run 2 zones 15 minutes, another 3 zones 8 minutes, and 2 more zones 12 minutes. Thats program A
Program B waters the shrubs. 2 times a day for 20 minutes for the 2 drip zones i have.
Program c is blank.
You can do every other day programming, odd/even days, MWF, TTH, etc. It's really user friendly.
Irrigation guys are kinda like pool guys, they have their favorite equipment. Some guys like Rainbird better, but for my money, you cant beat the Hunter Pro C.
I still need to pick out a timer for my yard.
Want List:
Lots of zones
Rain Sensor
Easy to Setup
No crappy mechanical switches
Weather Sensor?? > Some of these have a Monthly Fee I don't want to pay
I searched around the Internet and I found : http://www.cyber-rain.com/
This system looks very nice, no moving parts, program from your PC, Internet based weather service (for free)
And it qualifies for the Water Company Rebate ($80 I think). They run about $400
Does anyone have any experience with this system?
Want List:
Lots of zones
Rain Sensor
Easy to Setup
No crappy mechanical switches
Weather Sensor?? > Some of these have a Monthly Fee I don't want to pay
I searched around the Internet and I found : http://www.cyber-rain.com/
This system looks very nice, no moving parts, program from your PC, Internet based weather service (for free)
And it qualifies for the Water Company Rebate ($80 I think). They run about $400
Does anyone have any experience with this system?
Second the Hunter Pro-C. It's very idiot-proof. If I recall correctly, it has 3 programs and up to six zones.
Keep in mind that the controller is only a small part of the system. Tapping in to the house plumbing, installing the solenoid valves, and running the underground pipes and installing the drippers/sprinklers are all big jobs. None of it is difficult, and numerous tutorials are available on the web if you want to do it yourself. I just did a similar exercise in the fall; plan on it taking several weekends from start to finish.
Nightmare, not sure what you mean by "crappy mechanical switches"; do you mean the timers with the buttons and dials? All solenoid switches are going to operate the same way, it's just the controllers that are different. Re: the rain sensor, I know there are some that you can attach to your house. The internet-based services can be nice, but the problem is, how close is your house to the weather station? It could be raining at the station and not at your house, or vice versa. I can't comment on the accuracy/reliability of the rather inexpensive rain sensors you can install yourself.
Regarding zones, keep in mind as well the number of programs that you need. For example, you may want to run your grass, trees, and shrubs all on different schedules. That's three programs that are required, but you can have as many zones as you want that all follow the same program.
Keep in mind that the controller is only a small part of the system. Tapping in to the house plumbing, installing the solenoid valves, and running the underground pipes and installing the drippers/sprinklers are all big jobs. None of it is difficult, and numerous tutorials are available on the web if you want to do it yourself. I just did a similar exercise in the fall; plan on it taking several weekends from start to finish.
Nightmare, not sure what you mean by "crappy mechanical switches"; do you mean the timers with the buttons and dials? All solenoid switches are going to operate the same way, it's just the controllers that are different. Re: the rain sensor, I know there are some that you can attach to your house. The internet-based services can be nice, but the problem is, how close is your house to the weather station? It could be raining at the station and not at your house, or vice versa. I can't comment on the accuracy/reliability of the rather inexpensive rain sensors you can install yourself.
Regarding zones, keep in mind as well the number of programs that you need. For example, you may want to run your grass, trees, and shrubs all on different schedules. That's three programs that are required, but you can have as many zones as you want that all follow the same program.
I think the Hunter Pro C does 10 to 12 zones. I have 9 on mine and i think there is one or two more terminals in there.
As far as a rain sensor, I have one from Hunter that attaches to the house thats wireless. It has an antenna that "talks" to the box in the basement. Like Melt said, its idiot proof.
As far as a rain sensor, I have one from Hunter that attaches to the house thats wireless. It has an antenna that "talks" to the box in the basement. Like Melt said, its idiot proof.
My last timer had a plastic switch that toggled between Zone 1-7 and Zone 8-14. The switch must have been bad because it would change from Zone7 back to Zone1 while I was setting the time. It was probably a bad contact on the switch, but it was a huge PITA to program because I would need to toggle the Zone Switch back and forth a dozen times to get the timers changed.
Cyber Rain has a Rain Sensor that is $25. The Internet Weather Data allows the system to adjust watering based on temperature, wind, humidity, etc.
It looks like the Hunter Pro C eliminated most of the mechanical switches (just the dial and the rain sensor).
Cyber Rain has a Rain Sensor that is $25. The Internet Weather Data allows the system to adjust watering based on temperature, wind, humidity, etc.
It looks like the Hunter Pro C eliminated most of the mechanical switches (just the dial and the rain sensor).
My Hunter timer does what you describe. Its digital and has multiple programs so you can break down different zones any way you wish.
