Best online ordering for Rainbird

I just went through an irrigation system install myself. If you haven't already tried - design your system over on Orbit's website it will give you a good idea of how much materials you need. It quoted me for 400' of 3/4", I bought 500 just to be safe and ended up using most of it. I went the DIY route as the quotes I was getting were more than I wanted to pay, all in all it cost me about $800 for 6 zones and 25 heads. I totally get why I was being quoted $3k+ tho, it's one heck of a job. If you have 800' of trenches to dig for the 3/4" I'd guess you have another 500-600' for the 1/2" - RENT A TRENCHER.
Otherwise try Irrigation Direct:
https://www.irrigationdirect.ca
I got my stuff from Home Depot because I was able to get them to give me 20% off on the total making it much cheaper than anywhere else. I noticed the pipes are more expensive online because of shipping. Home Depot sells 100' of Blu Lock for $40, with the 20% off it came down to $32, I couldnt find a better price. Good luck!

FrozenFinger wrote: ↑ I just went through an irrigation system install myself. If you haven't already tried - design your system over on Orbit's website it will give you a good idea of how much materials you need. It quoted me for 400' of 3/4", I bought 500 just to be safe and ended up using most of it. I went the DIY route as the quotes I was getting were more than I wanted to pay, all in all it cost me about $800 for 6 zones and 25 heads. I totally get why I was being quoted $3k+ tho, it's one heck of a job. If you have 800' of trenches to dig for the 3/4" I'd guess you have another 500-600' for the 1/2" - RENT A TRENCHER.
Otherwise try Irrigation Direct:
https://www.irrigationdirect.ca
I got my stuff from Home Depot because I was able to get them to give me 20% off on the total making it much cheaper than anywhere else. I noticed the pipes are more expensive online because of shipping. Home Depot sells 100' of Blu Lock for $40, with the 20% off it came down to $32, I couldnt find a better price. Good luck!

The local place quoted me for 46 spray heads and the 800’ of 3/4” pipe. The drip portion of the system was $400, the two controllers (an Irritrol 12 zone controller and Rainbird wireless rain sensor) were another $400. Total price just for materials was $3000. All this on a 8500 sq ft lot...

I priced out some stuff on Amazon.com, and the spray bodies and heads were about 30% cheaper, even after a brutal exchange rate. Anything I get at HD, I can save 15% I think from the last card offer I got, so that can help with the bulky stuff.

I was thinking around $1k... The $3k quote was a bit of a shock. But I didn’t anticipate that many heads...

C

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ The local place quoted me for 46 spray heads and the 800’ of 3/4” pipe. The drip portion of the system was $400, the two controllers (an Irritrol 12 zone controller and Rainbird wireless rain sensor) were another $400. Total price just for materials was $3000. All this on a 8500 sq ft lot...

I priced out some stuff on Amazon.com, and the spray bodies and heads were about 30% cheaper, even after a brutal exchange rate. Anything I get at HD, I can save 15% I think from the last card offer I got, so that can help with the bulky stuff.

I was thinking around $1k... The $3k quote was a bit of a shock. But I didn’t anticipate that many heads...

C

Irrigationdirect?

$3k for materials alone seems excessive.
https://www.irrigationdepot.ca/boutique ... /home.html
Try those guys too. I have two 1000 sqft sections of my lawn that I cover with 4 rotary heads each. It really depends on your lot but if it's all straight open spaces you shouldn't need that many heads. Design the system yourself and then see what it gives in terms of materials then find the cheapest way to buy it. I ended up going with Orbit just because it's what Home Depot sells. I used Blu Lock pipe and push fittings which are more expensive than poly and barb and still it cost me around $800 for 4000sqft of lawn coverage +1 drip zone. Good luck!

http://www.design.orbitonline.com

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ The local place quoted me for 46 spray heads and the 800’ of 3/4” pipe. The drip portion of the system was $400, the two controllers (an Irritrol 12 zone controller and Rainbird wireless rain sensor) were another $400. Total price just for materials was $3000. All this on a 8500 sq ft lot...

