I’m in the process of switching my turf circuits to Hunter MP Rotator heads. (See http://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/nozzles/mp-rotator). I’ve selected “rotary nozzle” as the nozzle type. Is this the best choice?
Yep, that’s the right one.
Thanks Chris!
I picked up some of the MP2000 rotator heads also and looked at the hunter site for precip rates
http://www.hunterindustries.com/node/501
My psi is around 28 give or take, not that it matters much with these. I am watering grass not trying to fly a rocket.
The precip rates are about half of the suggested .7 in the generic nozzle setup. I assume I should create a custom nozzle for these heads and set them to about .4 in this zone?
Without doing a catch cup test it’s hard to tell exactly what to set set it at, unless you’ve used their documentation factoring in psi, etc.
You could create a custom nozzle with. 4in precipitation and see what run times we are generating for you.
. 4in does seem like the lower end, but maybe they are super efficient…? My worry is if it wasn’t truly. 4in you might have some inflated run times.
I will do a meter test to see if the numbers align. Visually though the don’t appear to put out a heck of a lot of moisture.
Question for you when calculating the square footage / precip rate. One of the heads (180 degree) overlaps with another zone. Should you count that overlapping square footage for this zone? Doing so will make that area double counted.
With the situation like you describe, a catch cup test is a good way to measure “distribution uniformity”, which deals with what you are seeing in overlap. This tool will take multiple inputs for measuring (cups) and come up with a distribution uniformity number. This is used for setting the attribute on Zone called “Efficiency” (or distribution uniformity)
Zone --> Advanced --> “Efficiency”.
Here is the online calculator:
If you don’t have time for that type of test might just want to take a blend of both values.
Please, run a catch cup test! The results surprised me.
I installed and use Hunter MP Rotator (1000 series) heads. Hunter lists them (I think) as .39"/hr. I JUST ran a catch cup test (8 cups for a ~500 sq ft area) and came up with .75"/hr.
There are two things that can account for that (in my case). 1) My sprinkler layout may have more overlap than Hunter recommends. 2) The pressure in my system is WAY too high… around 80-90 PSI. Hunter recommends a max of 40 PSI for the MP Rotator 1000 and 2000 series.
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I’m one step ahead of you. 
I ordered Hunter Accu-Sync pressure regulators for the valves. 
They should be in this week. Then I’ll have to run my catch-cup tests again.
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Very nice 
@grit, would love to hear the outcome of the second catch cup test if you don’t mind sharing them with us.
I just ran a meter test on this zone with the new heads. 5 heads delivered 3.1 GPM
4 heads 20 feet apart with a 360 degree head in the middle. I of the 4 heads covers 180 degrees overlap with another zone.
Rough math @ 400 sqft is 0.75 in/hr
Psi is 28 in zone.
So no idea what this means for the hunter specs. I think the efficiency in this zone is probably closer to 75 or 80 pct.
Assuming this is what your layout looks like using MP2000 nozzle @ 30 PSI, a theoretical DU is just over 80%.
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Hi, I converted a couple of zones to the MP Rotators late last season and very happy with the result. The only caveat is that now my irrigation times are running extremely long (at 0.4 in/hr it takes 2.5 hrs to deposit the 1 in recommended for St. Augustine). At the same time, the flow rate on my system is quite lower than before in terms of GPM.
I wander, if there is a way to setup my Rachio controller to be smart about this and run two (maybe three) zones simultaneously to finish the whole irrigation cycle quicker? It is clear the unit can drive two valves electrically at the same time because it does this to avoid hammering, so this would only be a software issue. Any thoughts, suggestions, API pointers?
@Rodrigo, glad to hear the rotary nozzles are working well for you!
Not at this time, sorry. The controller was designed to only run one zone and one schedule at a time to avoid the common problem with normal irrigation timers in which you can accidentally set up two schedules (programs) to start at the same time, which for most people results in low water pressure and inadequate water coverage.
The only work around at this time would be to double up zones via wiring; you can wire multiple solenoids/valves to the same zone output if you want. Although we recommend 1 solenoid/valve per zone for scheduling purposes, the Gen2 controller will support up to two solenoids/valves per zone, plus a master valve, for a total of three solenoids at any given time.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks for the fast response! And, thanks for letting me know the controller’s capacity for driving up to 3 solenoids.
I’ll consider this workaround, although, up front, hard-wiring things together seems like a downgrade from the independence of multi-zone control. Perhaps you can add this as an advanced feature request? Particularly since it is likely that many systems will be converted to the newer low-flow rate MP rotors due to their efficiency.
Thanks again!
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@Rodrigo, love the idea! I’ll pass this along to our product team, but you should +1 this feature request here 
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Feature Request: Can we set the ‘Ending Time’ for flex schedules? Instead of the start time?
Hi, given these MP rotor zones take an extremely long time to water, and that because of the flex schedules the actual watering time is not predictable (because some zones are skipped sometimes), a great feature would be to be able to program the time the irrigation should be finished instead of the start time.
In my case, I have St. Augustin and I hear is best to water it early in the morning, yet before the sun comes and the wind picks up. So I’d love to be able to set my Flex Schedule to be done by say 8:30 A.M. and then have Rachio figure out when it needs to start (given the current irrigation needs) so that it can be done by that time.
Otherwise, my current setup is to start watering at 4:00AM, and sometimes it only does a couple of hours but other times it goes on until 10 AM.
This should be quite simple to code up and expose to the users.
Thanks!
Hey @Rodrigo-
This is a pretty common feature request that is currently on our radar. Thank you for the feedback, I will relay your +1 to the team!
McKynzee 