Hunter PGP Rotary Sprinkler Head Nozzle Problems

[who4ever]

I have around 20 Hunter PGP rotary sprinkler heads on my property. The system is 12 years old. Many of them have puddling around the heads. When I look closely it seems that the puddling is due to the nozzles not shooting a nice jet out of the sprinkler or due to water spraying out from the perimeter of the nozzles. I was wondering if nozzles wear out in time and need to be replaced. I have a couple of nozzle trees and wanted to replace a couple to see if there would be an improvement. The problem is, when I insert the adjustment key into the head, it does not engage the screw. I can't even feel where the screw is. It feels like the internal hex of the screw is stripped or possibly filled with dirt. I have an old broken sprinkler head so I pried off the rubber cover to see what the insides look like. It is obvious that the cover is a one shot deal and will not go back on properly. So, my questions are: 1. Do the nozzles wear out and have to be replaced? 2. Can the hex screw that holds the nozzle in get stripped, and if so, how do I get it out to replace it? 3. Are the parts for this readily available (new screws and new rubber head covers)? But mainly, how do I get out a stripped screw? Thanks for your time. Dave

 

[WorthFlorida]

Those Hunter models do wear out and ten years maybe just about when they do start having problems. Usually they stop rotating. The problem by not being able to engage the hex key is the hex head (set)screw gets filled up with dirt and mud almost as hard a glue. You may also notice that the rubber cap has become very stiff and it just makes it harder to work on. If your are able to ever get the hex head set screw out that causes the spray pattern to change, you can remove the plastic spray nozzle and flush out the sprinkler. I could never pop open this sprinkler to try to fix them so I usually I just replaced them. At the church that I maintained I had about 100 of these. One time I changed out one zone of about 15 sprinklers and all but one stop rotating and they were about 12 years old. Therefore, if you replace them now you'll have about another ten years of no problems.