Garden irrigation systems

thank you for the dedicated thread

in the meantime we have installed most of it and it actually works the slight slope is not easy, you can mostly get the curve out of the rolled-up pipe.
but putting it together is really simple, you just have to push it all the way in. I handle the draining through the inspection shaft of our infiltration system and 2x end caps. I will simply remove these in the fall and that’s it. this way the system does not have to be refilled every time. unfortunately I ended up with some “wrongly” ordered parts but oh well

Unfortunately, the items from the green-orange manufacturer do not last long... I now have to replace quite a few things after 3 years...

What one can do wrong when assembling is beyond me... it is like with any other system, water pipe etc. just slide over/into the seal and that's it...

what broke for you? as long as the pipes are fine, the parts can be replaced relatively easily. I’ve heard that the flow stoppers in particular cause some difficulties because the metal sheet that seals the thing is made of the cheapest crap and rusts through after a short time. I would just claim it annually, because with the replacement you get a new warranty ^^ or I take the sheet out and have it laser-cut in stainless steel. however, I find it shameful how companies risk their entire reputation for a few cents of profit. how can you develop and sell stuff that is deliberately broken after 3-4 years?! if the pop-up sprinkler is broken after 4 years, I will definitely not buy the new gadget from gardena again. companies used to stand for quality and durability, now everything is just disposable. it wouldn’t be so bad if safety didn’t depend on it. 3 weeks of vacation and the faucet runner runs constantly: garden ruined (very bad: house undermined) and a huge water bill. and all for the 5-cent item... so in my company we don’t install such crap and our machines are designed to last much longer. I always wonder how these companies get away with it... the whole gardena story has now cost me about €300. I would have gladly spent €500 if the fun was guaranteed to last 10 years. but there isn’t, because the others build the same crap.

Well, not much can go wrong with the pipes and fittings as long as they run empty in winter, they're great...

For me, it's the sprinklers...

One turbine sprinkler is broken, it doesn't rise properly anymore and when it does get up, it either doesn't move at all or moves slower than the others or keeps getting stuck. Another one stays up sporadically but otherwise works perfectly.

I already replaced the nozzles on the simple pop-up sprinklers last year, and this time 3 out of 4 sprinklers have to go because they only adjust themselves, since the system is easy to adjust but just as easily can get twisted by normal use.

Well, whatever still works stays, the rest will now be replaced with Hunter.

I replaced the nozzles with Hunter last year and was much more satisfied with the result than before with the in-house nozzles.

What can go wrong when connecting it is beyond me... it’s like with any other system, water pipe etc., just push it over/into the seal and that’s it...

On the one hand, I agree with you. On the other hand, personal experience has shown that you can still do something wrong the first time. The first time I put everything together and closed the connectors. When I then turned on the water, a nice little fountain appeared at (almost) every spot. After asking my neighbor for advice, he told me roughly: "Yeah, I had that too. I searched forever. You have to push together with more force, then the pipe slides in another centimeter further."
Said and done. And lo and behold – it held and was tight.

By the way:
We irrigate via cistern. But we also installed a second connection box on the other side so that we can carry out irrigation via a hose connection from the faucet in case of emergency (if the cistern is empty). This hose should only be attached when needed – otherwise the connection box should simply remain "idle."
When we switched on the cistern pump, a nice fountain appeared at this connection box. We have now solved it by connecting the hose directly and attaching another irrigation nozzle. Thus, when the nozzle is set to "stop," the water output is blocked. Additional advantage: we can use the connection box like a water socket and water our herb garden + hedge via the hose + nozzle without having to drag endless meters of hose through the garden.

If we actually have to irrigate via the faucet, however, I must put a lock between the cistern pump hose and the cistern connection box so that we don’t fill the cistern with drinking water (it’s bad enough if we have to waste drinking water for irrigation).

On the one hand, I agree with you. On the other hand, my own experience showed that you can do something wrong the first time around.
The first time, I put everything together and connected the fittings. When I then turned on the water, there was a pretty fountain coming out from (almost) every spot. After asking my neighbor for advice, he told me roughly: "Yeah, I had that too. I searched forever. You have to push the pieces together with more force, then the pipe slides another 1 cm further in."
Said and done. And lo and behold – it held and was watertight.

Don’t take this personally, but it sounds like you have never connected a garden hose before. It always has to be tightly screwed on, pushed all the way in, etc.

Even ordinary garden hoses have to be pushed all the way into the coupling, preferably cut straight beforehand, and then screwed tight with the union nut. Only then is it watertight. It’s similar with water piping systems: always over or into the rubber, then it’s sealed.

I find the Gardena system is actually one of the simplest available on the market—you really can’t do much wrong and it’s done and watertight in no time. There are much worse solutions out there.

Cistern water and sprinklers only go together to a limited extent; I hope you have a filter in place beforehand and you will probably have to clean the internal filters of the sprinklers more often.

With the connection box, everything is correct—it is a connection box and not a water socket. That means it is always open, and if water is applied to it, it will just come out the top.

If you had installed a water socket right away, you wouldn’t need an extra hose. Then water would only come out when you connect a hose and start watering.