I priced out some stuff on Amazon.com, and the spray bodies and heads were about 30% cheaper, even after a brutal exchange rate. Anything I get at HD, I can save 15% I think from the last card offer I got, so that can help with the bulky stuff.

I was thinking around $1k... The $3k quote was a bit of a shock. But I didn’t anticipate that many heads...

C

Are you stuck on using rainbird? I prefer Toro Irrigation parts. I used them for my home irrigation and I mostly use them for larger Golf irrigation that I deal with.

Try going to Oak Creek Golf and Turf in Edmonton. They are a Toro dealer. Buying that much product, they should give you trade pricing which is 40-60% off

Have you also done a flow and pressure test on your city water supply? If you have higher pressure, you can probably go to a larger style sprinkler that gives you more coverage, so less heads needed

I am located in Edmonton as well and am looking for a DIY irrigation system. Just starting to research and, as such, am not tied to any one brand. If I was a bit further along in the process, I would suggest a group buy if we could both benefit. Please keep us/me posted with where you end up!

So here's my quick rundown on some of my big-ticket items...

(10) Rainbird 100-DV 1" DPT Valves: $39 from local, $25.75 at Irrigation Depot
(2) "Jumbo" valve box: $127 locally, $65 at Irrigation Direct
(46) 1804-SAM Body Only: $10.15 locally, $7.99 at Irrigation Direct, or $4.13 at Amazon.com (including tax and shipping)
(46) VAN Nozzles: $2.99 locally, $1.85 at Irrigation Depot
(800) 3/4" 100 psi pipe: $0.44 locally, 0.41 Irrigation Depot (shipping included)

Basically, I can cut my prices by about 30% on a number of the larger line items by doing some online shopping.

@schade, haven't checked out Oak Creek yet. I'm not tied to any particular brand, but didn't really want to go "cheap" and have to re-do a bunch of it in a couple of years. I guess the real labor is in the running of lines, but still... I did a pressure test (~62 psi) and flow test (8 gpm, but that's through the garden hose faucet, instead of the 1" line I had run last year). My yard is quite broken up with trees, so I don't think the larger spray heads will work. I actually picked up a pack of the 42SA+ rotors last year, but realized that was probably a mistake. Need to sell those off...

So, things I still need to figure out... Thoughts appreciated

1) Are the valves they quoted me the best ones for what I'm doing? That's their "premium" valve, without the "flow control". Don't know what that means yet...
2) IrrigationDirect had the 1804-SAMPRS for $8.99, instead of the 1804-SAM. The SAM is the "seal-a-matic" head, which means it has a checkvalve built in, which I'm not sure I need for my yard (very flat). The SAMPRS has that plus a 30psi pressure regulator. Good idea?
3) VAN vs. HEVAN (High Efficiency Variable Arc Nozzle)... Same price, HEVAN is newer, is it better?
4) Swing arms... Buy for $3.20 each, or roll my own?

Thanks, all!

I'm thinking I'll run some low-voltage lighting wire at the same time, even if I don't put in the lights yet. I know what areas I'll want to light up, if nothing else, and the trenches for the irrigation pipe will go to those areas.

My other concern/thought is that I need to run some lines under paving stone walkways. 3 times, I think... I'm leery about using something like the "walkway tunnel kit" (https://www.irrigationdepot.ca/boutique ... l-kit.html) to punch the holes through, as I don't any significant voids under the paving stones. Right now the paths are nice and flat, and I don't want a few bricks to drop down. I've seen a couple of YouTube methods, but if someone has any brilliant methods, I'm all ears still.

C

BTW... This is my lot plan. Based on the grid, each grid is 2' x 2'.

C

That doesn't look fun..!

oilerfan89 wrote: ↑ That doesn't look fun..!

Why not?

What’s not fun is spending hours dragging the hose around a couple nights a week.

C

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ Why not?

What’s not fun is spending hours dragging the hose around a couple nights a week.

C

That's true. I just spent an hour digging out a broken head and replacing it, I think I invented new swears. I envy you if you can do this sort of major job with ease.

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ BTW... This is my lot plan. Based on the grid, each grid is 2' x 2'.

