Pricing new sprinklet system

[merc]

All,

I live near Austin, TX and I'm currently gathering quotes from irrigation companies in my area.

My questions are:

1. Is Rainbird better than Hunter or Toro?
2. What about the vavles and brands?
3. Why do I need a backflow prevention system?
4. How far should they bury the pipes? 6 inches? 8 inches?
5. What diameter (OD and ID) pipe and brand/type pipe is considered good? (I've read where people's pipes break so i'm concerened)

Any other things that I should look out for would be greatly appreciated. Such as:

1. better quality brands
2. things to ask the bidding companies
3. things to watch out for such as thin pipes and other bad practices
4. any other information you feel needs to be shared.

thanks everyone

Jon

jon_james@earthlink(nospam).net

[Anonymous]

That keeps anything bad (like chemicals) from drawing back from the irrigation system into your household water supply.

The professionals around here use Toro parts. My neighbor's heads are Nelson, but he's a gazillionaire and overpays to get industrial strength versinos of anything he buys.

My buddy the surgeon just whipped out his checkbook and is paying $8000 to have a system professionally installed next week.

I hope it rains every day after that. :)

[Stubby]

I tried drip irrigation in my gardens using some inexpensive plastic tubing and drippers. The quality was so poor that I just gave up. In particular the drippers clogged and were not uniform in flow rate. Also, the plastic parts aged quickly in the sun, resulting in cracks.

[FDR]

I've had good luck with Dripworks stuff.

[wkearney99]

I've had one in place for several years and it's been great. Depends on much sun you get, I tend to try burying my tubing in mulch. But none of mine have cracked, granted I'm in Maryland not the desert southwest. I also made SURE to use filters and backflow prevention. Helps prevent having drippers lying on soil sucking up crud when the flow shuts off and the water left in the lines runs back downhill. Some drippers are better than others. I've been pleased with the reliability of the RainBird drippers but their mist isn't all that fine.