Sprinkler System Design - How Many Heads on a Line?

“How many heads can you put on a line?” This is one of the most common questions we receive in the irrigation industry. Unfortunately there's not a simple answer. Doug Donahue from Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply explains in this video.

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[adamanderson]

I'm upgrading the sprinkler system on the house we just bought and it's been a nightmare. The previous homeowner had everything hooked up to a hose bib and used 1/2" poly pipe as their lateral lines. Their zones have anywhere between 1 head and 5, so I get totally different performance out of the heads (all the same model) depending on which zone is pressurized. I think eventually I'm just going to dig it all up and build it properly...

[wstt]

My sprinklers are not on the same water line as the house and hose bibs around it. How do I measure the pressure then?
Is there a formula of how much the pressure decreases for each sprinkler head? Does using a specific sprinkler head reduce water pressure more than other? (ie rotors, rotary nozzles, spray nozzles, impact sprinkler heads…).
Does too many sprinkler heads reduce the pressure just mostly at the end or even the first sprinkler head?
And what type of sprinkler head still works ok at very low PSI? (I bought a house with a full system set up over 1/2 acre. At the bottom of the hill I tried to test the PSI and I think it’s like 10. ). There are 14 Rainbird R Vans and even a drip line to this section.
Oh, and does having all the sprinklers in a row off the same line effect pressure any differently than having the main line branch 2 separate directions with the heads off 2 different branches?
Thanks.

[AceBoy]

Question, for the flow test (gallons per minute) would I be better doing it through a hose bib or out of straight pipe coming off the well that would go to the valves?

[T-hl]

How do these jets get full coverage? For example if you set to spray out 10 feet distance... then how does it cover all of the area of the grass from zero to ten feet? Does each individual stream throw a difference distance to cover all of the area as it rotates? Thanks for the help.

[HIDALOKO]

40psi 4 heads rotor or mist 1" line from 1.5 to 3.0 nozz on hunter pgp
8van to 15van on the rain bird 1800 series, this works for me
50 psi 5 heads and so on,
Baccum breaker backflow
And i just open a hose bib in full i take a look on how much water comes out, and thats it, im ready to do the installation 😃

[AlabanzasyAdoración]

Would it affect or damage the system if I only have one or two sprinkler heads for one zone or valve?

[supersaiyan]

Question
I have 100 psi for my water. How many rainbird 42SA+ head can I installed on a single line?

[tjsteele]

If your irrigation system is feeding the lines downhill (7%-10% grade) does the pressure increase to any degree due to the momentum increase in running downhill??

[ShadabHesari]

can you write under line to perssion becouse we dont understand english good

[TheGuggo]

These three necessary data always under the assumption that the hose lies flat. Otherwise, it is necessary to know 5he slope ratio.

[janusgate]

What "this particular rotor"?!
What "this particular nosel"?!
The most difficult task is to get out of ones own head

[KaliBlaz]

install a sprinkler pressure pump, use at least 1" pipe, problem solved. no more Einstein tinkering.

[ShaneCurren]

So… guess and check. Create a zone test. Plug sprinklers off until you get the performance you want.

[fallen]

Cool story. 1 example would have been nice

[TMSaran]

I thought the "bucket test" was outdated and extremely unreliable.

[noeeon]

Q: how many sprinklers can you put on a line?

A: it varies and you have to do math... in other words call a pro.

[GabeStrom]

Fill in the variables and give us an example 😩

[GingeredRage]

You also need to take into account elevation.

[bryanandrus]

Can no one give even one example of how many heads per line. Come on, 1 is normal, 30 is normal or is 200 normal for a house? Give a guy a bone. I would say anyone who has put in sprinklers for a couple weeks could tell you how many they normal can put on one zone. You could say 30 psi with 35 rotors sprinklers is normal or something! Maybe 3 examples would be very helpful for sure.