The following is exerpted from a site called OMG facts http://www.omg-facts.com/History/The-Yucatan-Peninsula-translates-to-I-do/51638?id=51638&c_val=1

“In 1517, the Spanish explorers were trying to communicate with the Mayans.  They asked for the name of the region, but the Mayans couldn’t understand  them.

They simply said something along the lines of “I don’t understand you” in  their native tongue. It ended up sounding like “Yucatan” to the Spaniards, and  they continued to call the area by that name.

The same thing happened in Australia and the aborigines. When the Europeans  came to explore the land, they asked the native aborigines the name of an  interesting animal that was very tall and hopped on its two back feet.

The aborigines said “kangaroo” which meant “I don’t understand you.” The  Europeans thought they had given them the name of the animal and called it a  kangaroo”

As long as mankind has been able to communicate, we’ve been just as good at miscommunication and misunderstanding. Every skilled trade has it’s own argot and nomenclature. The lay person that tries to communicate an issue to a professional may use language that unintentionally confuses  or misleads, and vice versa. I thought I would start a post to serve as a glossary. I’ll be adding to this over time- I’d  love to hear  your feedback!

 

ARC – ..the ‘erald angels sing! Ha ha, anyway..this is pretty much what you learned in school, a segment of a circle. We use it to refer to a spray nozzle pattern, i.e. quarter circle, half, full, third, etc.

CIRCUIT – not a sprinkler term. Don’t use it. Ok, some irrigation people use it, but no one you’d want to have a beer with. Use the word zone or station instead. Leave this word to the electricians.

CLASS PIPE- shorthand for  thin-walled  white plastic PVC pipe. The upside of class pipe is that it has a bigger inside diameter, thus better flow capacity than it’s Schedule 40 counterpart (see Schedule 40) . It makes sense to use class pipe to be competitive in bidding big jobs like schools, hospitals, and golf courses. The downside is that it is more prone to breakage. It’s called class because it’s specifications for thickness correspond to it’s pressure tolerances in p.s.i., i.e. Class 200, Class 160, Class 315.

CONTROLLER – the brain of the sprinkler system- the thingy with buttons and numbers and dials. Hopefully it’s in a place easily accessed by the sprinkler guy, preferrably outside. Common references: timer, clock, box, computer

CYCLE – A duration of watering.

CYCLE AND SOAK – A feature available on the better controllers. Prevents run-off on slopes or slow percolating soil by splitting up a run time into shorter run times with pauses that allow water to soak into soil.

DOUBLE CHECK – Short for double check-valve assembly. This device is the most common backflow preventer installed in the Seattle area. This device keeps the drinking water safe by not allowing contaminated sprinkler water to siphon backwards. Also serves as a handy shut off valve to the system. You should have one and know where it is.

FUNNY PIPE – no idea on the origin of this term, it’s not particularly funny. Maybe they should call it ‘Sinbad Pipe’. Anyway this is some pretty great stuff. We use it for swing joints. It’s thick-walled flexible tubing that doesn’t require clamps. It’s got a nearly 1/2″ inside diameter, and you wiggle it on to barbed fittings. Besides swing joints, it’s good for a sturdy supply to a drip zone that doesn’t require a great supply of flow.

HOSE BIBB – this is what we call that thing sticking out of your outside wall you attach a garden hose to. You may call it a faucet or spigot. Stop doing that. Talk like a sprinkler guy and say “hose bibb”.  Two ‘b’s too, it’s not something you wrap around your chest. Technically it may even be called a ‘sill cock’, but we don’t talk that way here.

IMPACT HEAD – noisy rotor head, the first commercial head Rainbird made in 1933. It goes “chk chk chk chk…budddddah” It has a little spring loaded hammer and trip trigger. These heads are going the way of the fanny pack and the pager.

