How frustrating is it to have to fix your pop-up every time someone drives on your verge?
In this article you will learn an alternative to classic sprinkler installation to prevent your neighbours or guests from snapping your pop-up sprinklers – or even worse, the PVC pipe underneath.
First, let’s have a look at how your sprinklers are usually attached to the underground pipe work.
As you can see on the above photos, the pop-up sprinkler is screwed directly to the underground pvc fitting via a ‘nipple’. When under stress (driven on or kicked) the nipple tends to snap first (best case scenario) but sometimes the PVC pipe or the PVC fitting breaks, which creates a much harder job to fix.
Now let’s look at ways to prevent damages.
Use of ‘funny pipe’ or ‘swing pipe’
In this configuration (see above picture), we offset the pop-up sprinkler by using a piece of flexible pipe (Swing pipe or Funny pipe). This allows the system to have some flexibility and when/if the pop-up sprinkler is driven onto or kicked, the flexible pipe will bend without affecting the PVC pipe or fitting.
Pro tip: You can also use flexible pipe when upgrading a reticulation system. If your pop-up sprinklers are misplaced, it is then easier to relocate them using funny pipe instead of having to cut the main PVC line and run new section of pipe.
Use of poly elbows and risers.
Similarly, we can use a system comprised of 4 elbows + 1 riser. This serves the same purpose as the funny pipe solution. A problem you might find using this technique is that any adjustment of the positioning of the sprinkler is a little more limited and also requires more parts.
I hope that you’ve found lots of value in this article and that you’ll be able to repair any broken pop-up sprinkler that your neighbour, pets or even the lawn mower might damage.
We understand that life can get busy at times and that not everyone wants to spend the weekend fixing up everything in the garden. This is why we offer a professional repairs and maintenance service – our team of highly qualified retic technicians are always just a call away. Click here to get in touch and we’ll get your reticulation sorted.