Hunter Sprinklers

jerome8283

Can you spray the rotary (PGP) and spray (PS) heads with a little WD40 so they popup and go down without becoming stuck in either position?

mdshunk

Faucet Grease !

Kgmz

Are you on well or city water?

The grease may help or make it worse depending on what the problem is.

I installed a sprinkler system on my parents 2 acre yard a few years ago, 28 circuits/stations. And they have problems with the heads sticking also, it is because of their well water. The water comes up with a bit if sand in it so the sand ends up lodging in the slide tube and making it stick.

We were going to put in a Lakos Sandmaster sand filter, but the well supply house didn't think it would work because of the volume of water they used for the sprinklers and the pipe size. They have a 25 gpm constant pressure pump system (3 hp Franklin SubDrive). The filter company recommends that you stay within the filters gpm range, but the pipe size was too small in that filter size. Their 20-32 gpm filter only has a pipe size of 1", and my parents have 1 1/4" pipe coming up from the pump which then changes to 1 1/2" coming out of the well head. So I also didn't want to put a restriction in the line which would cut down the flow. Also by the time you get the automatic purge accessories it would have ended up costing over $1300.

What we do now is just go and flush out the heads once in awhile, which will work for a month or two. Just unscrew the heads one at a time starting at the closest one to the valve and turn on the water and flush. Keep doing this till you get to the end of the line. We find that it is usually only the last few heads that get the sand.

Also the sliding part of the heads actually fit a little loose and that is why the sand gets in and makes it stick. They seal when they top out. If you go and push one down a little when it is on you will see the water coming out of the slide since the seal was broken.

troubleseeker

I would use one of the "dry" silicone sprays; found with the wd40 and other sprays at HD, etc., for the reason that wd40 is very bad for some plastics and particularly rubber o rings.

jerome8283

city

no1plantman

If your running on city water source, try using surf wax . I use it on my heads and they aren't sticking.

sprinklerguy

WD40 is a sand magnet

The culprit is usually the seal and the spring.....over time the spring in the lawn head gets weaker and won't retract the head like it should.....the sand gets in between the seal and the actual riser causing friction and compounds the problem.

The PS head is crap.....cheap cheap cheap.....replace them as they get bad with either the hunter Pro Spray or Institutional spray...

AS for the PGP...I don't believe I have ever seen a PGP with a retraction problem......the springs are quite strong....

Good luck....

__________________
Tony Neumann
Lawn Sprinkler Repair and Irrigation Installation
Colorado Springs, Colorado
http://www.sprinklersolutions.com

POOLMANinCT

cartridges filter upstream from a booster pump.

grease is a dirt magnet.

__________________
......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....