Replacing underground lawn rotor sprinkler

[Donald]

I need to replace a few rotor heads in my lawn. Can I just put my fingers around the head and unscrew it without worrying about holding the pipe I am unscrewing it from?

I assume no Teflon tape needed?

Just avoid getting any dirt into the male pipe in the ground?

Anything else to worry about?

How about if it's too tight for my fingers/hand? No fitting for a wrench.

 

[KGMtech]

Last week I watched the "pro" do replacements of 5 spray heads on the lawn system at my part-time work, they were able to do all removal and replacement by using their hands - no tools and no Teflon tape. The only tools they used were a small width spade shovel to get access to the pieces and a screwdriver to set the spray directions and elevations.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I was a “pro” for sports fields for about 8 years. Rule 1, don’t be afraid to dig. Give yourself room to work without getting dirt into the pipe or threads. Makes life so much easier. Teflon tape should be used but often isn’t. Hand tight should be fine. If it’s binding, probably have dirt in the threads and will make it miserable to loosen as well. The pipe is fine and no need to worry about twisting. You can use channel locks to snug it up for final fine tuning arc adjustments. Do your nozzle and close as possible arc adjustments before installing into the ground.

 

[928]

Depends on if the sprinkler is fed from the side or the bottom- side =digging

 

[ecotourist]

I watched our guy replace a number of sprinkler heads. He dug around them and did a "clean" replacement. You don't want dirt in your new sprinkler head. No Teflon tape used.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Dug out fifteen heads last summer and installed longer risers since heads were so far below soil level that grass was beginning to interfere with the pattern. PITA trying to get someone to come out and work on them. Took me three years to get someone to install and additional station.

 

[Duffyjr]

A large pair of channel locks might come in handy, I have a pair for adjusting the arc so I don't have to remove any dirt/grass.

If you have sandy soil you can ruin a sprinkler head pretty quick.

 

[tbm5690]

Use a small trowel to dig around it by about 6" or so, and keep the grass "ring" intact and it won't die when you put it back over the fresh dirt, if that makes sense. Dig down an inch or so below the fitting to keep the pipe clean. Worst case if dirt gets in, take the rotor out of the body after install and run the zone for a few seconds to flush it out. Adjusting arc and radius are easy to do at any time IMO, but that could depend on the head. I did about 30 rotors in my yard 2 years ago...not that bad just takes a little time.

 

[Donald]

Use a small trowel to dig around it by about 6" or so, and keep the grass "ring" intact and it won't die when you put it back over the fresh dirt, if that makes sense. Dig down an inch or so below the fitting to keep the pipe clean. Worst case if dirt gets in, take the rotor out of the body after install and run the zone for a few seconds to flush it out. Adjusting arc and radius are easy to do at any time IMO, but that could depend on the head. I did about 30 rotors in my yard 2 years ago...not that bad just takes a little time.

When you were done did you use the tuna can method to see if the inches/hour water within the zone was pretty even?

 

[tbm5690]

When you were done did you use the tuna can method to see if the inches/hour water within the zone was pretty even?

I haven't done catch cans yet but calculated based on flow rate and square footage for each zone, accounting for system PSI measured for each zone.

 

[tbm5690]

Since I'm OCD and unashamed...here is how I keep track of my system

 

[Donald]

I was hoping I could just put my fingers around a rotor, unscrew it and screw in a new one without any digging. But does not sound like it.