Hunter Sprinkler Timer Tutorial

Rated 4.8 Across 500+ Reviews



Hey guys we are doing sprinkler repairs in Riverton so let's continue to talk about sprinkler timers. If this is your timer, I want to run down so you know exactly how to set it up, how to adjust it and make changes throughout the season. This is simply just a Hunter brand. It's called an X-CORE. Pretty straight forward. If you have it set, you're just going to, it's going to constantly show your time. Right now it's showing 11:11 a.m., and it's also showing, if you can see right above my finger, the day of the week. TH is for Thursday.Let's set it up. You want to flip this knob over to Current Time and Day. You'll set the year. You can just push up and down to the right year. Then you're going to hit the right arrow, month and day, day there. We want to make sure that it matches the same day of the week; that way you know you're on the right year. And then you've got the time, you can shift from a.m. to p.m. Then if you want to hit the right arrow, you can adjust your hours and then right again. You can adjust your minutes by going up and down. Once that is all set up, then you can start running through. So you want to set up your program, so Start Times. Start Times means it's not for every zone individually, but it's for the program. Usually we just, we have one start time, so Program A start time number one starts at 1:00 a.m. I would probably adjust this up more towards the 4:00 or 5:00 range. You can hit the up or down arrows to the exact time you want to do it. Rule of thumb is I like to have the sprinklers finishing off right about sunrise. That way, you're watering the lawn before the sun is fully out. You don't get a whole lot of evaporation. However, if you water early, early in the morning or really late at night, you have water sitting on the surface of the grass all night long and that's a problem because if it's really hot and really moist for a long period of time, you're asking to get fungus and other problems in the lawn. So you want to set that up to where we have that. Then you can hit right. You can have a second start time. You can have a third. Typically, I just want to do one start time, so we can hit that back to zero. And then your Run Times, this is going to be each zone. Remember, start times is nothing to do with each zone individually. It's just the entire program as a whole. One common mistake we see people go to each different start time and they think this is zones. This is just the program. Flipping it over to Run Times, this is the zone. Zone One, Zone Two, Zone Three. Typically, depending on the style of head, the type of soil you have, and how many heads you have per square foot of grass you're covering, if you have the heads that pop up that constantly spray one area just a fine mist over the same area, you're probably looking in the 15-minute range per run, per zone. If you have the sprinkler heads that rotate around, they spin around, the big heads that just constantly rotate, you need to water typically about double the amount of time just because they're not constantly spraying the same amount of grass. They're covering more area with less heads. So once you've got each zone set up for the amount of minutes you want to run, flip over to Water Days. You're gonna set up. So this canceling arrow means it will not water on Monday. So, Monday will not run. I would never recommend watering six days a week. I would say with this heat, maybe five at the max. You want your lawn to dry up at certain amounts of time because if it's constantly wet, like I said, you're going to get some fungus. I would rather cut off a few days and then just up the minutes, so you're watering more deeply, training your lawn to grow deep because those roots are just going to go where the water is. So if you're watering every single day for less minutes, your roots are not going to go deep. They're just going to go where the water is. So now that you've got the days, keep in mind you've got your start time, so 5:00 a.m. Tuesday is on, so that's Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. that will come on. Also, if you have a day of the week you like to mow, I would keep it dry that day so that you're not mowing wet grass. It's better for the lawnmower, easier for you to mow and it's healthier for the grass. Going over to this next one is Seasonal Adjustment. This is a really cool and easy way to adjust throughout the season. So if we get our temperatures that fluctuate up and down, you don't have to go to each zone and up them or down them. Just go up and down and adjust by every 10%. Say we get a whole lot of rain or the temperatures have suddenly gone down. You can literally just drop that percentage down, so you're not wasting water or vice versa. Say you have it set for spring and it's gotten really hot, really dry. You can simply just up every single one at that 20% difference. Okay. So when you have this set up, you want to leave it on Run. It's gonna show the time. Leaving it on Run just means it's going to run its cycle the way you have set it up. Say we do have some heavy rain and you don't want to water, just flip it to off for a few days. If you want to run one station. Say you're struggling with one area that's dry, you just want to run it one time. You can go over to one station, Manual One Station. Go over, select the exact zone you want. Take it down the exact minutes you want and then you literally just spin it right over to Run really fast. You want to skip over that Off pretty quickly and leave it on Run. It will show that it's running Station Three for 33 minutes or whatever you set it for. You can see this flashing head. It's a picture of a sprinkler head, which means Station Three is running. After this, it's going to go right back to its regular program because you've left it on Run. Say you want to run the entire program one time and not just one station. It's super simple. All you have to do is hold that right arrow, flips on Number One for the time that you are normally set it for, and then it's just going to run constantly. If you do want to run more than one program, which in most cases we don't recommend, you will notice if you flip it to Run, when we're manually running, it's showing A. So it's just running Program A. Say you have a garden that needs to be watered more often or at different times of the day. You can go to the Start Time, so you have Program A. You can go to Program B. Program B, so you can go let's start program be at 1:00 in the morning or whatever time you're setting it at, and then you can go to Runtime. So you want to just run one zone, because it's a garden, more often or at different times, and you can just set... Say three is a garden. You can set, okay, Program B is only going to water station Number Three on these days, so that it's going to run your regular A Program, but then Program B or C is going to run everything else. Typically, I don't recommend doing a more than just Program A. I hope this helps. If you have any more questions about Riverton sprinkler repair or want to learn 3 sprinkler tips, please let us know and I hope you have a great day.

View Our Lawn Care Services

Latest News & Blog

Why Does My Lawn Look Great In Spring But Struggle In Summer?

If you often wonder why your lawn starts to lose its vibrant and lush appearance every summer, you are not alone! Come learn the common causes of this issue and how to avoid them.

Learn More

Choosing The Right Fertilizer For Utah Soils

There are a wide variety of soils across the vastly different areas and climates of Utah, and that means different fertilizers need to be used based on the soil found on your property.

Learn More

8 Common Questions About Winter Lawn Care In Utah

Utah homeowners often think that lawn maintenance ends once winter arrives, but knowing how to maintain your lawn throughout the cold months is key to year-round health and growth.

Learn More