Why Hunter Rotor Nozzles are the Industry's Best: Better People, Better Testing Make a Better Product

There are a lot of factors that go into making Hunter rotors the best rotors in the industry. But a key reason is often overlooked when stacked up against such other features as the sprinklers: heavy duty riser seals, water-lubricated gear drives and extra strong retraction springs.

It's the nozzle.

More accurately...Hunter nozzles. Plural. As in lots and lots of them. Because there's no shortage of nozzles for Hunter rotors.

Standard. Low angle. High flow. Short distance. You name the radius and flow rate, we've got the nozzle.

Another thing there's no shortage of is testing for Hunter nozzles. At Hunter, the nozzle isn't an afterthought to the rotor itself, simply thrown in with the heads to fill up a case. No, the nozzle is an essential part of the rotor itself, with the same commitment to design, attention to detail, and thoroughness of testing as any other part of the product.

Designed for Optimum Performance

Our competition continues to tout their nozzle superiority, a claim that is open to debate. Sure, some companies may have a memorable name for their nozzles, but is their performance memorable? Across the board, Hunter nozzles grade out better at such factors as water distribution and repeatability (see below), both prerequisites to healthy turf.

So, what does Hunter do to ensure that you get the best nozzles possible?

Designing the best nozzles in the business begins in the Hunter Engineering Department. Nozzle performance is a key issue to our engineers, who craft a nozzle that will deliver the optimum coverage of water to a landscape.

In designing the nozzles, Hunter engineers also concern themselves with "repeatability" in the molding process ensuring that each nozzle that comes off the production line is exactly like the one before it. This requires a nozzle design simple enough to minimize any chance for variance.

Engineers also have to keep in mind that there are set parameters they must work within, such as how far a given amount of water will travel at a given pressure. It is up to the engineers, however, through their design, to determine exactly how the water along the entire radius of throw is applied.

Of course, our engineers also concern themselves with how the nozzle works within the sprinkler, specifically the nozzle housing. Part of this task of integrating the nozzle and the sprinkler involves the use of the best construction materials available as our engineers continually develop ways to do things better.

Constant Improvement Makes Tomorrow's Nozzle Even Better

Talented as they are, it takes more than engineers to turn out quality nozzles.

First off, every team needs a good leader to maintain order and provide guidance. The nozzle development team at Hunter is no different. A product manager oversees all aspects of a product's creation – from design to production to distribution. Thus, the manager works hand in hand with such varied departments as quality assurance, testing and, of course, engineering. The product manager sets parameters and analyzes performance data to make sure that the products produced meet Hunter's criteria for quality.

"We previously used a lot of trial and error to find good nozzles," said Steve Hoveln, Hunter product manager for rotors. "But now the engineers have sophisticated tools they can use to take the guesswork out of their craft. My job is to keep pushing the envelope in the development of nozzles. When the engineers say they have it right, I challenge them to go even further."

When the engineers have developed a winning prototype for a nozzle, it is put into the hands of Hunter's molding design specialists who outline the specifications for creating a mold to mass produce the nozzle. Then, right on the premises of Hunter Industries, the tooling department physically produces the mold to those exact specifications.

Once the mold is finished, it is tested to make sure it matches the performance parameters (and every subsequent time there is a mold start up, all critical dimensions on all nozzles are measured and verified to make sure they meet the specifications). Only then are the nozzles ready to be produced.

Using the highest-grade UV-resistant plastics, Hunter production teams manufacture nozzles round the clock. At this stage, one of the key benefits – color coded nozzles – becomes part of the process. These nozzles – for the I-25, I-40 and I-60 rotors – are each a different color, representing a different radius and flow rate. Hunter's nozzles are colored in their entirety and much easier to identify than other brands that simply put a color dot or bar on their black nozzles.

Testing, Testing

So, now there are nozzles upon nozzles, rolling out of production and ready to be shipped to customers, right? Not so fast. There's a very important step ahead…well, very important to Hunter (we can't vouch for some of our competitors who seem to skip over this part). Testing.

On the latest equipment, our quality assurance division conducts rigorous inspections with the tightest tolerances to guarantee consistency in our nozzles. Then, before they leave the factory, each batch of Hunter nozzles makes a stop at the Hunter on-site test room. A full battery of tests are performed, measuring such data as water droplet size, uniformity, the amount of coverage close to the head. To ensure the accuracy of these tests, data for the recently produced nozzles are compared against a standard established by a perfect, true set of those nozzles produced and tested earlier.

Hunter also operates an outdoor test area. Here, nozzles and rotors are subjected to the rigors of the real world environments (sand tests, measuring UV-degradation). It's not uncommon for company president and CEO Richard E. Hunter to stop in at the test labs to see how things are going–and quite often, he'll roll up his sleeves and get in the action himself. After all, he, too, is an engineer and is highly interested in the quality of the nozzles that bear his family name.

An Objective Standard That Matches Up To Field Conditions

To get an even distribution of water, the nozzle must put down the water in a certain way, and only through objective testing can anyone determine if that nozzle is working as it should.

At Hunter, we have developed an objective rating system that looks at several parameters and ranks the tested nozzles on those factors. Not even the most experienced engineers can look at a nozzle spraying water and be able to tell if it is distributing water evenly, so don't be fooled by anyone who says they can.

All Nozzle Performance Independently Verified by CIT

In additon to on-site testing, we send our nozzles to the Center for Irrigation Technology, an independent testing authority, to evaluate where our products stand against the competition. Located on the campus of California State University Fresno, CIT is the industry's most respected test laboratory.

Before sending the nozzles off to CIT, Hunter's performance charts (pressure, flow rate and radius data) are generated based on our testing lab and meet the specifications of ASAE Standard S398.1, Procedure for Sprinkler Testing and Performance Reporting. We then have that performance checked by CIT to make sure that our nozzles do what we say they do.

"Our goal is to provide irrigation companies with a completely unbiased assessment of their products' performance," said Dave Zoldoske, director of CIT. "Hunter rotor nozzles consistently perform at or above optimum levels."

On-Site Performance Fine-Tuned

Manned by experienced irrigation professionals, Hunter's DATA Line is ready to provide solutions to the problems that contractors, specifiers, sports field managers and municipal grounds crews are commonly faced with.

Pressure is critical to nozzle performance, so it comes as no surprise that many calls to our DATA line concerning poor performance in the field (quite often that means brown spots) can actually be traced back to incorrect pressures at the sprinklers.

"We first find out if they know the pressure," said Chuck Mayernick, a Hunter technical services manager. "Then, we find out what their spray looks like–is it large drops or mist. In general, if the heads have a rope of water and large drops, this indicates low pressure.

"To fix this, most people would increase the nozzle size to put down more water. But actually, they should decrease the nozzle size. This lowers the flow through the system, creates less friction loss – and thus more pressure available to the sprinklers – giving better nozzle performance."

After all the engineering, molding, production and testing, one might think that all that needs to be done is insert the nozzle into the rotor and go.

"That's what we're here for," added Mayernick. 'Hunter has created an excellent product, but with all the variables in the field, performance can be different from what is expected. We help them tweak and adjust so all that technology can perform as planned.'