Choosing an Inline Sprinkler Timer

An inline sprinkler timer is almost like having all your garden and lawn maintenance done for you. These days, inline sprinkler timers are so sophisticated, all you need to do is set them and forget them. As you can guess from the name the timer lets you set the time when your sprinkler or irrigation starts and stops watering.

This is great if you have watering restrictions in your area. Especially if you hours for watering are early in the morning or on a day when you're not around. This always happens to me. And if you forget to turn your sprinkler off from time to to time, this won't happen any more. With the sprinkler timer my garden always gets the right amount of water.

Two Types of Sprinkler Timers for Automatic Inline Sprinkler Systems

1. The simplest type of timer switches the sprinkler system on for a set period of time at the same time each day. These manually set timers are very useful, economical and easy to set up, but you will need to monitor and adjust them regularly to ensure your garden is watered efficiently and effectively.

2. Electronic sprinkler timers have a range of features, such as weekly, monthly or even yearly watering schedules, seasonal adjustment so your garden automatically receives more watering during the warmer months of the year, and a flexible choice of run-times, ranging from a minute to several hours.

Many electronic timers can even be run from your home computer, and you receive free regular software upgrades. The software will generally give you a recommended watering schedule based on your climate, soil type, and the types of plants you have. You can also run your drip irrigation system in conjunction with your sprinkler system.

Moisture Sensors

There’s nothing worse than having your automatic sprinklers spring into action when the soil is already saturated, or worse still, during an actual rain shower.

Automatic moisture sensors are the perfect complement to your sprinkler timer system because they adjust the amount of watering depending on the day-to-day needs of your garden and lawn. Some sprinkler timers come with a moisture sensor included.

Sunlight sensors calculate the amount of water which will be lost to evaporation, and automatically adjust the amount of watering accordingly.

For more information on watering your garden and lawn, please read this article on automatic sprinklers.

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