A sprinkler irrigation system waters a crop from above. A pump pushes water through pipe. A head breaks the stream into droplets that fall like rain across the whole surface. That one design choice decides everything else. It sets the area a single device can cover and the pressure the pump must deliver. It also decides how much water the wind takes. This page gives the figures for every head Eunidrip stocks in Kenya in 2026. It sets out the pump duty each one asks for. Then it works the arithmetic that tells you whether a sprinkler irrigation system or a drip line suits your field.
What a Sprinkler Irrigation System Does on the Farm
Typically, sprinkler irrigation applies water in a controlled manner that mimics rainfall, and the water is distributed through a network that may consist of pumps, valves, pipes and sprinklers. That is the working definition used in the sprinkler literature. It is worth holding onto because it explains both the strength and the cost.
The strength is coverage. Typically one head can wet a quarter acre. Therefore a sprinkler irrigation system needs a handful of moving parts, not thousands of emitters. The water lands on the ground surface across the full footprint of the crop. Because of that, the wetting pattern is broad and every root in a dense stand can reach it.
The cost is exposure. Water travels through open air before it reaches the soil. Anything that moves that air, or warms it, takes a share. Because the canopy gets wet as well, foliar disease pressure rises on crops that dislike standing moisture on the leaf. Meanwhile the same wetting can be the point. Overhead sprinklers are also used for cooling and for controlling airborne dust in nurseries and yards. A drip line cannot do either job.
Sprinkler Irrigation System Types, Ranked by Throw
In practice, head choice is the first decision, and the area you need to wet makes it for you. The table below lists the models available in the online shop together with the figures each product page publishes.
| Head | What it does | Price in Kenya 2026 | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro sprinkler | 360 degree spray, one type adjustable from 30 to 330 degrees | KSh 100 | seedlings, hydroponics, tree rows |
| Impulse sprinkler | spring loaded arm rotates the head as the jet strikes it | KSh 450 | vegetable beds, small lawns |
| Pop-up sprinkler | sits below ground, rises when pressure arrives, retracts when it stops | KSh 1,200 | lawns, landscaping, buried runs |
| Impact rain gun, 35 metre radius | between 10,000 and 25,000 litres an hour at 4 to 5 bar | KSh 4,000 | pasture, orchard, quarter-acre blocks |
| Gun sprinkler with a 1 to 2.5 inch inlet | 8,000 to 50,000 litres an hour, nozzle sets the flow | KSh 8,500 | larger field blocks |
| Hose reel sprinkler | travelling gun pulled in on a hose wound around a reel | price on request | large pasture and maize blocks |
Also, the impact principle has a long history, and it is the reason these heads are cheap. An impact sprinkler is a head whose own jet pushes a weighted arm against a spring. The arm swings back and strikes the nozzle mechanism, rotating it a little each time. The design dates from 1933 and is still sold today, which tells you how well it suits farm duty. First the small version, then the large one. The KSh 450 impulse head and the KSh 4,000 gun carry the same idea at two scales.
One caution about naming. A 100 meter gun is sized by the circle it wets, not by the length of its body. That class needs a larger inlet and a stronger pump than the models above, and its inlet is typically 2 to 2.5 inches. The rain gun price guide separates the head price from the pump and pipe cost.
The Parts of a Sprinkler Irrigation System
In practice every layout uses the same six elements. Each is a place where a cheap decision shows up later as a breakdown.
- Filter. A screen or disc filter protects the nozzles. Where the source is a stream, an open ditch or a silt-laden shallow well, use a desilting basin. It does the same job more cheaply than a filter you will clean every week.
- Pumping unit. Overhead watering needs pressure, so the pump is what makes the system work. A high speed centrifugal pump is the right choice when the water surface sits less than eight metres below the pump inlet. For a deeper well a turbine pump is used instead.
- Pipe network. The main line carries water from the source to the sub main. The sub main feeds the laterals, and the laterals carry the risers that lift each head above the crop. Buried mains and sub mains are usually HDPE or PVC.
- Connectors. A coupling must join and separate quickly, stay watertight, resist corrosion and survive being moved. Quick couplings are what turn a fixed layout into a portable one.
- Heads. The head is the only part that applies water, so distribution uniformity is decided here. Spacing, pressure and nozzle size set how even the wetting pattern is.
- Measurement and control. Valves, bends, tees, reducers, elbows, hydrants, plugs, flanges, couplings, nipples, water meters and pressure gauges. A gauge is not a luxury. A head below its rated pressure gives a narrow, uneven pattern that looks exactly like a blocked nozzle.
