[Topspinmo]

Ok if anybody that has skills and interested in replacing irrigation popups with sprinklers/drippers I have gathered hardware you will need. If you have rock yard and plants/bushes you put sprinklers/dripper or two right under the plan/bushes. This doesn’t water all rocks that don’t need water and will help little with weed control. See pictures 1 and 2. Sprinklers / Drippers use way less water than popup. If you do topic search I measured the difference.


In most or my front yard it has 1/2 thin wall tubing no popups which makes it easier to install drippers rather than popup sprayers. See picture 3 for parts you need.

Picture 4 is itemized list of parts I gather few years ago to add drippers and replace some popups. Give idea what need and lowball cost, I’m sure prices have up?

The benifits are controlled watering the plants/bushes and not rocks in all directions that don’t need water and water usage’s savings.

I found old post titled “popup replacement where I measured the difference in water usage between popups and dripper/spray emitters.

“ figured how Flow rate per minute between dripper/sprinklers vs. Popups at 180 degrees spray pattern. Difference is: Drippers sprinklers flow 40.5 ounces of water per minute or 1.3 quarts. Popup spray nozzles flow 192 ounces Per minute or 1.5 gallons per min. So big difference plus the popups just don't water the plant it waters all around the plants and yard in spray pattern 180 degrees which water more of the rocks that the plant. FYI if interested. now I'm actually watering the plant and not the rocks with less water and minutes run time. And yes, I verified the math by running each in bucket and measuring the amount of water each produced”

[Topspinmo]

Bump, mainly for court yard villas. I see some has bricked in there front yard and left Little Rock area near the front of house, with bush or two or plant. But still have the extended popups spraying 90 degrees watering the bricked in front yard and water running down street. This would be prefect to add emitters to just water the plant and not all bricks and street. This also reduces water usages. Which some of us care about? Something for some to think about?

[retiredguy123]

When I replaced my grass with rocks and plants, the landscaper replaced all of my popup sprinklers with "micro-irrigation" sprayers. For some mature plants, you may not need to water them at all. Currently, I am only using one zone on my irrigation system, and I may eventually decide to completely eliminate all irrigation. I would also point out that, if you have only micro-irrigation on your yard, you may be exempt from the current one day per week watering restriction. Read the fine print.

Anyone having a large landscaping project done should make sure that the landscaper considers a redesign of your irrigation system. I have noticed that some landscapers will totally ignore the irrigation system.

[Topspinmo]

I’ve shut off and eliminated most my popups, using the sprinkler/emitters at plant which reduces water usage by bunch and I don’t spray water all over rocks watering weeds and street, Verily drop reaches street. It’s very easy to replace pop up with rain bird 6 port manifold. Now you got 6 separate lines to run to plants or can use 8 port manifold with cutoffs on each port.

[GaryBrod]

I replaced all my pop up emitters for my plants with drip emitters and it has been a great decision. I have 70 plants/bushes and used 9 manifolds with 8 ports each. It was quite a bit more work than I had estimated, but worth all of it. Not cheap either, I spent a bit over $600.

[Wilharm]

Who can you hire to change the system?

[retiredguy123]

I have 17 plants that have all recovered from the freeze. I have no grass. I am still handwatering some of them, but, in a few months, I intend to turn off my irrigation system totally, and see what happens.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I have 17 plants that have all recovered from the freeze. I have no grass. I am still handwatering some of them, but, in a few months, I intend to turn off my irrigation system totally, and see what happens.

I only run mine manually when it’s extremely dry.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Wilharm

Who can you hire to change the system?

I’m sure any irrigation contractor (iMO charge would be higher?) or handyman can do it, But handyman may require you may to supply the parts and he paid for labor? So you would have to determine how many, what parts to eliminate popup and measure how much tubing would be required, 100 foot roll usually enough? Just make sure you get rubber hose. IMO the harder plastic breaks down in sun in few years unless you bury it under rocks.


As far as work involved digging up popup (which usually 4 to 6 inches deep) and replacing with extension pipe so can screw mult-port connectors on most of harder work. Then all have to measure and run tubing to where want emitters/sprayers. If ran open on ground in sunlight will deteriorate them faster, it’s best to bury them under rocks?