C

It looks like you are running at max spacing for the heads/nozzles. I'd tighten up your spacing a little just incase you have any wind or pressure loss at full flow. Or switch to a different head that would give you more distance. A Rotor style head would achieve that. The heads cost more, but you may be able to run fewer total heads to make up for it. You can get a fairly flat arc with the Rotor heads to avoid low hanging trees, or do a mix of rotor and spray heads

Something like the Rainbird 3500/5000 series or Toro T5/T7

schade wrote: ↑ It looks like you are running at max spacing for the heads/nozzles. I'd tighten up your spacing a little just incase you have any wind or pressure loss at full flow. Or switch to a different head that would give you more distance. A Rotor style head would achieve that. The heads cost more, but you may be able to run fewer total heads to make up for it. You can get a fairly flat arc with the Rotor heads to avoid low hanging trees, or do a mix of rotor and spray heads

Something like the Rainbird 3500/5000 series or Toro T5/T7

So if the spray head is rated at 15', use 13 or 14 feet instead?

I actually have 8 of the 42SA+ rotor heads... Whoops.

I could possibly do the front yard with 4 on each side, set up in the corners to do 90 degree arcs? The trees are fairly fully above head height, and low enough that I have to duck when I mow underneath them. I could take pics if that would help. I guess since I have the rotor heads already, I could grab a pack of nozzles for them, and see how they go, right?

Or they could go in the back... When I ran my drawing through the Orbit system, it wanted to use a number of rotor heads instead of spray heads everywhere...

Do the rotor heads have enough power to damage tree bark, if they're set up too close? I think that was my concern with using them.

C

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ So if the spray head is rated at 15', use 13 or 14 feet instead?

I actually have 8 of the 42SA+ rotor heads... Whoops.

I could possibly do the front yard with 4 on each side, set up in the corners to do 90 degree arcs? The trees are fairly fully above head height, and low enough that I have to duck when I mow underneath them. I could take pics if that would help. I guess since I have the rotor heads already, I could grab a pack of nozzles for them, and see how they go, right?

Or they could go in the back... When I ran my drawing through the Orbit system, it wanted to use a number of rotor heads instead of spray heads everywhere...

Do the rotor heads have enough power to damage tree bark, if they're set up too close? I think that was my concern with using them.

C

Ya I wouldn't max out the nozzle size and spacing. Go a nozzle or 2 less than max and keep the spacing based on that nozzle, or 6" to a ft less. then you can always replace the nozzle to make it throw further or adjust the arc of the spray. The lower the arc, the less the wind will impact it.
The spray on the rotor sprinklers isn't strong enough to hurt a tree, unless maybe you had the head a foot or 2 from the tree and had the nozzle set at max. I'd run about the mid size nozzle and adjust the spray arc so it's not going to high. You should be able to keep it away from any lower hanging trees. Depending on how mature your trees are, you may need to keep the heads away from them as digging through the roots could be tough.

You can do a test with the sprinklers by getting this spike impact sprinklers. Spin the nozzle out of the top and put a short 3/4" nipple in it, then thread your sprinkler head on. Attach it to the hose and stick it in the ground and see how the heads work. Adjust the spray pattern to get an idea on what coverage will be like

schade wrote: ↑ Ya I wouldn't max out the nozzle size and spacing. Go a nozzle or 2 less than max and keep the spacing based on that nozzle, or 6" to a ft less. then you can always replace the nozzle to make it throw further or adjust the arc of the spray. The lower the arc, the less the wind will impact it.
The spray on the rotor sprinklers isn't strong enough to hurt a tree, unless maybe you had the head a foot or 2 from the tree and had the nozzle set at max. I'd run about the mid size nozzle and adjust the spray arc so it's not going to high. You should be able to keep it away from any lower hanging trees. Depending on how mature your trees are, you may need to keep the heads away from them as digging through the roots could be tough.

You can do a test with the sprinklers by getting this spike impact sprinklers. Spin the nozzle out of the top and put a short 3/4" nipple in it, then thread your sprinkler head on. Attach it to the hose and stick it in the ground and see how the heads work. Adjust the spray pattern to get an idea on what coverage will be like

This is some pics of the yard in question... I've also attached a pic of my version of the mobile head holder for testing purposes. Works pretty well.

C