What it does and which one to buy
If beds sit near a lawn zone, you can water them from the sprinkler system and its controller instead of a faucet. A converter takes the place of one spray head, or of the head’s insides, and gives the drip line the filter and the pressure regulator that Rain Bird says it needs to work properly. Rain Bird gives a minimum of 15 psi and a maximum of 25 to 30 psi for a drip system, and both of its converters regulate to 30 psi.
Choose by the head you have. The Rain Bird 1800 Retro drops into a Rain Bird spray body that stays in the ground; Raindrip’s RS2DC screws onto the riser once the spray head is off, and Raindrip says it fits most major makers’ heads.
Convert the whole zone, or cap the other heads
Rain Bird says a drip system needs a zone of its own, apart from spray heads and rotors: when you convert a zone to drip, either convert every head on it or cap the ones you don’t convert. Its planter-bed kit includes 10 caps for its 1800 spray bodies for that. Leave a head spraying on the same zone and the lawn and the beds share one run time.
What the makers publish
| Converter | Where it fits | Pressure and filter | Flow and outlets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rain Bird 1800 Retro (1800-RETRO) | Inside a Rain Bird 1804, 1806 or 1812 spray body, as Rain Bird’s drip conversion guide and planter-bed kit page say (its product page names the 1804) | 30 psi out, from 15 to 70 psi in; 200-mesh screen | 0.5 to 6 gpm; one 1/2-inch outlet, with a barbed tee and elbow for the tubing |
| Rain Bird Riser Connection Kit | In place of an 1800 pop-up spray head, or on a riser or other standard 1/2-inch fitting | 30 psi regulator; 200-mesh filter | A swivel tee; flow not stated |
| Raindrip RS2DC (Universal Spray-to-Drip Conversion Kit) | On the riser, in place of the spray head (1/2-inch female thread); most major makers’ heads, Raindrip says | Filter regulator with a 150-mesh screen; its pressure not stated | Two swivel outlets for 1/2-inch (0.620 in outside), 5/8-inch (0.700 in) or 0.710-inch tubing or dripline, and a cap to close one; flow not stated |
Rain Bird also sells the 1800 Retro with everything for the beds, as its Planter Bed Spray-to-Drip Retrofit Kit (S2DRETROKIT): 200 ft of XFD dripline with 0.6 GPH emitters every 12 inches, 100 ft of blank drip tubing, 10 tees, 4 elbows, 10 couplers, 2 couplings with flush caps, 40 stakes, an insertion tool and the 10 caps, stated to cover 250 to 400 square feet. Raindrip’s kit holds the converter alone; its tubing and dripline are bought separately.
Fitting the 1800 Retro
Before buying, write down each head’s brand and model number (Rain Bird 1800, Toro 570 and so on): the City of Santa Barbara’s retrofit sheet starts there, because the heads decide the parts. Rain Bird’s drip conversion guide then gives four steps, with the spray body left in the ground:
- Unscrew the top of the 1800 spray body and lift out its insides. In an 1806 or 1812, leave the spring in the body.
- Take the insides out of the Retro and drop them into the empty body.
- Tighten the cap.
- Connect the drip tubing with the elbow or tee that comes with it, or screw on another part with a ½-inch female thread.
A Toro or brass head can’t take the Retro’s insides: Santa Barbara’s sheet replaces the whole head with the Rain Bird 1800 body the Retro comes in. Raindrip’s RS2DC goes on another way: take the spray head off its riser and screw the filter regulator onto the riser.
Cap the zone’s other heads, as the same sheet says: on a Rain Bird or Hunter head, unscrew the top and fit one of the caps that come with the Retro; a Toro head takes a Toro cap; a head of any other brand comes off so a PVC cap can go on its riser. If you run short of Rain Bird caps, its conversion guide names the one for spray heads: the 1800XC, or Xeri-Cap.
One more idea from the same sheet: make the last head on the zone a “tattletale”. Unscrew its spray head, fit an adapter and screw a white cap onto it; that capped head pops up whenever the drip runs, so you can see from the lawn that the zone is working.
How much dripline one converter runs
Rain Bird gives the 1800 Retro a flow range of 0.5 to 6 gallons a minute. Its XFD dripline, with a 0.6 GPH emitter every foot, lets out 1 gallon a minute per 100 ft, so one converter runs 50 to 600 ft of it. One 4 × 8 bed with four 8-ft rows holds 32 ft, about 0.3 gallons a minute: under that range, so plan at least two such beds on the converter (64 ft) or more rows. The kit’s 200 ft flows 2 gallons a minute, well inside it.
To count rows, emitters and fittings for your own beds, use the drip line and parts calculator.
If your beds aren’t near a sprinkler zone
The kits we compare start from a faucet instead: the kits page sets them side by side by the beds they cover and the parts each one includes, and the backflow preventer and pressure regulator pages explain the parts at the faucet.