Irrigation comparisons

Drip versus spray. Drip is more efficient and better for plants, but it needs filtration, pressure regulation and periodic checking for clogged emitters. Spray is simpler and appropriate for turf. The common mistake is watering shrub beds with turf spray heads because that's what the original installer did in one pass.

Smart versus traditional controller. The savings are documented and the payback is usually short, especially where utilities rebate them. The honest downside is complexity: smart controllers need network connectivity and correct setup, and a badly configured smart controller can be worse than a well-set clock timer. Get it commissioned properly.

Audit versus redesign. This is the comparison contractors have the strongest financial opinion about. Audits are cheap and often solve the complaint. Redesign is warranted when zones were laid out wrong at the start — mixed head types, zones split across sun and shade, turf and beds sharing a valve — and no amount of tuning can fix a zone that was designed badly.

Rain sensor versus soil moisture sensor. A rain sensor is cheap insurance against watering in a downpour. A soil moisture sensor measures the thing you actually care about. WaterSense labels controllers using either approach, so both are legitimate; the moisture sensor generally does more and costs more.

How to choose

Convert beds to drip before redesigning the lawn

It's the cheapest meaningful efficiency gain in most yards, and WaterSense specifically recommends drip for shrubs and edibles.

Audit first, always

With roughly half of outdoor irrigation water wasted through inefficiency, tuning usually finds real savings before anyone digs.

Get a smart controller commissioned, not just installed

Zone types, soil, slope and plant settings all need entering. A default program throws away the benefit.

Redesign only for design faults

Mixed head types in a zone, or turf and beds sharing a valve, are design faults tuning cannot fix. Everything else, try tuning.

Check rebates before choosing a controller

EPA's rebate finder lists utility programs; contact your water provider directly since EPA doesn't administer them.