Will changing 1/2“ PEX from Main Line to 3/4” PEX increase flow to Sprinkler Heads

sprinkler-system

Not sure the question reflects my question properly, but let me try and clarify:

Under my house (crawl space), I see where the 3/4" (cold) water line splits off into 3 directions to my outdoor water spigots. Each line that comes off the 3/4" line is 1/2" Pex and runs from 15' to 25' to the spigots. I am currently running between 75 and 90 PSI.

My issue is this; I had run Rain Bird 1/2" Swing Pipe from the spigots to my sprinkler heads (which are also split off using Melnor Sprinkler Timers) and the sprinkler heads farthest from the spigot have little to no output. I won't say pressure as pressure well, is pressure…

In one case, I have 5 sprinkler heads (on one line) within a few feet of the spigot (of which the PEX 1/2" pipe is roughly 15' to the 3/4" line under the house), and I get great output.

In another case, I have 4 sprinkler heads where the 1/2" Swing Pipe runs roughly 100' and I get very little output.

Since, again, pressure is pressure, I'm wondering if better flow is the answer.

If I change the 1/2" PEX under the house to 3/4" PEX coming from the main line (as described above), would this extra flow help to give me the output I'm looking for still using the 1/2" Swing Pipe to the 4 sprinkler heads, which are 100' from the spigot?

Sorry if this sounds confusing. If needed, I'll draw up a schematic and attach later on.

Thank you in advance to those who can answer this puzzle for me…

Best Answer

Pressure is pressure when you eliminate flow, add flow and the distance and you will end up with a lower pressure and poor performance like you are experiencing.

On the long runs increasing the plumbing from 1/2 to 3/4 will improve the sprinkler performance.
This will be true as long as your pump can keep up with the demand.

If you have several different sprinklers / spigots running at the same time your usage may exceed the capability of your pump. With large systems we segment the number of sprinkler heads that are allowed to run at any one time and cycle them for best performance.

So yes increasing the supply plumbing especially on the long runs may be what you need.