Until this year I have been using soaker hoses for watering with fair results. This year I am using one sprinkler and moving it around the yard. Other than some unhappy daylily foliage in the early spring, I have not noticed any problems from the over head watering. Actually, I have gotten better bloom on daylilies than usual.
Do sprinklers put out a greater volume of water than soaker hoses for the same time period of use?
Beth
soaker hose or sprinklers?
Beth, I have soaker hoses with varying degrees of success too. I am going to re-vamp and actually put in drip lines. To be successful with soaker hoses you need to use a lot of hose, and have some hose at each plant. If it's done correctly (unlike my own) it is far more efficient than overhead watering. Water does not evaporate off of leaves, top of the soil, from the air etc. as it would with overhead watering. I do not thing there is that much of a difference in flow rate if the soaker hoses are not kinked and are not too long. The power behind the flow lessens if there are too many hoses together.
Does that answer your question? I know it's not exact. I don't know the exact answer, but hubby and i have been checking to find the best way to water, and soaker hoses or drip lines are by far better than overhead.
GGG
I'm sure that a sprinkler uses a lot more water than soaker hoses for the same amount of time. That is the good thing about soaker hoses - you just water the roots of the plants you want and don't waste a lot of water. They are great for row crops but lousy for large areas such as lawns or beds.
To check this out put a sprinkler in a 5 gallon bucket (upside down so it won't spray outside the bucket) and turn on the water for 1 minute. Measure the amount of water in the bucket. It will be a lot harder to stick the whole soaker hose in the bucket unless it is new and still coiled. The idea is to repeat the same test and see how much water is in the bucket after one minute.
Drip irrigation would probably use even less depending on how many emitters you add to the water pipe. In Santa Fe, NM I saw a lot of houses and businesses using drip irrigation and min-misters for small lawns.