Sprinkler Irrigation System Prices in Kenya (2026)
Heads are the visible cost. Moreover, they are the smaller half of the bill. The table lists what each head costs in the shop today. Pipe, pump, filter and labour are quoted after a site check, because they follow the run length and the source.
| Line item | Figure | What the figure covers |
|---|---|---|
| Micro sprinkler | KSh 100 | one head, SKU EU0001 |
| Impulse sprinkler | KSh 450 | one head |
| Pop-up sprinkler | KSh 1,200 | one buried head |
| Impact rain gun, 35 metre radius | KSh 4,000 | sold as a head on a tripod |
| Gun sprinkler, inlet 1 to 2.5 inches | KSh 8,500 | nozzles matched to the duty |
| Hose reel sprinkler | price on request | shipped from overseas, 15 to 25 working days |
| Drip reference, eighth acre | KSh 15,000 | quoted for comparison only |
| Drip reference, one acre | KSh 160,000 | quoted for comparison only |
Here is the arithmetic that makes a gun look cheap. A 35 metre radius wets a circle of about 3,848 square metres, because area is pi times the radius squared. A quarter acre is 1,012 square metres. Therefore one KSh 4,000 gun covers a quarter acre on paper, and the real question is never the head price. It is whether your source can feed that head at the pressure it asks for.
Nevertheless, two figures are missing on purpose. Hose reel systems carry no fixed price in the shop. This site also publishes no installed sprinkler total per acre, so a full system figure cannot be printed honestly here. Head count, pipe run and pump duty are what set it.
Sizing a Sprinkler Irrigation System: Pressure and Flow
Pressure is where most sprinkler plans fail. It is worth converting the units once and keeping the rule. About ten metres of head produces one bar. The 35 metre rain gun asks for 4 to 5 bar, which is 40 to 50 metres of head at the nozzle. Most heads work between 10 and 70 metres of head. The band a smallholding pump practically achieves is narrower, at 16 to 40 metres.
Those two bands barely overlap. Consequently a gun running at full throw often sits above what a small domestic pump delivers. A farmer who fits one and gets a 20 metre circle has not bought a defective head. He has an under-pressure system, which is a different fix.
Two measured figures carry the sizing. The 35 metre gun is rated at between 10,000 and 25,000 litres an hour. The larger gun, with a 1 to 2.5 inch inlet, is rated at 8,000 to 50,000 litres an hour, and the nozzle sets the flow. A sprinkler irrigation system applies its whole rated flow through one or two heads at a time. Therefore the pump must supply that volume at pressure, not merely move water. Specifically, add the heads running together and note the highest pressure any asks for. Size the set to both numbers at once.
How Much Water a Sprinkler Irrigation System Applies
One millimetre of water over one square metre is one litre. That single fact converts any published flow into an application rate. The rate is what tells you how long to run the system.
Take the 35 metre gun. Specifically, its circle is about 3,848 square metres, so 10,000 litres per hour gives 2.6 millimetres per hour and 25,000 litres per hour gives 6.5 millimetres. The shop also lists the wetting diameter for this class as 48 to 72 metres, commonly 56. At a 56 metre circle the radius is 28 metres, the area is 2,463 square metres, and the same flow range becomes 4.1 to 10.2 millimetres per hour.
Next, the watering time. Most established lawns need about 30 millimetres of water in a week. Sandy soils may need more, and heavy soils less. At 4.1 millimetres per hour that is roughly seven hours of running; at 10.2 it is under three. Therefore a gun is the wrong tool for turf. The head count a lawn needs is a separate job, covered on the lawn sprinkler page.
Similarly, timing matters as much as volume. Typically morning is the best window. Midday watering is lost to evaporation while the sun is high. Evening watering leaves grass damp through the night, which invites the fungal problems that thin turf. Also water deeply and let the soil dry between sessions. Frequent light watering produces shallow roots and turf that depends on you for every drop. In addition, a lawn with a deep root system survives a dry spell. Many Kenyan lawns green up again after weeks of dormancy on very little applied water.
Sprinkler Irrigation System versus Drip: Where Each Wins
The two systems are close to opposites, which is the fastest way to choose between them.
| Factor | Sprinkler irrigation system | Drip irrigation |
|---|---|---|
| Where water lands | the whole surface, from above | a narrow band at each plant |
| Parts that apply water | a few heads | thousands of emitters |
| Wind loss | high | low |
| Evaporation | higher, droplets cross open air | lower, water goes to the root zone |
| Canopy wetting | yes, so foliar disease risk rises | no |
| Cooling and dust control | possible | not possible |
| Blocking risk | nozzle blockage from silt | emitter and tape blockage |
| Published price reference | KSh 4,000 for a 35 m gun | KSh 15,000 for an eighth acre, KSh 160,000 for an acre |
| Best fit | pasture, maize, vegetables, lawns, seedlings | rows, greenhouses, tree crops, exposed dry sites |
In practice the choice follows the crop and the exposure. Pasture and turf cannot be watered plant by plant. For them a sprinkler irrigation system is the only sensible answer. Rows of tomatoes under cover, where every millimetre counts, are a drip job. For the cost side, the drip cost page gives the bands by plot size. Likewise the best drip guide covers emitter choice.
