This blog post gives an overview of the sprinkler nozzels available on the market, also known as spray nozzles or sprayers. Sprayers release the water like a shower head in a torrent in all directions to be sprinkled. Unlike the geared sprinklers, which rotate and only eject the water in a specific direction in a concentrated jet. These are covered in a separate blog post on rotating sprinkler performance data.

Spray nozzles are used for irrigating rather small areas and release a relatively large amount of water to the irrigated area in a short time, so they have a high precipitation rate. Accordingly, they must not be mixed in a sector with geared sprinklers, which have a significantly lower precipitation rate, and they can only irrigate a smaller area in a sector than would be the case with geared sprinklers. An exception here are the rotating nozzle sprinklers, which are a cross between spray sprinklers and rotating sprinklers. These do not emit the water in torrents, but rather in fine jets due to their rotating nozzle and therefore also have a significantly lower precipitation rate than standard sprayers.

Spray sprinklers use less water pressure than geared sprinklers. They are best used for irrigating small areas up to a maximum length of 13 to 16 feet with a floor plan with many curves or corners. The targeted sprinkling of individual trees or bushes that have a very high water requirement is also a possible using scenario.

Separation of nozzle and body

Unlike geared sprinklers, spray sprinklers have a separate nozzle and body. So you don’t buy the complete spray sprinkler, but a spray nozzle and a body and then combine these two to form the sprinkler. This has the advantage that, depending on the application scenario, you can combine a specific nozzle with a specific body that is best suited for the scenario. It is also practical to use, since if a nozzle is defective or if you are experimenting with different nozzle types or sizes, you only have to unscrew the nozzle from the body and screw in a new one instead of digging out the entire sprinkler and installing the new one.

The nozzle of the spray sprinkler differs significantly from the nozzle on the geared sprinkler: With geared sprinklers, most sprinklers come with entire nozzle sets, sometimes with up to 8 or more different nozzles. These are small nozzles measuring maybe 0.5 x 0.5 inches, of which you insert the desired one into the sprinkler riser. The nozzles of the nozzle sprinkler, on the other hand, are much larger and combined with a filter. You screw it on top of the riser of the body. You don’t buy a set of nozzles here either, but rather the exact nozzle you want, i.e. the type of nozzle you want with the desired throw range. The nozzle also makes up a larger part of the total sprinkler price for spray sprinklers compared to geared sprinklers. This is especially true for rotating nozzle sprinklers, where the nozzle, filter and rotating mechanism make up the actual sprinkler and the body accounts for the smaller part of the cost.

In the following, I will present the nozzles available on the market across all brands, together with their specific performance data. The matching bodies can be found in a separate blog post.

As a beginner, you can easily be overwhelmed when it comes to the nozzles, as there are a large number of different nozzles on offer, the difference between which is not immediately apparent at first glance and which also have different designations depending on the manufacturer.

Fixed arc nozzles

These nozzles spray a fixed part of a circle, 90 degrees, 180 degrees or 360 degrees, depending on the nozzle selected. A sector deviating from this cannot be irrigated. The advantage is that they reliably irrigate the predefined sector, you don’t have to set it up and it can’t be adjusted. In addition, the precipitation rates of the different sector sizes are coordinated within the same nozzle size, so that a uniform precipitation rate (MPR) can be achieved if only one nozzle size is used within an irrigation sector.

Variable arc nozzles

With these nozzles, the sector to be irrigated can be variably adjusted. You don’t need a nozzle that is tailored to the section of a circle, but you can flexibly define the section to be sprinkled on the nozzle, which gives you greater flexibility.

MPR nozzles

The precipitation rates of these nozzles are matched to one another, so that you always have the same precipitation rate (MPR) even when using different nozzle sizes. The Rain Bird and Toro nozzles work like the typical spray nozzles, so they have a comparatively high precipitation rate. The MPR nozzles are fixed sector nozzles. Depending on the sector size to be irrigated, you have to use the desired sector model, e.g. full circle, semicircle or quadrant. At Rain Bird, the MPR nozzles also have the same precipitation rate across sectors. At Toro, the same precipitation rate only applies to the different nozzle sizes with the same radius – and again only approximately.

Rotating nozzles (rotating nozzle sprinklers)

This is actually a separate sprinkler category that no longer has much in common with the original nozzler sprinkler (sprayer), but is more of a cross between a sprayer and a geared sprinkler. The nozzle head includes a rotation mechanism that ensures that the water is not released in a gush, but divided into jets and that the jets are released at different points parallel to the rotation of the nozzle head. As a result, the precipitation rate is significantly lower than with a conventional sprayer. With the amount of water available, you can irrigate a much larger area at the same time. In return, however, it has to be watered longer than with conventional nozzles.

The radius of the rotating nozzle sprinklers is also greater than that of conventional nozzle sprinklers and reaches up to 35 feet. All three rotating nozzle sprinklers presented automatically also provide MPR, i.e. they are also MPR nozzles at the same time. The nozzles are a cross between nozzles with a fixed arc and nozzles with a variable arc: Different nozzles are required to cover all sector sizes, these can be adjusted within a specified range, e.g. 90 to 210 degrees or 210 to 270 degrees. Only the nozzle to cover a full circle (360 degrees) is not adjustable. The Hunter MP Rotator is my top pick for a sprinkler.

Bubblers

Deliver water directly to the root area of the plant. This comes out with minimal pressure and hardly any throw distance directly at the nozzle or in the immediate vicinity of the nozzle and is released at close range to the ground surface. Depending on the model, this can be done either in surges in the form of an umbrella or divided into jets. Bubbler nozzles are used for watering individual trees or shrubs that require more water than the surrounding vegetation, or for watering very small areas.

In addition to the above, there are the following types of nozzles for special tasks:

Strip nozzles

Used for watering narrow, rectangular areas (lawn strips). Three different nozzles are always required to water a rectangle (nozzle in the left corner, nozzle in the right corner, nozzle in the middle).

Short radius and stream spray nozzles

Short-radius nozzles are nozzles with a short throw distance that is always the same, regardless of the water pressure, for watering in very small spaces. Stream spray nozzles divide the water jet into individual jets and have a lower precipitation rate compared to conventional spray nozzles.

You can find the right bodies to turn the nozzle into a nozzle sprinkler in a separate blog post.