System design is more important than product choice. It all depends on the size and shape of the garden. Stick with 1" pipe to distribute to all the zones. Then branch off individually with clamp brackets to 1/2 " pipe to the sprayers. Try to stick with one type of spray head per zone. For an easy to set up system use Rainbird Unispray or the Hunter equivilant. I prefer Hunter programmers to Rainbird. I tend to find you only need a daily stations(s) for the lawn and a weekly station(s) for the flower beds. Any new plants can be temp fed from the lawn station. I also like to let the zone feed pipes loop up to ground level at points to allow future connections. I use Cat 5 network cable to power the electro valves.
solarboy said:
Around here, they sell a cable with 10 wires plus the common thats used to operate the valves (i.e 10 zones). You run the cable from the control box out to the first set of valves, then daisy chain it down the line to all the others. That way there's only 1 line continuous for every zone valve with the splices in the valve boxes. At least thats the way systems are done over here.
Yes, 1 inch on the feeder lines that stay pressurized all the time. Correct too on one type of head in a zone. Dont mix spray heads with circles.
We are a little limited here for supplies but we use the cable the same way as you. Cat 5 is a bit fragile for this kind of work but it's the best we have.bk406 said:
If you use 1" pipe the whole way you are creating a huge pressure loss, so each zone has to be much smaller to work so you need more valves and more heads. Valves are expensive. The more effective method is to begin with a larger main line that is always under pressure, actual size is to be calculated, and this main line goes as far as possible to get to each zone. Each zone has a valve that is normally closed. The cost of that is that each valve is somewhere out in the yard, or more likely, somewhere near the house or curb.
My controller is a Rainbird with something like 12 zones but I only use 9. It has a hookup for the RainClick sensor, pretty simple rain monitoring/shut off, when the little pad in the cup is wet it sits down and turns off. You just adjust the opening to get the drying out of the pad to agree with the drying out of the lawn. I dunno, as long as it is shut off when it is raining, and really raining not just a 1/4" dribble, I don't care, I've never adjusted it.
The most important thing with a sprinkler system is to check it really frequently. Maybe once a month. Run it to see if any of the pop-ups are not fully up -- grass or rocks can keep them partway down then the water can cut out the o-ring. Then you get gushing around the head. You need to see that the head cap on a popup is not leaking too much, again an o-ring in there can be cleaned or tightened or replaced. Most important, you need to know that the spray pattern is good, not too much or too little, and be certain that the top has not blown off. Seems I see that really often around here, a sprinkler running with one head blown off, shooting water 12' into the air and the owner has no idea. That happens if you run the system pre-dawn and never look at it running. Or the head near the driveway is run over and broken, gushing water when no one sees. You install a flexible connection so that those heads can move a bit, then add a concrete ring to help protect them.
When you change the landscaping you may need to redo the design. It is tempting to just let it be the same but you really ought to redesign it to run correctly. We are suffering here now because the prior owner did not rework the sprinkler when major landscaping was done. I have heads that water stacks of rocks, popups that are too tall or not tall enough for what is there now, a real chore to dig up and replace after all the borders and dirt and plants are in place. I've been converting what I can over to drip parts but that mixes outputs and affects how the rest of the zone acts so not really a great solution. I have no idea where the lines are under all the flagstone. They really cheaped out when they didn't rework the system then.
My controller is a Rainbird with something like 12 zones but I only use 9. It has a hookup for the RainClick sensor, pretty simple rain monitoring/shut off, when the little pad in the cup is wet it sits down and turns off. You just adjust the opening to get the drying out of the pad to agree with the drying out of the lawn. I dunno, as long as it is shut off when it is raining, and really raining not just a 1/4" dribble, I don't care, I've never adjusted it.
The most important thing with a sprinkler system is to check it really frequently. Maybe once a month. Run it to see if any of the pop-ups are not fully up -- grass or rocks can keep them partway down then the water can cut out the o-ring. Then you get gushing around the head. You need to see that the head cap on a popup is not leaking too much, again an o-ring in there can be cleaned or tightened or replaced. Most important, you need to know that the spray pattern is good, not too much or too little, and be certain that the top has not blown off. Seems I see that really often around here, a sprinkler running with one head blown off, shooting water 12' into the air and the owner has no idea. That happens if you run the system pre-dawn and never look at it running. Or the head near the driveway is run over and broken, gushing water when no one sees. You install a flexible connection so that those heads can move a bit, then add a concrete ring to help protect them.
When you change the landscaping you may need to redo the design. It is tempting to just let it be the same but you really ought to redesign it to run correctly. We are suffering here now because the prior owner did not rework the sprinkler when major landscaping was done. I have heads that water stacks of rocks, popups that are too tall or not tall enough for what is there now, a real chore to dig up and replace after all the borders and dirt and plants are in place. I've been converting what I can over to drip parts but that mixes outputs and affects how the rest of the zone acts so not really a great solution. I have no idea where the lines are under all the flagstone. They really cheaped out when they didn't rework the system then.
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