Rain Bird32ETI Easy to Install In-Ground Automatic Sprinkler System Kit

I eventually purchased enough of these kits to create 5 watering zones. I installed them during the construction of my new house. Each zone has 6 sprinkler heads and one controller. I built a header and connected all 5 controllers to the header. This may seem like the cumbersome way to create a watering system but it is much less expensive and controllable without all the components for a standard watering system. I would highly recommend this product.

I didn't put it in the ground. It works just fine above ground with the sprayers zip tied to the stakes

In short, if you want to save yourself thousands of dollars on a professional system and spend about half a day installing an OKAY system yourself (it is not without flaws) then definitely try this.The kit here is more like a starter kit, because if you have even a quarter of an acre, you're going to need at least one more but better to use 2 or 3 more for the best results. Reason being because if your water pressure is not insanely amazing to begin with, the more sprinkler heads you use per single line, the less performance you'll see. In fact, I have 3 total systems myself. Initially we went with one to see how it worked. Even though it isn't flawless, we added more, as well as had to get spare parts to replace pieces that were broken by winter snowplowing or being driven over, or just general leaking. Even though we have had to replace a few pieces, we will still never have spent as much on this as a professional system.INSTALLATION:Out of the box, it is pretty easy to get this going - the only other tools you might need include a shovel, something to cut the tubing with, and perhaps a lighter to help you fit the plastic pieces into the tubing. You will first want to test your water pressure so that you know how many heads you can really use and which nozzles to attach when you start. I will say, from the start, the plastic parts leak right from the controller. The kit comes with plumbing tape, but it doesn't help. Once you decide generally where your system is going to be laid out, you'll want to try and uncoil the tubing and take out the want for it to re-coil up, so we straighted them out while weighed them down with blocks. We did this for a while out in the sun which seemed to work best. We didn't use the test-setup stakes that they provide, but it is a good idea to use them if you are unsure of where everything will end up.If you don't have a trencher or want to rent one, the best way to install this is with two people. One person can use a large flat shovel to kind of slice into the earth so that you can lift out that piece, and while you're holding it up out of the ground, the second person can tuck the tubing down into the space before the person with the shovel lets go and you re-cover that section. It does take hours to get through a large yard doing it this way, but worth it because in the end you can't even tell the earth was disturbed and once it is finished you can run the sprinkler and the grass heals itself pretty easily.QUALITY:As I said before, the parts essentially leak right out of the box. But for the price and ease of use, we deal with it. However, it seems that sometimes they work great, other times one of the heads will stay mostly down and just leak everywhere. It seems to be a water pressure issue, but sometimes it happens and other times they go off just fine with no human intervention. Other times, I have to go out and physically lift the offending sprinkler head long enough that the rest of the system pressure builds and all of them hold themselves up together as a good little sprinkler family. All of the systems except the one that we only installed 3 heads on do this. So for us, that is 2 of 3. Again not sure if it is the systems fault or more my water pressure, so I don't complain too much.As I said, the more heads you add to a system, the less performance you'll get, so we have 3 systems, two are on the left side of my driveway and one is on the right side. I only have one hose hookup in the front, and one in the backyard, so the system that covers the lawn on the smaller right side actually covers the entire backyard and the front on that side. Because of this, we purchased extra hoseline for that second system. Again, this can be contributing to the pressure issues we have, but it was really the only way we thought it could work. There was no way to place the hose underneath the driveway so this just has to do.We have hard and cold winters here, and normally we take the controllers inside and off of the spigots so that nothing happens to them. This year, we didn't bother, and we didn't even blow out the system. They work just the same this year, so it didn't seem to affect them by not bringing them in or winterizing the lines. That is impressive.CONTROLS:The controls themselves are pretty intuitive but rather basic. Of course, cannot complain for the ease of installation, and the low price, it does more than what I really need it to do which is schedule at least 2 separate watering calendars per unit. In addition to the basic controls, there is also an option to WATER NOW which is nice. I use this often when I am trying to test the pressure and figure out what is going on. The only annoying thing is that there is no water sensor so of course, if you have them scheduled to go off, they're going off no matter what, and your neighbors will laugh at you when it is downpouring and your sprinklers are going off all the same. I try to be mindful of the forecast so that I can just switch them to "off" when I know it is going to storm, but then it is harder for me to remember to switch them back ON after the weather clears!OVERALL:I am really impressed with these kits for the price. Yes, they will be better if you have more systems and do not exhaust the sprinkler heads, but there are plenty of workarounds for this and overall I really would recommend this for the homeowner who is handy enough, isn't afraid to put in a hard day's work, and wants to save some money. It has made a HUGE difference in the look and health of my lawn having this system in place.

