Irrigation - Choosing the Right Pop-up Sprinkler

That doesn't sound very good. However, in most places I have relatively short distances. 4.60 meters is about the longest. I think that will be difficult with gear-driven rotors. Did you have a filter installed before the MP rotators? Did you have the pressure-regulated housings? It would be great if you could briefly say something about your setup. Do you also need the riser housings for the gear-driven rotors, or is everything integrated there?

Yes, but only for 1 season. I distributed about 40 pieces of them. After every winter, 20-40% of the nozzles had to be replaced because they no longer rotated (not even after cleaning and ultrasonic bath). The internal mechanism is very fine and thus sensitive to every little kind of dirt or lime deposits over the winter. Meanwhile, I have replaced almost all of them with JPG and I20 gear-driven rotors and am doing very well with them. Only with very short throw distances or replacing the strip sprinkler nozzles does it become more difficult to implement.

I can't understand the bad experiences:
I have been using 20 different MP rotators for about 5 years... I replaced one, otherwise they run like on the first day.
But maybe it also depends on the lime content in the water.
The flexibility is unbeatable if you have a complex garden, for example, narrow side strips or transitions can also be easily realized...

That doesn't sound so good.

This helps get through the winter: 1. Vent the system well 2. Leave the pop-up sprinklers slightly open 3. Remove the small sprinklers in the fall and reinstall them in the spring And yes, lime content and filters play a role. Rainwater is great. I regularly found point 3 too annoying. Therefore, I had a box of spare sprinklers so that I could replace them in the spring if necessary. What annoyed me much more was that due to plant growth the sprinklers were repeatedly shielded by some leaves – admittedly, this did not cause a “patchy drought.” Since there is no lawn area at our new house anymore, but rather a lot of “wildness” and “growth power,” I am now switching to supplying the areas where particularly valuable plants grow with drip irrigation and only using a few sprinklers. For that purpose, I find the Gardena system quite pleasant and have twice filled a trunk full at the factory outlet so that I can now always act spontaneously whenever I feel like it.

Did you have a filter installed before the MP rotators?

No, the sprinklers are connected directly to the drinking water and I have very soft water. Apart from an occasional sand grain, the filters attached to the rotators were always clean. Visually, the defective ones are not recognizable as used or dirty. However, the point is correct that the small nozzles with low flow (e.g. black) are more prone to issues than those with higher flow (e.g. blue). I had to replace more than half of the former every year.

Did you have the pressure-regulated housings?

All sprinklers either on PRS40 (2.8 bar) or PRS30 (2.1 bar).

Do you also need the riser housings for the gear sprinklers or is everything integrated there?

With the rotators, you buy housing and nozzle separately. With the mentioned gear sprinklers, you only buy the housing and receive a full set of standard nozzles to insert. Only special nozzles (short nozzles, flat nozzles) are bought separately, but also each time the complete set of sizes for the type. All nozzles can be regulated down by a screw that directs and fans out the jet. This way I also achieve throwing distances of 3–4 m.
Since you are still in the planning phase, you can consider the essential difference: rotator nozzles must completely overlap, i.e. each sprinkler reaches the next one. With gear sprinklers, this is not necessary because they irrigate sufficiently in the close range too.

It would be great if you could briefly say something about your setup.

Connection to drinking water, all pipes in 32 mm PE, no pre-filters, a total of 12 zones, 2 of which are drip irrigation for hedge and flower bed, in total about 35 sprinklers, control via KNX switching actuator, emptied with compressor before winter. During planning, flow and pressure were measured and set up accordingly. In practice, I was able to run 3–4 zones simultaneously without problems with the rotators, now with the gear sprinklers at least 2 simultaneously. By now almost completely converted to PGJ (very short distances) and I-20 stainless steel (rest).

Since I have the housings and nozzles (of course also some new ones as a reserve) lying around after replacement, you can get them for a small price if needed.

A very great advantage of the rotators during installation is the possibility to adjust both angle limits even after installation. In the case of the gear-driven sprinklers, the right stop is fixed and can only be changed by unscrewing the internal mechanism or rotating the entire housing in the ground. Therefore, it is necessary to test and fine-tune immediately during installation, as long as the housings are not yet fully buried.