Gilmour 819603-1001 196SPB Impulse Polymer Sled Base Medium Duty Adjustable Pattern Master Circular Sprinkler

I bought 2 of the Gilmour 196SPB Pattern Master Impulse Sprinkler on Polymer Sled Base about 2 years ago because I have very irregularly shaped lawn areas and no other sprinklers were able to be fine tuned to vary the distance of water thrown around these various areas. That meant I was wasting lots of water with the other types of units I tried. I also tried linking three small sprinklers up in a row so that I could set each one to throw the water different distances and angles, but by the time the water got to the 2nd and third units, there was limited water pressure left. So I saw this Gilmour Pattern Master, and thought I would try a couple of them. It's been two years of using them, and they have been terrific, just what I was looking for. Overall, excellent units.Setting the sweep. As other reviewers have said, setting them up takes a few minutes to get used to how much of a 360 degree angle sweep you need, but after a minute or so of experimenting, and getting yourself wet while you watch it work up close and adjust it while it is working, you can fine tune the sweep it throws to within a foot - very precise. I had something approximating an "L" shaped area to handle, and put the sprinkler in the intersection of the "L" in front of a bush, pointing out at the lawn with the hose hidden along the shrubs. Many other sprinklers on the market allow you to set a sweep, so that is no big deal. I had several of them, and they all did a good job at the variable sweep. But read on to the next step below to see what Gilmour did so well to introduce variable distance throwing...Setting the Distance for each angle. Once you get the sweep/angles it throws water at the way you want, you then adjust a variable pattern of how far it throws the water within the sweep angles you set in the earlier step. Gilmour controlled how you do this very cleverly. All you do is push up or down the plastic ring at the various angles as the sprinkler goes around its path. To learn how it works, just push up from beneath the sprinkler every 15 degrees or so pushing the ring up all the way for some angles, and half way for other angles. Again, it will take a minute for you to watch it go around its sweep and to master how to set those adjustments affect the water output with trial and error, but once you see how it works from your test, you will then quickly be able to set the distances around the sweep angles by properly pushing up from underneath in several places from underneath the ring. Depending on your water pressure (mine is on a well pump, so not very strong, maybe gets up to 40 or 50 lbs of pressure), you can fine tune the distance it throws in this step very accurately. I have some parts of the sweep where I adjusted it so it throws the water 35 feet, and other parts of the sweep where I set it to throw the water only 8-10 feet, with lots of variation you can set in between.Durability. Yes, it is made of plastic, but would have to be to allow for their little plastic distance variation ring to smoothly be adjusted up and down. I had no leaks where you connect the hose to it, so that part was solid, and I have connected and disconnected them several times each watering season. The unit is lightweight, though, and it does vibrate some when it is working, and it could actually shift its position where you originally place it, so you may want to do what I did, and stake it down. The vibration does not change the settings you made, but could literally make the entire unit move an inch or so, thus throwing off the sweep angle because the whole unit moved. I took a coat hanger, made a U-shaped stake, and staked it down in two places. That worked great and it stayed put all season, and I reused the U-shaped hooks from the coat hanger the second season. But you can figure out various ways to resolve that minor issue. I am into the third season of using them, and except for the one my lawn tractor mowing deck edge hit by accident in my first season (which did break the unit, no surprise, and I bought a replacement) they are still going strong and have not broken now that I have learned to avoid them with the tractor! My watering season is about 5 months, and at the end of the first season, I disconnected the units for the winter and store them in the garage, and marked them with permanent marker to indicate which location in my yard each is for, and I marked them with an arrow pointing to a landmark on my yard so I would know exactly where to angle it on the yard when I place it down the following year. That way, I would not have to readjust the settings again.Competition on the market. I see that another mfg, Nelson I think, makes something similar too, but the Gilmour got better and more reviews, so I went with the Gilmour and after nearly three seasons of use, have no complaints. I am considering buying 2 more for other sections of my yard based on the success of these, or to have at least one backup in case I have another tractor incident with one. I am not sure why more companies do not sell these.Summary:Pros: Reasonable price and it does exactly what it is described to do. Color blends in with grass. Saves water by your being able to fine tune sweep and distance in a variable way. Holds up well to time (my third season using them). Quick delivery from Amazon. Adjustments stay put nicely, and can be readjusted without fear of breaking those adjustments. After trying at least 7 or 8 different sprinklers I finally found the one that meets my needs and has lasted into my third season and is still going strong. I recommend the unit highly.Cons: It would be nice if Gilmour include little stakes or something to stake them down, since they do jitter a bit while being used, and over time may shift the unit's location on the lawn a bit.

