Best sprinklers for an odd-shaped lawn

Sprinkler marketing is built around one number: square feet covered. That number is always computed for the sprinkler's natural shape — a full circle, or a rectangle — and it stops being useful the moment your lawn is an L, a wedge, a strip beside a drive, or a rectangle with two beds cut out of it.

The short answer

Every coverage claim in this category is geometry

Before comparing anything, it is worth knowing where these numbers come from. They are not measured on a lawn. They are the area of the circle the sprinkler throws.

The useful consequence is that a partial arc scales exactly. Half a circle is half the area, a quarter is a quarter, and you can work out what you are actually watering.

1. Orbit H2O-Six — six patterns and any arc

Orbit publishes six patterns on this head — small, medium, large, shower, vertical and flat — a four-position diffuser, collar tabs that set a partial arc up to 360 degrees, and up to 80 feet of spray diameter. It is a gear drive, so it is quiet next to an impact head.

For an odd-shaped lawn the pattern range is what earns its place: a narrow strip beside a path wants a different throw from an open wedge, and this is one head that does both from the same position.

The honest limits: the base is sold separately, so the head alone will not stand up. Orbit publishes no pressure requirement and no flow rate, and it is plastic where the impact heads are brass.

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

2. Orbit brass impact on a tripod — arc plus height

Ninety feet of diameter is the largest published throw in our registry, the head is brass rather than plastic, the arc adjusts down from a full circle, and the tripod extends up to 48 inches — which is the feature that matters on an awkward plot, because it lifts the spray clear of shrubs and tall planting that would otherwise cast a dry shadow.

The honest limits: impact heads are the loudest of the three types, a tripod at 48 inches is a trip hazard and will tip in wind, and Orbit publishes no flow rate or pressure requirement here either. On a small lawn, 90 feet of throw mostly waters the neighbors.

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

Why the oscillator is not on this list

It is a good sprinkler and it is the wrong shape. The Orbit Pro Series oscillator covers up to 4,000 square feet on a heavy metal base with a clean-out plug and sliding tabs to narrow the pattern — and every one of those square feet is a rectangle. If your front lawn is a rectangle, buy it; it is our pick in best lawn sprinklers.

On an irregular lawn the rectangle is the problem. Narrowing it with the tabs changes the width and not the shape.

Measuring an odd lawn, so you know what you are covering

1. Break the lawn into rectangles, triangles and part-circles on paper. Add them up. Full method in how to measure your lawn.
2. Mark where a hose can physically reach. Coverage you cannot connect to is not coverage.
3. Set each placement's arc to the piece it is watering, not to the lawn.
4. Put straight-sided tins out and time an inch. That single measurement replaces every unpublished flow rate in this category.
5. Then automate it — a timer turns the measurement into a schedule. See best hose timers.

What we cannot tell you

We have not run either sprinkler. Neither publishes a flow rate, a pressure requirement or a distribution uniformity figure, which means we cannot tell you how long to run one, what pressure it needs to reach its rated throw, or how evenly it puts water down inside the area it covers. Every coverage figure on this page is the area of a circle computed from a published throw distance, and the tin test is the only way we know of to replace it with something real.