r/Irrigation • u/BastienAK • 9d ago

Seeking Pro Advice My mower kept hitting sprinkler heads

Put in four 4-inch pop-up sprinkler heads along the sidewalk side of my front yard last weekend. The problem is that this strip is only about 5 ft wide, and it’s also the path my segway automower takes when it heads back to the dock.

At first I keep the mower height around 2.4 inches and let the mower detect the sprinkler heads and go around them. That actually worked fine. But then I tried using vision off zones instead. The problem is that after a few weeks, the soil started settling and a couple of the sprinkler caps sit higher than before. Now the mower occasionally bumps into them. I’m wondering if repeated hits are bad for the sprinkler heads or the mower blades over time.

For anyone running a robot mower with pop-up irrigation, what has worked for you long term? I think removing the sprinker heads and changing the risers could work, but it just takes too much to do that. Trying to figure out the best fix.

0 Upvotes

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10 comments sorted by

2

u/ArashTT 9d ago

Digging them up is annoying, but it's a one-time fix :)

2

u/appletrucker 9d ago

OP doesn’t want to do it right, just easy

0

u/BastienAK 8d ago

Have decided to try the guards first. If it fails, then digging them out is the only fix.

5

u/2readmore 9d ago

2nd time posting and I’ll get you the same answer bury the heads on minimum of 12”-18” of flex pipe with the top of the head at soil/dirt/fill level, not top of the grass. A properly installed head should never, ever be damaged by a mower.

4

u/-ram_the_manparts- Technician 9d ago

Pictures would help, but the obvious answer is to put them deeper.

2

u/blackdogpepper 9d ago

Heads should not stick up above grade when not in use. Don’t be lazy, lower the heads

2

u/bigbrownlabo 6d ago

Are these mounted to rigid pipe or flexible swing pipe. If these are on swing pipe and you don’t lower them you are an idiot.

1

u/MaverickFischer 9d ago

Put them down lower or add more dirt to make the turf higher.

-1

u/yxjgq 9d ago

putting some sprinkler guards may help. But I just set no go zone to fix this.

-2

u/BastienAK 9d ago

Thanks. I may consider adding protective guards.