What brand of sprinkler do you recommend?

[Brian Kent]

Now that we are allowed to water lawns again, I need to repair sprinklers. My old valves are shot. Electronic controller may or may not still work.

What brand do you recommend? I'll start with valves and sprinkler heads, and see if I need a new controller. This is an 8-zone system. Not looking for fancy.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

I use a combination of Toro, Rain Bird and Hunter sprinkler heads. My controller is a Toro.

[Bill McNiel]

FWIW-I've have good fortune with RainBird, no experience with anything else.

[John Redford]

I use K-Rain rotary heads. Easy to replace and easier to set up. I get them on amazon for <$10.

Water is expensive here, I switched to a Rachio controller 3 years ago - it has saved me hundreds of dollars.

[roger wiegand]

Watering lawns in the summer is pretty much verboten here. I've switched all of our watering over to drip irrigation lines in the garden beds that need it. Our $3-4000 summer water bill has fallen by a factor of four and the gardens seem perfectly happy. What little lawn we have left gets brown in mid-summer, but big deal; it's fine most of the year

[Dan Hulbert]

Buy whatever the closest store sells. I've not noticed any significant differences among the major brands and between rabbits and mowers, they get replaced fairly frequently. The shorter the trip to the store the better and buy extras.

[Bryan Lisowski]

I use the Mother Nature brand. When she decides it's going to rain, the lawn will get watered.

[Bob Grier]

I have experience with Hunter. They sell different types of sprinklers. For the lawn I only used the sprinklers that send out little streams that rotate across the designated arc. The streams form drops that are more like rain than a fine spray so wind and evaporation are less of a factor than fine spray type heads that spray continuously cross the designated arc. The amount of water coming out of each head is less than some other manufacturer's I looked at and therefore more heads can be placed on a zone do to less pressure loss at each head. They just run longer and since there is less water hitting the ground per minute, there is more time for absorption and less runoff which is good for slopes. I use drip lines on areas other than the lawn.

The controller ties into a nearby airport weather station or for a fee it can tie into private stations in my neighborhood. The controller uses the actual and forecast information to adjust the amount of watering for each zone. Wireless sensors such as rain or soil moisture sensors can be added to give more info to the controller. It can be controlled via phone app too. The app shows reports which include watering schedule and watering history as well as how much water has been saved.

Other manufacturers may have similar features. I picked hunter without much research because it was recommended to me by a contractor. I looked at it and liked what I saw. It seems to me to be a pretty flexible system with a lot of features that make sense. I don't think it is sold at box stores. Probably sold only at dedicated irrigation dealers and online outlets. I designed the system using their design brochures and installed it myself without any trouble. Parts seemed to be quality.

[Von Bickley]

All of my sprinklers, valves and controller are Rain Bird. User friendly and works good for me.

[Ole Anderson]

I have most every type and brand made, oldest is 35 yrs old pop up impulse rain bird, newest is rain bird rotary. Last year I went from one zone to two as I added heads. Went with the Orbit b-Hyve WiFi controller. I love it, now I can start and stop my 1.5 hp lake pump from my phone as I adjust heads. It sees the weather report and does an auto rain delay if rain is predicted the next day.

[Bill Dufour]

I use the Mother Nature brand. When she decides it's going to rain, the lawn will get watered.

He really has to water in his climate of 15" of rain a year. Only rains in the winter. To be honest that is double the rainfall would have thought. I would assume that, like most of California, there is never an average rain season. They are normally 1/2 or 2x normal.
Bill D

[Rollie Meyers]

I like Rainbird valves, plus it's easy to source repair parts for them if the need arises, so far have had no problems with their gear driven sprinklers, but hate the impulse type as they make too much noise when operating & harder to control.

[Jerome Stanek]

He really has to water in his climate of 15" of rain a year. Only rains in the winter. To be honest that is double the rainfall would have thought. I would assume that, like most of California, there is never an average rain season. They are normally 1/2 or 2x normal.
Bill D

Then don't have a lawn do what others do out there and use other material.

[Brian Kent]

We do not maintain a lawn. We do water trees because fire is the greatest danger in So.Cal. Also, we need to soak the area previously known as a yard to wash away the dog smells.

[Miles Evans]

Hi everyone! Sorry to necropost, but I just found this thread and I have a question about a new sprinkler as well. My mom's one needs to be replaced, and I'm a bit confused. Maybe you can help me?
I've already made some research, but I'm not sure. My mom wants either #1 or #3 from there: https://www.backyardstyle.com/best-oscillating-sprinklers/. We read about all the pros and cons, but I'd like to hear an opinion of a real person. So, did anyone there deal with these models of sprinklers? Or maybe we should look for something else? Any recommendations are much appreciated!

[Roger Feeley]

Some years ago, I bought a house with a non-functional sprinkler system. I replaced everything but the pipes (vinyl). I used rain bird valves. The controller was neat. It was the only one I could find with a remote. That remote was great! I could fire up a zoned just a few seconds to see if a repair or adjustment was correct. I used to use my basement air compressor t w it out every fall. The remote made it easy to turn on a zone for flushing.

[Brian Elfert]

My parents have a Toro system that has worked well over the years. The system is almost 40 years old. My father replaced the controller with a digital one probably 20 years ago.

My parents have not been watering the lawn much in recent years due to the cost. Our water costs are reasonable, but they were spending $800 in a quarter on water. They can afford the cost, but my mom is fiscally conservative and doesn't like spending the money.

[Alex Walter]

Recently bought 7 Rain Bird P5RLSP and really liked them. I used them with a 4 zone Melnor timer to water my grass when I over seeded my back yard. Worked out great. 4 zones 2 sprinklers per zone.