I've been struggling for a way to do basically the same thing, only I want to have most of my hose already in place. I've got a huge area between front, two sides and back that is a real pain when it comes to hauling the hose and sprinklers around. I hate the way it looks when left out, and it's just not easily stored.

After two years of experimenting with the "Y" valves, shut off valves, various sprinklers and hoses, I think I may be on my way.

You just need to experiment with what you have. Once you add two hoses to one outlet, the pressure automatically is reduced. You can purchase a cut off valve that screws on that may work for cutting off the extra valve.

SG

SG, thanks for the response. At the moment I only have a whirling square sprinkler that I can put in line and other than that--your simple spray type end sprinkler...nothing directional. So I HAVE to buy something to even experiment with. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on where to start.

After I wrote my first post, I was thinking it probably makes more sense to run the single hose out close the lawn and then split it there, opposed to doing it at the timer valve. I'll use less hose that way.

i have played with this in my garden.

1st it was 1 timer feeding a hose daisy chainging sprinklers, no good.

2nd, Y on the timer feeding 2 hoses i got decent results.

3rd, 4 way on the timer feeding 4 hoses so NO daisy chain at all and i got good results.

4th, y on the bibb feeding 2 timers which each fed 2 hoses. run 1 timer at a time. worked EXCELLENT!

i have even used 1 timer to feed the 4way on soakers and the other timer feed regular sprinklers for the watermelons. as long as both are not on at the same time, it works great.

BTW, if the yard is 30' diameter, a single impact sprinkler should work. worst case is use 2, and those will usually work okay on a daisy chain. get the cheap plastic ones, the metal ones don't seem to throw as far in my experience.

also, your HOSE makes a lot of the difference. your bibb will likely be fed by a 3/4" pipe. if you use a 5/8" hose, then you want to split it at the bibb and run 2 hoses. if 3/4" hose, then you can split at the end of the hose. if your bibb is fed by a 1/2" line, then you will likely not have enough flow to run more than one sprinkler at a time anyway.

does the Orbit timer control each valve seperately, or do all 4 come on at once? if seperate, then just run a hose to 2 valves and have them offset. if all on at once, then turn 2 off and run the sprinklers a little longer to make up for flow.

davidandkasie,
thanks for all the great useful info. I picked up some of the impact sprinklers. The timer, I understand runs one valve at a time. Yes, I think 3/4" bibb and I think I have a 3/4" hose as well. Excited to see what comes out of this.

Well, I ran 1 hose, split it with a "Y" and added sprinklers, one on 1 hose and 2 on the other. I checked to see how that worked before I cut the hose and added a 4th sprinkler. The section with two sprinklers did well, the 3rd on the second hose threw water okay but not enough for the (plastic) impact sprinkler to move.

2nd try, I ran two separate hoses, from two separate connections at the bibb, with 2 sprinklers on each hose. That worked well. However, it seems that once I attached them to the timer valves, and ran the timer, the same sprinkler that didn't move on the first attempt, didn't move when the timer went on-- I thought I switched the sprinklers around to make sure it wasn't the sprinkler. It is at the end. There is a lot of water coming out of it...it just doesn't want to move. It's likely alleviated higher that the other one in line--it's in the raised garden bed.

I'm running 5/8" hose and using an RV water pressure regulator which is preset between 40-50 psi. I'm calling it day...I'll likely fuss with it again tomorrow. Hoping repositioning that one sprinkler will do the trick.