Question
James,

From your past answer you clearly know the irrigation topic and products well.  Can you make a recommendation for a large lawn (7200sqft front yard + 1800sqft back yard both rectangular)sprinkler system? The yards are both flat with no slope. My wife and I know nothing about irrigation and welcome your input.  Can you recommend or have a good spec for spray heads, valves, timers etc?  We need a good place to start and want to be sure that we can ask the contractors we are looking at hiring the right questions (and get the right answers).

Thanks for your help.

Will

Answer
Will,
It sounds like your yard should be an easy one to do. I wish I would get a square flat yard once in a while.

Nevertheless, a lot depends on the water pressure, flow and size of the water service into the house. I am assuming it is at least adequate. Pressure over 55 psi and flow at least 15-20 gallons a minute. Less than that might require a pump.

As far as heads go your going to use rotor head and a lot of them, so you want something good. You don't want a guy telling you that he's got something new that just came out and then you the one who finds out that the new heads (or valves or whatever), have a few bugs in them.

So, I have to recommend the Hunter PGP. It has a track record that goes back 20+ years of being dependable. You get the best selection of nozzles with them and I am not the only sprinkler guy who says that they are the best. Toro has a new rotor out about 2-3 years, Rainbird has a new rotor that's also been out about 2-3 years. Hunter has basically had the same PGP for a very long time. If you have real good water pressure and flow you could step up to the Hunter I-20 which is really only a couple dollars more per head, but you can put bigger nozzles in them and get up to 45+ feet of distance out of them. You could do the same thing with the PGP.

Valves, I used to like the Rainbird DV100 valve the best, but on the last job I did I had problems with them, (weeping) and on one last year I had the same thing. So, I don't like them as much now. The Irri-trol 2400, which used to be the Richdel 2400 back in the old days is the one I am going to be using now. Again it is a design that has been around for 20+ years and proven to be reliable and easy to service.

As far as controllers go, a lot depends on the application. It seems that there are more new bells and whistles on them every year and all that does to the homeowner is confuse them. I like the Hunter Pro-C, it has a nice remote control jack that can be put inside or outside for servicing run-through, etc.. With a yard that size it can get time consuming walking back and forth to the clock and with the remote it's like watching tv and switching channels. The actual remote unit is reasonably priced and is something the company that puts the system in should have. If you want you could buy your own also, they run 375 for the best one and about 250 for the one with less range. The best has a range of about a mile.
The one thing that you might ask the contractor is what kind of connections does he use between the pipe and the heads. I refuse to use saddles myself, I use only poly X 1/2" tees. Saddles are junk. All saddles except brass one are junk. They are easier to put in, but are there are going to be some leaking ones.

I've gotten a little long winded here, so if you have any more questions let me know,  Jim