Best and most versatile sprinkler I've used, ever. I have a 2500 sq ft back yard that's L shaped and I connected two of these though three would be best, the customization is top notch and should be the industry standard for impact sprinklers so you water the lawn not the fence, patio, sidewalk, your house etc. Build quality wise theres tons to be desired, namely this plastic will break if youre not careful walking around your lawn or have small children. The plastic base is sturdy enough but I'd do away with it, because if it sits long enough it kills more grass than necessary. I replaced my base like so. I have three of these, two in back and one out front on the side with no irrigation. Which these were made of rust proof metal, I'd pay for that but they gorilla glue fine if necessary. Water pressure is great even daisy chained. I definitely recommend.

I have a fully functioning sprinkler system that I’ve used for years. I take care of it in winter time and can repair almost anything that goes wrong with it. I just could never figure out why my grass still always looked so bad.So I did a water gauge test and was shocked. In order to get my one inch of water on my grass on one day, I would have needed to keep each zone on for 2 hours!! As you know its not good to water your grass often as that causes shallow roots. One inch in one watering makes the roots go deeper for the water and makes your grass strong and healthy. So no, I wasn’t going to water my grass 4 times a week at 30 minutes per zone. I did some research and found that it is a normal thing for sprinklers unless you have them dotted all over your yard. I only kept mine at the edges.Anyway, I watched the Lawn Care Nut on YouTube and he suggested this sprinkler. This thing is ALL KINDS OF ADJUSTABLE. You can actually set this thing to shoot water a long way, then short, then long, then short... you get the picture.. all in one pass. So for irregular yards yeah this thing is awesome. This tool cut my watering day from 7 hours to 4.This is why I removed one star though1) It’s way too light. Just the “impacting” part will move the entire sprinkler. So you could set it perfect and then when you go back out, it could be spraying into your neighbors bedroom window. Buy some bricks! You’ll need at least two of them to keep this thing in place.2) While you are adjusting the sprinkler to whatever arch or depth you want, you will get soaked! Once you get the hang of this you can set it up before even turning the water on but it WILL need to be adjusted still. Don’t wear a work suit or dress pants when setting this. Shorts and flip flops! Oh and a towel.3) The part where this connects to the hose leaks. I read other reviews and simply thought maybe they cross threaded or didn’t tighten it enough. Doesn’t matter! It leaks. If you set this on open dirt, you will have a muddy mess when your done. It does water your grass if you keep it in the grass but if your wanting the connection to be water tight, too bad.4) It’s loud. My sprinklers were so quiet. Quiet enough that I could “sneak” in that earlier than allowed by the “State water department water schedule” before or after the allowed time. You know, their schedule says don’t water before 6PM or after 12AM. I could start the zone in my back yard at 4-5 and nobody would know. But this thing is as loud as the state park sprinklers. I don’t care because it waters my yard perfectly. But it could matter to some of you reading this. Let’s just say, when you’re done watering your yard, it will be so quiet..........Anyway I like it. It’s not for everyone though. And I really don’t understand why they didn’t make this sprinkler heavier? Even if it just had an opening to add sand or something. Making an impact sprinkler this light is a severe over sight on Gilmour

I purchased two units in 2022 and two more in 2023. I was looking at putting in underground, but found out my main was old and no longer had the pressure, and replacing it was not an option $$$. I placed these in the best places to cover my lawn and overlap with each other. I use 2 B-hyve sprinkler units to control these sprinklers. Because of the feature of controlling the distance, they work perfectly. Several are placed near the road, and I can pull the stream back as they pass by the road. Very amazing! They have never failed to work.