Measuring Water from Sprinklers

How do I measure how much water my lawn is getting from my sprinklers?

A multi-step procedure

1. Collect and then set out on your lawn a number of cans with completely vertical sides. Tuna fish cans work nicely. Make sure they will not tip over. Place these randomly around the area you wish to measure.
2. Turn your sprinklers on for 15 minutes.
3. After the 15 minutes is up, pour all of the water into one can. Note which cans have a lot of water and which have very little.
4. Measure the depth of the water in the can you poured the water into with a ruler.
5. Using a calculator or by hand divide the water depth by the number of cans you set out. That will be the amount of water your sprinkler is putting on your lawn in 15 minutes.
6. Multiply that value by four (4) and you will have the amount of water getting to your lawn in an hour.
7. If you have sandy soil, you should be putting between ½ and ¾ inch of water on your lawn at each watering.
   • In order to put ½ inch on your lawn multiply the answer in step 6 by ½.
   • In order to put ¾ inch on your lawn multiply the answer in step 6 by ¾.

Example

1. Randomly place six (6) tuna fish cans on the lawn.
2. Run the sprinklers for 15 minutes.
3. Put all the water into one can.
4. Measure the depth of water in that can. For this example let's say the amount is 1½ inches.
5. Divide 1½ inches by 6 to get an average of 1/4 inches.
6. Multiply the ¼ inch by four (4) to get 1 inch of water on your lawn in 1 hour.
7. In order to put between ½ and ¾ inch of water on your lawn you need to run your sprinklers between ½ and ¾ of an hour.
   • 1 inch per hour multiplied by ½ is ½ hour.
   • 1 inch per hour multiplied by ¾ is ¾ hour

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