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June / July Newsletter

MP Rotator - The Right Irrigation Lawn Nozzle to Save Water and Money

Irrigation technologies in the past few years have really taken off. The manufacturers have had to really sit down and rethink the whole process of how to apply water to our landscapes. Plato wrote, “Necessity who is the mother of invention.”

The MP Rotator was introduced a couple of years ago without much fanfare. It was a great idea but lacked the backing of a major player in the irrigation industry. Hunter Irrigation Technologies bought the patent and launched a major campaign to bring this amazing little sprinkler head to the forefront of water saving technologies.

Lets step back a little and talk about the different types of sprinkler heads commonly used today:

1. Spray heads: We have all seen them and probably use them at the moment. They are very easy to install and adjust. They work great for smaller lawns, as well as curved lawns due to their ease of adjustment. They are also very inexpensive. The negative is that spray heads apply too much water too fast and tend to mist a lot, causing them to be less efficient.
2. Impact heads: As the name implies, an arm impacts the stream of water coming from the head. Typically impacts have a very far throw and are used in very large irrigation areas such as sports turfs and other large fields. Negatives include the large size of head and body, misting when dialed down and very high precipitation rate.
3. Rotators: Fairly common in medium to larger lawns and are somewhat efficient when nozzled correctly. Adjustability is also very good but when dialed down, the throw of the stream of water will cause misting.

The terms used in the above such as misting and nozzle are very important. Nozzles adjust the amount of water and the throw of water from the head. Typically you want to use matched nozzles for better efficiency. Misting is very fine particles of water that you can see floating in the air. This mist is water being wasted as it does nothing for your lawn.

The MP Rotator is designed to apply a slower rate of water to your lawn giving your lawn a chance to soak up the water without runoff. They are also very adjustable with many nozzle choices that have matched precipitation rates making the whole system very efficient. With MP Rotators, you water longer but use less water than with previous irrigation methods.

We have been using the MP Rotators for the past six months with great results. MP Rotators will also fit Rainbird sprinkler bodies making upgrades quick and easy. We do however recommend a 6" body with these heads as it does help with the throw. I replaced our 4” popup bodies with 6” and the MP Rotators with excellent results.

If you are interested in these sprinkler heads give Sweetwater a call. Many water districts are offering rebates with the installation of the MP Rotator as well as other irrigation system upgrades.

We are offering a special deal through September on all water saving irrigation parts, as well as a special savings for previous clients where we installed spray bodies to help you upgrade your irrigation system.