Woke up to a couple texts from neighbors saying they thought I had a broken irrigation head. Found the culprit and saw it was just the screw on head itself that broke. Easy fix, or so I thought.

Put another spray head on, ran that zone to adjust, and nothing was coming out, even with the screw completely opened. Shut it off and saw that after it went down, a good amount of water would then trickle out of the head for a few minutes. I had another head assembly, so I took out the entire old one and replaced it with the new one thinking maybe it wasn't just the spray head after all.

Started it back up again and the same result. Nothing out of the new head when that zone is running (all others spray fine), and when it shuts down, water trickled out for a good amount of time. Enough water that it takes dirt away from around the head and onto the driveway.

Is this a sign of a bad valve/solenoid? If so, why is this the only head in that zone that I see water continuing to drain noticeably?

probably a valve, and this sprinkler head is the lowest point.

HDeathstar said:

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probably a valve, and this sprinkler head is the lowest point.

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I was thinking that it wasn't the lowest point because there are others a little further out into the yard toward the street (this zone is my flower beds and grass closest to the front of the house). Now that you mention it, this head is in fact "lower" than all of the others in terms of elevation since it's next to the driveway and the others are further into the lawn or beds.

Dammit, I just had a guy out to replace two other valves a couple months ago and he said all of the others were fine.

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Dammit, I just had a guy out to replace two other valves a couple months ago and he said all of the others were fine.

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They may have been at that time.

Its not the valve if all the heads in the zone are pushing up. When you replaced the head the second time did you take the nozzle from the other head and install it on the new head? Take off the nozzle and blow from the under side (female side ; ) any air come out?

ftworthag02 said:

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Its not the valve if all the heads in the zone are pushing up. When you replaced the head the second time did you take the nozzle from the other head and install it on the new head? Take off the nozzle and blow from the under side (female side ; ) any air come out?

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Sounds like a break in the swing joint underneath the head to me.

Is it an adjustable spray head nozzle like this:

If it is, you probably have it closed all the way, so nothing is coming out. Rotate the head counter-clockwise (edit, grab the bottom to make sure you aren't unscrewing the whole thing, and just unscrew the little top cap) to get the correct angle. The head is popping up with no water coming out, right?

1208HawkTree said:

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Enough water that it takes dirt away from around the head and onto the driveway.

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Actually, this makes it sound like cevans is right and there could be a break under the head. If dirt is being carried off, it's usually a break in a line.

how do you know there's a swing joint? there might just be a poly cut off riser between the head and T or 90.

if there's enough pressure to push up the head/neck then there should be water spraying out of the nozzle

ftworthag02 said:

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how do you know there's a swing joint? there might just be a poly cut off riser between the head and T or 90.

if there's enough pressure to push up the head/neck then there should be water spraying out of the nozzle

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This. It's a clogged nozzle only. Simplest fix there is. Valve would have nothing to do with that head spraying water or not. It's getting pressure and it doesn't seem to continuously weep; only for a few minutes (low head). Most likely when you replaced the head you got dirt inside the nipple or funny 90 and then that clogged the nozzle and then you replaced it again and did the same thing.

Apache said:

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Dammit, I just had a guy out to replace two other valves a couple months ago and he said all of the others were fine.

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They may have been at that time.

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I know, just frustrating.

ftworthag02 said:

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Its not the valve if all the heads in the zone are pushing up. When you replaced the head the second time did you take the nozzle from the other head and install it on the new head? Take off the nozzle and blow from the under side (female side ; ) any air come out?

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Yes and no. I did initially, but your thought was my first thought as well so I switched the spray nozzle and nothing comes out of either.

Head pushes up fine and nothing leaks/drips/pours out anywhere on that particular head. I rotated the dial both fully open and closed in both directions multiple times, and no change. It's when the zone is turned off that the water starts draining out from around the spray nozzle for a good amount of time.

mAgnoliAg said:

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ftworthag02 said:

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how do you know there's a swing joint? there might just be a poly cut off riser between the head and T or 90.

if there's enough pressure to push up the head/neck then there should be water spraying out of the nozzle

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This. It's a clogged nozzle only. Simplest fix there is. Valve would have nothing to do with that head spraying water or not. It's getting pressure and it doesn't seem to continuously weep; only for a few minutes (low head). Most likely when you replaced the head you got dirt inside the nipple or funny 90 and then that clogged the nozzle and then you replaced it again and did the same thing.

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Clogging it was my initial thought as well. However, when I replaced the spray nozzle, I let the water drain out of the open tube for a couple minutes before putting the new screen and nozzle on. Clean water with no dirt or sand coming out.

I bought a couple new rotor nozzles last night so I'll check when I get home if maybe it was in fact bad luck that I had two clogged spray nozzles that I tried back to back.

So what kind of head is it? You said spray nozzle and rotor nozzle both in this post. Or is it an MP Rotator?

That's what I was about to ask.

It's a pop up spray head, and I bought a replacement "rotary nozzle" for it. Not a true rotor but the streams of water "spin" to cover the desired area. I have them on most of the spray heads out front.

Well, I guess I did try two clogged nozzles because the new MP rotor worked perfectly.

Great! Had a feeling...
Do all the heads on that zone have mp's?

The ones in the grass out front do, but the flower beds and the perimeter in the back still have simple spray heads. I will eventually switch all of the ones watering the grass to the MP but they are now almost $10 each I found out (I probably need 15 or so more). For another $1, HD sells the MP nozzles on a new popup body, which is tempting after 15 years in the ground.

To me, the MPs are less of an issue when I start cutting the grass higher since the streams "move." I always seemed to have one or two spots where the grass was just tall enough in the right place to block enough of the sprayers to make a really wet area and a matching section that didn't get enough.

MP rotators are only $5.45 online at sprinkler warehouse

MP's have a precipitation rate of about .8 inches per hour. Regular sprays have a precipitation rate of around 2 inches per hour. You are breaking rule #1 of irrigation by mixing a rotor with a spray on the same zone. Pick one or the other on the zone. I'd go back to regular spray nozzles until you have enough MP's to switch the whole zone.

I was going to say just take apart your valve for that particular zone at the control box and clean it. They will over time clog up with dirt/sand and will not shut the water off to the zone all the way. All it takes is a little water to seep through the valve to seep through the sprinkler. That was my issue when I had a couple sprinklers that seemed to not shut off all the way and were constantly leaking water.

Czechs Out 03 said:

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MP's have a precipitation rate of about .8 inches per hour. Regular sprays have a precipitation rate of around 2 inches per hour. You are breaking rule #1 of irrigation by mixing a rotor with a spray on the same zone. Pick one or the other on the zone. I'd go back to regular spray nozzles until you have enough MP's to switch the whole zone.

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What if he has 2.5x as many heads per/Sq ft?

I switched to the MP for the spray heads in the grass only because those areas were getting too much water when I ran that zone long enough for the plant/flowers in the beds. At first I didn't increase the runtime after switching, and the grass areas never seemed to get enough water. I did increase run time somewhat now, but not double. There is also a bit of overlap by the large rotors (different zone) that cover the other 80% of the lawn. So far so good but I'm always tinkering depending on the time of year, etc.