Male vs female spray heads

Hi, I have what may be kind of a dumb question, but here goes...

I'm replacing the standard popup spray heads in my back yard with MP Rotators. I bought the Rotators and then realized that most of my current spray heads are male threaded, while the Rotators I bought are female threaded. The Hunter website states that female-threaded spray heads are most common.

I was wondering if I should just return the Rotators and buy male-threaded versions, or if I should replace the old (9+ years) sprinkler bodies with new ones that would allow the female-threaded spray heads to work. When Hunter says that female-threaded spray heads are more common, I wasn't sure if I was getting into a situation down the road where I need to replace a sprinkler body in a couple years and nobody makes female-threaded bodies anymore. Plus, I'm not sure how long sprinkler bodies last -- I see one that is permanently stuck up, but the rest seem to be working fine.

Any advice? Thanks!

 

I never seen a male threaded unit. Are you sure? It might just be a nipple that is usually used to thread into the water line tee. Whatever you have just get a handful of nipples, the type you can cut to length or prefab risers. Sprinklers usually last for years. Some one year and most forever. The stuck pop up is very common. The gasket around the pop up stem gets hard and the riser just get stuck.

 

I think the OP is talking about male vs female threaded nozzles, rather than the spray head bodies themselves.

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

Hi, yes, I meant the little 1” tall insert that screws into the sprinkler housing. The part that water actually comes out of. Thanks though.

 

I didn't realized it read "MP rotor". Go with the most standard, female thread. In my own yard I had both and because most of them would not retract after the water was turn off so I replace everyone of them. In the past decade or two, patents ran out and with some mergers and buyout between the manufactures some items are now more standard (valves for one), now most spray heads will fit several makes of sprinkler bodies.

A lot of homes in my neighborhood were built around the same time and everyone of them have pop ups that will not retract. It is caused by two things. 1) the wiper seal gets hard (seems like a bad batch of thousands), 2) depending on soil type and how deep the spray head is, the sandy soil scratches the riser like sandpaper making it rough. The soil, sand and dirt get jamb between the wiper seal and riser. All the WD40 or silicone spray does not help. If they are along sidewalks it becomes a trip hazard so replacement is the only option.

 

Thanks for the info! Are you suggesting that I replace all the working sprinkler bodies with new ones, with the goal of getting the MP Rotator spray heads standardized on female threads? Or were you saying that I should just replace the single one that is stuck in the up position?

 

It's all up to you. Just replace the pop ups that you want the MP rotors on and the one bad one. Just to know and Hunter MP rotors put out a very low water per minute and it is recommended to the extend the watering times. The MP rotors is designed to help minimise fogging, overspray and run offs, a no-no in most areas of the country especially drought water starved California. Therefore, all pop ups in one zone should be MP rotor heads, not a mix of standard spray heads and rotors.

https://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/mp-rotator/mp-rotator

 

Thanks for the advice!

I ended up deciding to replace all the sprinklers with male threaded bodies (to allow the female-threaded nozzles). The setup I inherited had mostly 3" Toros, and my local supply shop had 3" Hunters so it is a pretty easy swap-out so far. The only problem I'm facing now is that a 5 1/2' x 8' planter bed is attached to the same zone as the lawn, and it had 5 spray heads in there (not sure why so many). I bought some MP Rotator 800SRs that are 8' x 6', the shortest distance Hunter offers, so hopefully that will do the trick without too much overspray (although the 800 series puts out twice as much water as my other Rotators). And maybe I'll cap off some of the existing sprinklers because that seems too many for that little planter. Two of the sprinklers are on 10" risers, so maybe they were trying to shoot over the foliage with those ones and the low ones were for the nearby area.

 

For the planters put in a micro drip irrigation. HD sell several kits. Look over the fittings and you should find an adapter for a 1/2” pipe. The one I used was for a fixed riser with a spray head. Take off the spray heat thread on the micro adapter and install the spray head. The adapter had a tee on it for the mirco pipe. You’ll find micro drip takes more maintenance especially when weeding or replacing plants.

 

That's a good idea. I thought drips needed to run for lengthy periods of time, though. This planter bed is on the same zone as the lawn. I think the lawn gets about 8 minutes, so once the MP Rotators are installed I suppose it will run for about 16 minutes. Is 16 minutes enough time for drips to do their thing?

 

Depends on the size of the planters you can add as many drip nozzles you need. It does get to a point only so much water can flow or you can use the micro pipe without the drip nozzles. There are manifolds so multiple tubes can be branched off. Depends on pressure, size of planters and watering time. The idea is to put the water down directly to the ground without run off and overspray. You would be surprised how little water some plants need. I water after experimenting how little watering time I can get a way with until I notice the grass getting stressed. Then I add a little time.