I've been really pleased with my Rain Bird system so far. I'm going to write a pretty extensive review, and will update it, if necessary, as the system ages.I purchased 3 of these systems to cover my entire yard. Square footage wise, I don't need 18 sprinkler heads, but I have a very uniquely shaped lot, and wanted to ensure 100% coverage. I got a number of quotes for professional irrigation installation, the lowest being $4,200, so buying three of these systems was a no brainer.I spent a LOT of time researching these and planning the system for my yard. I have two systems running out of a spigot on the side of my house with pretty good flow rate ~8 gpm during "peak usage" time, closer to 10 at 5 AM when I plan to run the system. The spigot on the back of my house, however, has a much slower flow rate of about ~5 gpm, with little improvement, regardless of time of day. What I decided to to was to separate one system into 2 individual three-sprinkler "runs" and have them both run out of a programmable 4 nozzle timer I already have. So I have a spare Rainbird timer in storage for when one of the ones in use breaks down (many reviews state those are the first parts to go).So, with everything installed, I have 18 sprinkler heads in the ground, divided into four separate zones that run at different times (5:00-5:10, 5:12-5:22, 5:24-5:34 & 5:36-5:46). Between 5 AM and 6 AM my entire yard is thoroughly watered (including shrubs, flower beds, etc). I have 2 zones with 6 sprinkler heads each coming out of my stronger spigot and 2 zones with 3 heads each coming out of my weaker spigot. Obviously, I set all this up prior to doing any digging, to verify that it would all work without any complications. I have been very pleased.So, I had to do A LOT of digging! In hindsight, I should have rented a trencher from Home Depot for 4 hrs and would have knocked this whole thing out a lot sooner. Because of the heat and the extensive amount of rocks under my lawn, I had to divide this project up into three days to get it done. The box isn't wrong, you CAN install ONE system in a day, but plan to put in some significant work!Some tips/tricks/notes from my installation:If you aren't able to soften up the tubing in the sun and don't have a heat gun, use a hair drier, like I did. Made inserting the connection pieces much easier.Measure twice, cut (hopefully) once - duh, I know, but careful planning made this a much more manageable task.Give yourself some "slack" - I gave each run a few extra feet of tubing (maybe ~3ft) to account the sprinkler heads needing to be buried deeper than the hose.To ensure the sprinkler head is straight, you'll need to gradually deepen your trench as it approaches the hole for the actual sprinkler. I know this sounds like common sense, but it actually took some trial and error to get just right.Be ready to buy "extras" - I had to buy an extra 50ft of tubing, some extra elbows, as well as a replacement regulator piece (I broke it by over-tightening it). I also purchased a bag of pea gravel to surround the drainage outputs underground.Ensure your existing spigots are in good shape and don't need to be tightened or replaced. I didn't typically leave my spigots on all the time before installing the system, so I found both of them had a slow drip. All it required was a simple tightening, but it's something to be mindful of and to check periodically to avoid any surprise water bills.All in all, I'm really pleased with the system so far. For under 500 dollars and 3 afternoons of hard work, I now have a pretty high quality irrigation system, complete with 18 sprinkler heads, that fully waters my lawn and surrounding beds.

For an easy install sprinkler system this was awesome not easy to dig in Florida because of the type of grass they have here but it was awesome it worked great so far for the money it sure beats $10,000 of course that was my whole yard this only did the front