How to: Plan & Install a Popup Sprinkler System

Pop up sprinklers are an incredibly popular solution for controlled range watering of lawns of all sizes. By incorporating an automatic irrigation controller, your in control of start and finish times, so as not to waste any resource!

Posted on: May 27, 2021

How do pop-up sprinklers work?

All the pipes and sprinkler heads are buried beneath the turf surface, completely hidden away keeping your lawn looking neat and tidy. When the system is turned on, the pop-up sprinklers rise from beneath the ground and then retract back down when the system is turned off, usually by an automatic timer.

What are the required components?

What particular sprinklers do we recommend?

For a larger lawn (greater than 10m x 10m) we recommend the Hunter PGJ, PGP, I-20 and I-25 sprinklers. They come complete with a range of nozzles in a rack that spray from 5 metres distance with a 0-360 degree adjustable arc coverage.

For a smaller lawn (less than 10m x 10m) we recommend the Hunter Pro Spray Popups matched with the MP Rotator Nozzles. There is a large range of rotator nozzles that can spray up to 10.7 m radius and various adjustable and no adjustable arcs.

Before you get started there are a couple of things you need to do:

1. Measure your water flow rate from the water source you will be using. You can hire our flow and pressure tester for you to measure your flow rate at pressure if you're not sure how.

2. Draw a plan of the area you want to water, to map out where your pop ups will be placed.

For more information on flow rate and drawing plans please click here.

Too overwhelming? Let us do the hard work for you. Find out more here.

Figure I.1 - Efficient Installation

When selecting nozzles, "Head to Head" coverage of sprinklers is important, they should be installed so that one sprinkler sprays onto the adjacent sprinkler.

Please see the drawing to the left which shows a 10m x 5m lawn area with 6 sprinkler heads.

It is better to spray from the edge of the lawn inwards to eliminate spraying hard surfaces. If the area is wider than the radius of the sprinklers used, then more sprinklers should be placed in the middle of the lawn.

Swing Arms - also knows as articulated risers, are a great component to help adjust the height of your sprinkler body and get into corners without the extra digging.

Pipe - You will need to dig a trench around your lawn area to lay the low density pipe that will be connected to your main water source. The pipe size we recommend for domestic lawns is 19 mm (3/4") Low Density Poly Pipe.

Connection - Your sprinklers will connect to the main line, via a swing arm, with low density fittings. A LDPE to Female Threaded Tee will connect your mainline to the swing arm, then swing arm will connect directly into your popup sprinkler. The size of this tee required will depend on both the size of the poly pipe you're using, and the thread size of the popup sprinkler body. Once installed, you can adjust and tune the nozzles to make sure they are spraying in the right direction and to the correct distance.

Smart Control - We recommend installing an automatic irrigation controller that connects to a local weather station and automatically adjusts to the local weather conditions (see "Installing an Irrigation Controller") or tap timer with a rain sensor that will turn your system off when it is raining. There are different models that can be controlled online using wifi connection, or within range using bluetooth and an app on your smart phone.

For more information regarding components required and setting up a Popup Lawn Sprinkler system, contact us here, or send us a mud map using the form here and we will put together a design and quotation for the full system required.