If you look online, you’re probably going to find a lot of different kinds of sprinklers. It’s difficult to know what you need it can be a little confusing to know where to start.
Some people are into oscillating sprinklers. You’ve probably seen these before where the water fans back and forth and it mimics a rain effect. While these can cover a large area, I’m not the biggest fan of these types. I find they don’t down a lot of water and I find they’re heavily affected by the wind.
Personally, I love an impact/impulse sprinklers. They’re simple to use, they can put down a lot of water fast and they’re able to put it out to a good distance. They’re really efficient too.
I love the melodic click-click-click sound you get. It’s the sound of summer!
Impact sprinklers look pretty complicated but they’re actually pretty simple. You can hook your garden hose up to it and the water flows up into the sprinkler head. The head is designed so that it spins. They have small tabs that you can move around so that you can water certain areas of your yard and leave others dry.
My favorite one is this Orbit 56186N Brass Impact Sprinkler (click to check the price on Amazon). There’s a very short amount of space from where the water enters the sprinkler to where it’s put out which means it very efficient. This sprinkler keeps the water pretty low to the ground so if its windy, you’re not going to get water spraying all over the place away from the areas you want to cover. It also has metal construction which is great too.
A lot of the sprinklers you’ll find are made of plastic and these don’t tend to last as long as metal ones. I’ve found this one to be sturdy and robust. The wheels are hard plastic and they don’t feel cheap at all. I have fairly low pressure and the sprinkler works fine for my yard which is on the smaller side. Higher pressure would be better for a large lawn.
Another benefit of using this sprinkler is that you have a low chance of it clogging up like some of the other sprinklers on the market. Perhaps you’re using well water to water your lawn that has some mineral content in it. With some sprinklers, it pretty common for to get build up which blocks the sprinkler.
If you think you’d prefer an all metal step spiked base. Orbit do a zinc impact sprinkler that I’ve found to work well for large areas. You can check that out here. This one can be used as a single sprinkler or connected in a series. If you have softer soil, the spike should be plenty durable.
