Customer Reviews

Melnor 3900H Heavy Duty Metal Pulsating Sprinkler

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

My expectations of a new sprinkler: (1) Do a good job watering my grass. (2) Be quick and easy to position and adjust. Is that so much to ask? The Melnor 3900 fails on both counts.

Pros:
> Can throw water an impressive distance.
> Reasonably priced compared to a lot of other sprinklers.

Cons:
> You can either throw water clear into the next county, or you can throw it just a few feet. There's really nothing in between.
> The directions say that to control the distance of water throw, turn down the faucet. This did not work. Turning the faucet down low enough to affect how far the sprinkler shot caused the pulsating action to stop.
> Another suggested method for adjusting distance is to position a flap on the sprinkler to intersect the water stream. This helps, but it reduces the distance too much, causes water to shoot out to the side, and makes the sprinkler noisy. It is also very hard to adjust the flap; it has to be done with the water running (or you'll be running back and forth a dozen times to the faucet), which is a wet proposition.
> The sprinkler has to be assembled, which is just a matter of screwing the upright post into the base, but the admonition to not make it too tight is a little vague. I was afraid of stripping the screws or overcompressing the gasket or...something.
> Admittedly, this is not a terribly complicated sprinkler, but the directions are only printed on the box. If you want to save the directions to remember what that pin thing is for, you'll have to save the box.
> The adjustment clips for controlling how much of a circle the sprinkler covers are a little hard to turn, especially if you're trying to do it on the fly with the sprinkler running.
> Water shoots out all over the place, and this isn't because of leaking; it's just a poor design. If you want to set the sprinkler in a corner, for example, and set the clips for a right angle, you can do that, but you'll have this little path of overspray that exceeds your angle. You can account for that in setting the clips, but the overspray only goes about 10 feet, so then the area beyond that wouldn't be covered. As the sprinkler pulsates, it squirts a fair amount of water out to the side, too. When I set the sprinkler in a corner of my lawn, I came out later to find water running down the street just from that.
> The area of grass under the impressive arc doesn't actually get much water, just a little blow back. You get pretty good coverage right next to the sprinkler and at the end of the arc, but elsewhere, you're just misting the grass.

I was a little surprised to be so disappointed with this sprinkler after the mostly positive reviews it has received, but clearly different people have different expectations. The Melnor 3900 didn't meet mine. I'll be sending it back.

Bought at the beginning of summer and it has done great....I water out of the lake since the water is free if you live on waterfront property. I needed a good and tough sprinkler and this one fits the bill. Came in handy this HOT summer! Seems like the heat would eventually crack the plastic sprinklers but not this one since it's not made from plastic. I guess you get what you pay for! I DID!!

Works great! Does exactly what the manufacturer advertises.
It would be nice if the mechanism was made entirely of brass as opposed to zinc die castings. Don't drop it on a hard surface & it'll perform just fine!

This is the Melnor I bought and tried out. It is the Best one I have had yet. We needed to grow grass in a large area in our yard and this did the job of watering the lawn. Would highly recommend. Melnor is very hard to find so I went online and bought 2 different styles to try out. I like this one better than the other style I bought.

This all metal sprinkler is the best Melnor sprinkler we have tried. Should outlast the others by years.

I returned the sprinkler because it would not reverse. The second did the same thing. In both cases the reverse linkage hangs up, but for different reasons. I haven`t not been able to get any use out of it.

Worked great the first two times I used it. Go to use it a third time and the head stops turning. I oiled the bejesus out of it and now it will turn very slowly in one direction, but does not come back. Am I missing something? Where's the manual for this pos!?

This sprinkler was a little tricky to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, it's great. You can adjust it to spray in any number of patterns and directions, so you don't end up watering your house or driveway along with the lawn. I really feel like I'm saving water since I can aim it to water exactly the sections that need watering. Also, it's a great price for good quality, all-metal construction.

Sprinkler good quality as advertized, received today 01/18/2007, on time. Tried sprinkler and I'm well satisfied
with quality and performance....Also free shipping A++++++

Great item, quality is excellent. I wish the coverage area were larger... but it is definitely acceptable.