IMPULSE HEAD – I have no idea where this came from. I think people are confused and mean to say impact head? In my 23+ years in the business I’ve never heard this term used by any professional. I would define an impulse head as one that only comes on when it has an overwhelming urge to do so. That would be a very flaky and unreliable head.

LATERAL  – all piping downstream of the zone valve. The pipe from valve that branches out to all heads or dripline in a zone.

MAINLINE – the pressurized pipe that supplies water to zone valves. Begins at main valve separating house water.

MAIN VALVE – the shut off valve that separates your house water and sprinkler water. A backflow preventer must be installed just after this valve. Sometimes the backflow preventer is the main shut off as well. If you don’t know where yours is, you’re in trouble. Find out soon or call your sprinkler guy.

MASTER VALVE – Not the same thing as a main valve. This is an electric valve at the source of the sprinkler mainline that opens only during the scheduled watering cycle.  It’s wired to the controller. It’s main purpose is to reduce major flooding in case of a mainline break, or stuck valve. The water would run constantly otherwise. The only downside is problems may take longer to detect, because they are in effect hidden and only occur during watering.

NETAFIM – name brand of in line emitter drip tubing. The best on the market, and what we use.

PROGRAM (noun) – a group of zones set to water at a certain interval, or days of the week. Most controllers give you options for up to about 4 different programs, and they are all labeled A, B, C, D. Different programs are necessary with landscapes that have different watering needs. The best example is a drip zone that waters pots on the same system as a well established perennial shrub zone. The pots need a little water every day. The perennials might need water just once a week. Programming the zones onto separate programs allows this to happen.

If you have a simple landscape where the run times may be different (duration) but the frequency (days per week) are the same, – keep your life simple and keep everything on one program (A).

RADIUS, RADII – again with the geometry from school, distance from the center to the edge of a circle. We use this to refer to the distance of throw from a sprinkler head.

ROTOR – generic term for any head that rotates. Used in larger areas, their radii extend farther than the 15′  where most sprayheads max out. Three types- impact, gear drive, and stream. Impacts are described above- gear drives are quiet and have one single stream, stream rotors have multiple streams. MP Rotator will be the most common one of these you’ll see in the 21st century.

SCHEDULE 40 – shorthand for thicker walled heavier-duty plastic PVC pipe, as opposed to class pipe (see CLASS PIPE) A drawback is the inside diameter is smaller, so the capacity is less than class. The major upside is that it will withstand a downward thrusting shovel’s glancing blow without breaking. Since most of City Rain’s installs are small zone residential we use Sch. 40 exclusively. We have a lot less damage to repair to our systems, and we’re kind of annoyingly smug about that.

SOLENOID – The little black cylinder with two wires coming out the top on an electric zone valve. It can be hexagonal, round, or cube shaped. It contains a magnetic coil that causes a plunger to jump off a bleed port and actuate the zone valve. These wear out over time and need to be changed periodically.

SPRAYHEAD – fixed pattern pop-up head. Sprays a fan of a segment of a circle, or arc.

STATION – synonymous with zone, but usually in reference to the controller. see zone.

SWING JOINT- click here

TRAJECTORY- angle at which water shoots from head. Sometimes lower or flat trajectories are more desirable, and different sprinkler brands offer special nozzles for this.

VALVE BOX – usually rectangular plastic box visible by its lid. Buried with lid at grade. Houses electric valves, wire splices, backflow preventers, etc.

ZONE – a section of landscape served by one set of sprinklers or dripline. Can refer to the particular area, the heads, or the terminal at the controller. Refered to by their number as sequenced at the controller, i.e. “we’ve got a broken head in zone 3”. A pretty versatile term, but when we’re talking specifically about the hardware at the controller we’ll usually say “station”. We never use the word “circuit”.

ZONE VALVE – an electric valve that operates one zone. usually grouped together from 2 to 6 side by side in various shaped valve boxes. Sometimes referred to as solenoids, but that is inaccurate. The solenoid is just one part of the valve.