[Teetorbilt]

I am irrigated by a well and have sand to deal with. I am in the process of landscaping and am now designing the irrigation system.
Due to the sand brought from the well, I believe that low level emitters and soakers are out of the equation, am I correct? Hunter heads work the best but don't seem to distribute the water that well. RainBirds distribute well but can't be used near anything that I don't want rust stains on. I have been replacing the pop-ups with the boxstores finest because I didn't want to put much money into something that I knew that I was going to replace, oddly some of them have worked quite well.
What are the pros opinions?

 

[Mike Finley]

Hey Teetor, put in whatever heads you want to. Just put in a simple filter after the well before the irrigation system.

They look like this, they sell them at Home Depot for about $20.00. 1/2 inch pipe in, 1/2 out. If you need more capacity like if you are runing 3/4 or 1 inch out of the well, split the 1 inch into two 1/2 lines, run each through a filter and then T them back together again.

All you will require is the course grain filter to trap sand and nothing else. I do this at our lake house because of exactly what you are describing. I like the washable filter so all you do is spray it off and stick it back in whenever you need to. I do it about once a year and my heads never seem to get clogged. I run a drip system with mine too, atomizers and such don't get clogged. The drip system I use also has an additional filter built into the pressure reducers so it gets filtered twice, but I never find anything in the second filters.

 

[sILVERRAM]

Install a filter after the well and prior to the first zone on the main line. Get a filter that has flush valve that you can turn and flush without taking out the filter. When you install the system add in an extra control valve as your flush valve and set it up on its on program. This will allow you to automatically flush the filter using the control valve. Depending on how much sand you get in the filter, you can program it for once a week, once a day or everytime your irrigation runs. One other thing you may want to do is install an RPZ or PVB for backflow prevention if you are feeding you home with the same water as used for the irrigation.

Most spray heads have removable filters you can clean or replace as well.

:Thumbs:

 

[J.W. Reid]

Teetorbilt... I have been aroudn the irrigatoin industry for a number of years now, some of them were as the branch manager at a distribution warehouse with a average yearly sales figure of around $ 1.5 to 1.9 million.

My point with this is I have dealt with all different brands of irrigation products and I have to say 90% of them time I use or recommend rainbird prodcuts.

Their customer service is top notch and their products are much improved over the older products they were producing.

I will say do not buy anything rainbird from a box store since it is a different grade of product even for a nearly identical product. I would understand the reasoning behind this if the box store lines were being sold at a much lower rate but as I found it most of the time they were really close to the commerical or non box store grades we sold. Thats at home owner pricing when they cam in my door I would here your cheaper than HD on this. So I am guess as a contractor your pricing should be much less.

I would recomend Rainbirds 5004 series rotors for any large turf areas to be covered. If you have smaller turf areas and like the rotors then you could use their 3504 series.

For planting beds I would go with any of the 1800 series depending on the height you need to get good coverage (i.e 1804 = 4" pop up height etc) I would recomend though that if you have any zones that will have anything other than a slight grade change that you go with the sam series heads be it rotor or spray (5004-SAM or 1804-SAM). They call them Seal A Matic and are excellent on zones with grade changes.

They also have out new rotating nozzles that go on the spray bodies. These are sweet. In fact when I re- do my system this year I am going to use these for alot of the turf if not all the turf areas.

They use alot less water than the regular gear rotors, but give you more distance and better matched pecipitation than the regular spray nozzles.

I also strongly arge atleast one if not two inline sand filters. I believe we sold the 1" line size models for around $65 each but they have replacable screens and are super easy to clean. If you ran two inline you could use a lrage opening mesh close to the water source then a finer one after it that way one filter wasnt always getting filled and the other catching very little which would reduce the number of times needed to clean it.

If you need any more info just ask or drop me a email [email protected]

if I was down your way I would stop by and help you out!! But I hate the local commute I dont imagine from here to their woudl be much better LOL :cheesygri

 

[Teetorbilt]

Thanks for all of the input. I really liked the idea for backflushing the filters, wonder why I didn't think of that? I have designed a discharge for the pool filter that distributes the water over the yard, a smaller version should work fine for the filters.
I have always liked RainBird products but don't seem to see them used much down here. Hunter is the preferred brand.
I never thought about box store sprinklers being different although I know that they do this with many products, usually higher in price like lawnmowers. I deal with a couple of plumbing/sprinkler supply houses and never gave pricing much thought. In the grand scheme, sprinkler systems are really pretty cheap.

 

[sILVERRAM]

Must be a Rainbird Rep in the house..lol :Thumbs:

 

[Teetorbilt]

IMHO, RainBird has always had better coverage but tough to set up close to a home using well water. It's all that I use at the NC house but I don't have staining issues there.

 

[J.W. Reid]

Silverram.... I wish I had an easy gig like the reps did lol and make the money they make.

I am just a contractor (ex supply manager) who was putting my .02 cents in lol!!!!

I actually use Weathermatic as a close second to the Rainbirds. Its just for some reason I am really keen on Rainbirds for alot of applications.

I have put a few Hunter system in. They are a top runner for prefered product up the road about 15 miles and farther. But I am not their biggest fan, not sure just dont like the design of some of the heads is all.

Nelson is starting to devolp some new ideas and better products that have me looking really hard. One is their line of clocks that run off of a master remote. All brands have clocks that use remotes that perform a limited number of functions. However the Nelsons is a full function remote meaning you can do anything you can do at the face of the clock with the remote. It is also a 1 remote for all the clicks meaning I carry 1 remote and can to go any house that has a remote ready clock from nelson and do as I wish with the clock. Its great since homeowners do not need to be home when doing turn ons or service work. and it saves on having to have a helper when doing repair work as I can turn zones on myself out in the turf.

Teetor.. something else I forgot to mention is for established planting areas you might want to look into drip irrigation for them. That way if you have taller established plants you do not have to have a 12" pop up and a riser added it to it just to clear it. I have seen some people take a 12" and tie it to a stake up and out of the ground just to clear the plant materials. It may be just be but I think that looks like S**t. I try to keep my installs as invisable as possible so that is is a clean looking install.

Justin