One thing I can say for this sprinkler, is that it worked as designed each and every single time without any issues, and that was with and without a water timer attached. For this level of reliability, I chose the Gardena OS140 as our best pop-up sprinkler. A garden sprinkler can save you time and effort, as well as water and money. However, it’s important to find the best lawn sprinkler to suit your specific garden. Sprinklers that last will usually be made of similar materials, such as ABS, polyethylene, or polypropylene plastic, and rust resistant metals or ones that have been coated to protect against corrosion. Unlike the sprinklers above, these do not oscillate or move. Most stationary sprinklers have two spray patterns: full or part circle. The soloman is made of metal, in silver or copper red, which gives it a solid feel, although it does rattle a bit at the top. It’s described as a “fun garden accessory for the kids” and with the right amount of pressure it does deliver. You can clean it easily and it ships fully assembled, so all you have to do is screw the connector in and plug and play. The connector itself is pretty low quality, however, which lets the ensemble down as there’s a fair bit of leakage.

The four settings (circular, semi-circular, square or rectangular spray pattern) are easily changed with a twist of the bright orange dial at the head. Given that most of us have rectangular gardens, these rectangular sprinklers can limit water wastage too.The flow rate of course depends on the water pressure in your area. Kärcher claim the maximum coverage area is 320m2. In real times, this is probably enough to cover a small garden without having to change the sprinkler’s location. For medium gardens you might have to reposition it once or twice. And for larger gardens a bit more. But that’s of course to be expected with any sprinkler. An adjustable spray pattern – buying a sprinkler with plenty of adjustable settings will save you money in the long run. You can customise the settings for your garden to avoid wasting water. Best oscillating sprinkler – Karcher premium oscillating sprinkler– this is probably the best if you have lower water pressure as you can concentrate the jets This model is a strange looking little thing, almost resembling a mini surface to air missile launcher or futuristic tank. The plain blue plastic base is in contrast with the grey sprayer head and its multiple orange switches, and it certainly stands out. This colour scheme is probably going to be one of those love it or hate it things, but I did like that it made the sprinkler easy to see and therefore less likely to be trodden on. Oscillating sprinklers are a pretty safe bet, and as long as you don’t have really low water pressure, or a very large lawn, you should be ok, and this is one of the reasons we chose the Karcher sprinkler for our best overall oscillator.

In the hope of keeping things simple, and not having to write thousands of words on the subject, I’d say that you should avoid automatic spinning sprinklers if you have low water pressure as they just won’t work properly. Likewise, don’t bother buying pop-up sprinklers such as the Gardena product if you aren’t willing to spend a long time setting it up, or willing to pay someone else to do it for you.Unlike the pro, the aquazoom allows you to change the power with a little dial at the hose end (though you could probably just do that at the tap, surely?). Much like other rectangular sprinklers, you can restrict the oscillator with two orange pinchy sliders to fine-tune your watering area to fit your garden to set the range (3-18m, depending on pressure). The longitudinal spray width can also be set flexibly between 3m and 14m at either end, with two independent sliders. If you have average water pressure of between 2 and 4 bar, then you should have no problems using the Guntek to its full potential, and enjoy close to its maximum range of 20.4 metres and 16.5 metre spray width. That’s not the largest coverage available, but should be more than enough for smaller gardens. There are a lot of different lawn sprinklers on the market and knowing more about each style will help you find a good garden sprinkler for the area you want to water. Rotary Sprinkler

Personally, I prefer to opt for metal whenever possible, and that’s why I would go with either the Orbit travelling sprinkler or the Aqua Joe oscillating sprinkler if it only came down to durability. Either that or something heavy duty like this. Types of sprinklers Now, I know that some of these features are present in other oscillating sprinklers, but we didn’t find any that had all of them like the Karcher did, nor did they have the excellent build quality to go with them. This sprinkler is very solidly put together and the materials make you feel like you’re getting your money’s worth, right down to the metal ground spikes. When we saw that this Aqua Joe oscillating sprinkler had the word ‘indestructible’ in the title, we had to put it through its paces to see how it fared in our best heavy duty sprinkler category. It didn’t disappoint. Products like Gardena’s pop-up OS140 sprinkler should ideally be used with a water timer, but travelling sprinklers such as the one we feature in this article from Orbit, can turn themselves off without a timer. Sprinkler adjustability Like several of the best garden sprinklers, you can adjust the oscillation and water flow of this Costwise sprinkler. In fact, it’s possible to separately adjust the left and right nozzles to get the exact spray pattern for your space. Fed up with watering your paths and wasting water? No more!

Full maintenance packages available

For gardeners who like to play around with settings and get them just right, it’s worth nothing that this sprinkler can’t be switched off from the unit itself. Unless you have a large garden, you may find that a rotary sprinkler wastes water, watering fences or even your neighbour’s garden. Rectangular Oscillating Sprinkler The type of sprinkler you need will depend on your garden size and shape. For most gardens, a rectangular sprinkler system is the most appropriate. This makes sense, given that our gardens are predominantly rectangular, and will avoid water wastage. Round rotary sprinklers can be useful in larger gardens as they tend to throw the water further.