Sprinkler Nozzles

Nozzles, Spray Heads or Sprinkler Heads

The nozzle or spray head is in fact the sprinkler's part that will define the aspect of the water jet and as well the amount of water that will go through (water flow for example 1.0GPM or 3.0 GPM). The nozzle will determine the elevation, angle, pattern and the distance of the water jet itself. There are many types of spray heads or nozzles for every types of sprinklers from rotors to sprayers and finally micro or drip irrigation. 

 

Pop-Up Spray Head Nozzles (Sprayers)

Sprayers like the Rain Bird 1800 series or the Hunter Pro Spray series have a standard nozzle or spray head adapter with male thread. Most major brands except Toro features the same standard adapter. Irrigation spray heads needs to be fixed to every sprayers to determine the angle, pattern and distance of the water jet. It will also regulate the flow of every heads and pressure of the irrigation zone.  Spray heads are classified by angles and distances from 5' to 15'.

IrrigationLandscapeLights recommends to use the most trusted model of nozzles for decades, the Rain Bird MPR series (matched precipitation rate) because there is a large variety of patterns and because they water softly like an umbrella and are perfect to water grass, plants, gardens and flower beds. Note that every spray head comes equiped with a filter to filter dirt and debris in the water.

For Toro 570z pop-up sprayers, Toro features a unique nozzle head pattern with a female threaded adapter. In consequence, you need to buy special Toro heads with male threaded adapters to fit the sprayer's female socket. There are adapters available to retro fit standard nozzles into Toro sprayers. Once again Toro nozzle heads are available in 5' to 15' distances and have different patterns available for every angles.

 

For angles and patterns that are irregulate, or for those contractors who don't want to keep large inventories of different nozzles, the best solution is the adjustable arc spray heads. You can adjust manually with no tools from 0 to 360 degrees full circles and there is a large variety of distances available from 8' to 15'. Toro versions of the adjustable arc nozzles are also available in different distances categories.

 

Irrigation Rotative Spray Heads Hunter MP Rotator and Rain Bird Rotary Nozzles

Hunter has come up recently with a new technology offering to convert standard spray heads into mini rotors with the simple addition of a rotative nozzle called the Hunter MP Rotator. The MP Rotator is available in different models categorized by ranges of distances and patterns (angles). Rain Bird has also its own version of the mini rotor nozzle with the Rain Bird Rotary Nozzles technology. Both Hunter and Rain Bird mini rotor nozzles retro fit any actual pop-up spray head and it is the best and easiest way to make a sprinkler reach out more distance without having to change the whole sprinkler body itself.

 

Rotor Sprinkler Nozzles

Irrigation rotors normally comes equiped with a complete set of different nozzles to choose the perfect flow for water dispersion, and different elevation angles like low angle nozzles to prevent the effects of the wind on the water jet. Just like other type of sprinkler nozzles, they are absolutely necessary to regulat the pressure on each irrigaiton zones.

To calibrate the flow of each sprinkler, for example, if you use 2.0GPM nozzles on a 180 degrees angle, you should use a 1.0GPM nozzle to cover a 90 degrees angle. Because rotors move during operation to disperse water around, they need to water for a longer time than regular spray heads to give the same quantity of water to the grass and plants (spray heads have fix angles and don't move except when used with special rotary nozzles). Most of manufacturers include + or - 0.5 to 4.0 GPM nozzles and some low angle nozzles as well.

*Sun exposure can also play a role in the choice of the right nozzle for a certain zone or sprinkler.

There are no standards in nozzles shapes and sizes, every brands have its own pattern and it is important to choose the matching nozzle kit for the good sprinkler model.

 

Micro Irrigation Spray Heads and Nozzles, Drip and Low Volume Irrigation

 

For micro and low volume irrigation, nozzles are offered in many models coded with colours to determine the flow and radius. There are many manufacturers, we offer all the products of Antelco, which is the most reputed of all. 

Here are the 4 families of micro nozzles

Blue Nozzles (+ or - 2' radius, 4' diameter, approx 0.2GPM)

Green Nozzles (+ or - 3' radius, 6' diameter, approx 0.3GPM)

Black Nozzles (+ or - 4' radius, 8' diameter, approx 0.35GPM)

Red Nozzles (+ or - 5' radius, 10' diameter, approx 0.45GPM)

All these families are available in 3 different angle patterns, 90 180 and 360 degrees,  here is the PDF document of all Antelco nozzle patterns and more

The most used models by professionals are the blue and the red nozzles.Of course there are some specialty patterns available as you can see in the PDF.