Crop and Soil Fit for a Sprinkler Irrigation System
Sandy soils are the classic case. Because sand drains fast, so a large volume must arrive quickly, and overhead application does exactly that. Similarly, steep slopes that would erode under a running sheet of water suit sprinklers. Droplets land softly, and terracing limits side movement and percolation.
Shallow soils that have never been levelled are the second case. The method removes a leveling cost that a surface system would demand. High value horticulture is the third case. Pesticides and fertiliser can go through the same water as the irrigation, which saves a second pass over the field.
For example, the models in the shop are described by their buyers for lucerne and other pasture crops. They also cover cabbage, spinach and kales, and hedge plants such as kei apple and bougainvillea. Forestry seedlings and mature trees are the fourth use. However, one site condition rules the method out. Strong wind carries droplets off target, so an exposed ridge is a poor candidate. The water that misses the block has still been pumped, filtered and paid for.
Five Mistakes That Break a Sprinkler Irrigation System
- First, running unfiltered surface water. Sprinkler nozzles are the smallest opening in the system. Silt from a stream or ditch blocks them within a season. First screen or settle the water, then run the layout.
- Watering in wind. Drift is the largest single loss in a sprinkler irrigation system, and it is invisible from the house. Next time you irrigate, step to the edge of the pattern and watch where the fine spray actually lands.
- Guessing the coverage. Instead of trusting a catalogue throw, place containers at several points under the pattern. Measure what each catches, then overlap the patterns until the volume is even. That can test is the only honest spacing check, and it takes an hour.
- Undersizing the pump. A head rated at 4 to 5 bar will not perform at 2 bar. The symptom looks like a faulty nozzle, so the farmer cleans a head that was never blocked.
- Light daily watering on turf. Frequent small doses keep roots shallow and make the lawn dependent on you. That is the opposite of what an irrigation investment is for.
Sprinkler Irrigation System: Frequently Asked Questions
How much water does a sprinkler irrigation system use? Typically it uses its heads at their rated flow. One 35 metre rain gun passes between 10,000 and 25,000 litres in an hour. Multiply that by the hours you run and the number of heads working together. You have the daily draw. Because that number is large, the source and the storage tank decide the design before the heads do.
What pressure does a sprinkler irrigation system need? Most heads work between 10 and 70 metres of head. On a smallholding the practical band is 16 to 40 metres. The 35 metre gun asks for 4 to 5 bar, which is 40 to 50 metres of head. It sits at the top of that practical band, which is why its pump is sized first.
Is a sprinkler irrigation system cheaper than drip? The head is cheaper, and there are far fewer of them. However, a sprinkler layout needs a pump that can hold pressure, and that is where the cost moves. Compare the published figures. A 35 metre gun costs KSh 4,000. An eighth acre of drip costs KSh 15,000 and an acre costs KSh 160,000.
Can a sprinkler irrigation system save water? Compared with flooding or a running furrow, yes, because terracing and controlled application limit percolation and side movement. Compared with drip, no. Overhead application loses water to wind and evaporation that a covered emitter does not.
Does a sprinkler irrigation system need technical skill? More than a drip line does, because the design turns on pressure and flow rather than on counting emitters. For that reason the layout is usually drawn before the pipe is bought. A technician who has sized a pump is worth the fee.
Which soils suit sprinklers? Sandy soils with high infiltration rates, steep slopes prone to erosion, and shallow soils that have not been levelled. Heavy clay on flat land is the weakest case. The application rate can exceed what the soil absorbs, and the water runs off.
Where This Page Sits in the Sprinkler Cluster
This page covers systems. It states what a sprinkler irrigation system is, what its parts cost, and how pressure and flow are sized. Three supporting pages carry the jobs that need their own figures. Each is linked from the section where it matters.
For turf, the lawn sprinkler buying page lists the heads in stock with 2026 prices. It also gives the head count a lawn needs. For a buried system under grass, the installation of pop up sprinklers guide walks through setting heads below ground level. It covers connecting the runs and getting the retract to work. For a large field block, the rain gun price guide covers the 100 metre class.
Finally, the wider pages place this method in context. The irrigation solutions page describes the services Eunidrip provides on a site. Irrigation in Kenya compares the methods side by side, and the equipment suppliers page lists what is stocked. Then the shop carries each head named above. A type chosen here can be priced there without a second search.