Best lawn sprinkler

Sprinkler packaging leads with a coverage number: 4,000 square feet, 5,026 square feet, 6,360 square feet. Those numbers are not test results. They are the area of the circle the sprinkler can throw, worked out from the throw distance — and once you can see that, you buy on pattern shape instead of on the biggest figure.

The short answer

Where the coverage numbers come from

Two of these three sprinklers publish both a throw diameter and a coverage area. Run the circle area on each and the relationship is exact.

So the coverage figure is a restatement of the throw distance, not a measurement of how evenly water lands inside that circle. Distribution uniformity — whether the ring at 35 ft gets the same water as the ring at 10 ft — is the thing that decides whether your lawn ends up striped, and none of these three product pages publishes it.

What one inch of water actually costs you

Watering is measured in depth. Here is what a depth means in gallons, which is the unit your water bill uses.

The three, on published figures

1. Orbit Pro Series oscillating — best for rectangular lawns

A rectangular pattern up to 4,000 sq ft on a heavy metal base, with sliding tabs to narrow the throw for a strip of parkway and a clean-out plug for the nozzle blockages that end most oscillators' lives.

The case for it is shape, not size. Most front lawns are rectangles bounded by a sidewalk and a driveway. A circular pattern on a rectangle either leaves the corners dry or waters the pavement; a rectangle does neither. At 623 gallons per inch per 1,000 sq ft, overspray is the most expensive habit in lawn watering.

The gaps: Orbit does not publish the nozzle count, a flow rate or a warranty term on this page. And an oscillator throws a fine spray, which drifts in wind more than a rotor stream does.

#ad Check the Orbit Pro Series 4,000 sq ft Metal Gear-Drive Oscillating Sprinkler (56281) price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. Orbit H2O-Six gear drive — best for odd shapes

Six patterns — small, medium, large, shower, vertical and flat — a four-position diffuser, and collar tabs that set the arc anywhere from a slice to a full circle. That is the tool for a lawn with a bed in the middle of it or a boundary that is not a straight line.

It is a head only. The base — spike, tripod or wheeled — is a separate purchase, which is either a saving or an annoyance depending on what is already in your shed.

The honest limits: plastic construction where the impact head is brass, and no published pressure requirement for a rotor whose entire 80 ft claim depends on pressure.

#ad Check the Orbit H2O-Six Gear Drive Sprinkler Head price on Amazon — how we're funded.

3. Orbit brass impact on a tripod — best reach

Ninety feet of diameter, a brass head, and a tripod that extends to 48 in. Height is the feature people overlook: a head at ground level waters the first shrub it meets, while a head at four feet throws over it.

Impact heads are also the most tolerant of debris in the supply, which is why they persist on farms and in secondary-water systems long after plastic rotors have clogged.

The costs are noise and footprint. An impact head is the loudest sprinkler type by a wide margin, and a 48 in tripod in the middle of a lawn is a trip hazard and a tipping risk on a windy day. On a small lawn, 90 ft of throw simply waters the neighbors.

#ad Check the Orbit Brass Impact Sprinkler on Tripod (58308N) price on Amazon — how we're funded.

How to set a run time without a published flow rate

None of the three publishes gallons per minute, so run time cannot be calculated. It can be measured, and the method takes one piece of equipment you already own.

1. Put three or four straight-sided cans (a tuna can works) around the wetted area, one near the sprinkler and one near the edge of the pattern.
2. Run the sprinkler for 15 minutes.
3. Measure the depth in each can. Multiply by four to get the hourly rate, and note the difference between the near can and the far can — that difference is your distribution uniformity, the thing the coverage claim never told you.
4. Divide your target depth by the hourly rate to get the run time. Check the result against soil depth with a screwdriver: it should push in easily to six inches.

Who should skip all three

• Anyone with an in-ground system. Hose-end sprinklers are for lawns without one, or for the strip an existing system misses.
• New seedings. Fresh seed needs light, frequent watering, which is the opposite of the deep-and-infrequent pattern these are sized for — see how to overseed.
• Low-pressure supplies. A rotor that cannot reach its rated diameter waters a doughnut, and none of these pages tells you the pressure it needs.

What we cannot tell you

We have not run catch-can tests on these sprinklers. Orbit publishes no flow rate, no pressure requirement and no distribution uniformity for any of the three, and no warranty term appears on any of the three product pages. That means we can tell you how far each one throws and what shape it throws, and we cannot tell you how evenly it lands — which is why the run-time method above measures rather than assumes.