cutter ideas for a freshwater (not recirculating) laminar nozzle???

Hello everyone. I'm glad I found this forum!

I am working on a project to create a series of jumping laminar streams that will emanate from underground - basically the design is as follows - my laminar nozzles will be buried underground and fed directly from the pressure tank at my well. It will be a little area for kids to play in at a campground. Because the nozzles will be in the ground and the streams will be landing in the grass, a recirculating system is not possible - this should be ok because the system will only run for about 15 minutes per day the water waste shouldn't be too much and the ground should have ample opportunity to dry. The trick is that I need to have a cutter.

All of the cutter designs i've seen rely on diverting the stream - the problem is, this will create a a tremendous amount of waste and result in too much water standing in the area. I'm having trouble developing a system for cutting the stream and stopping the water flow.

The current nozzle design is an 8" tube with a .5" outlet. A piece of 1" pipe surrounds (but doesn't touch) the laminar stream for the first 3" from the outlet to get the stream out of the ground - that way dirt and grass doesn't fall into the nozzle.


I was wondering about the possibility of using a traditional solenoid or stepper motor cutter to divert the stream in combination with a solenoid valve on the inlet. The cutter could cut the stream, water would temporarily be diverted (maybe 1/2 a second) then inlet valve would close. To resume the stream, the inlet valve would open with the stream still cut. After a half second or so (or however long it takes to get the water laminar again) the cutter would move out of the path and allow the flow to continue.

This seems like an awkward way to do it though - one that would require double the control circuits and more potential points of failure...Does anybody have any advice on a simpler way to make it happen??

Also, not related to the cutter, but just as a protective measure, I have a plan to replace the little surround pipe (after the nozzle - just keeps junk from falling into it since it's underground) with a 1" sprinkler solenoid valve which will close when the system is not in use (if it has enough clearance inside to not interfere with the stream traveling through it untouched...I may have to use a 1.5") to protect the nozzle from debris when not in use. Obviously this can't be used as a cutter - it's just a protective device.

Thanks for any help you can give!

hi im doing a similier project but i am recirculating.the reason im cutting the supply is im using 8 nozzles seconds apart, so its for pressure reasons.the way im getting around the problem is using a monostable fitted to each nozzle. delaying the cutter by .5secs.so ive wired the monostable and solenoid in parallel and the cutter through the monostable.

Hi there, and welcome to the forum

What you ask about my first answer would be: not possible !!
To have a cutter you need 100% pressure all time for the water to cut in the same speed.
If you turn off water pressure with a valve, the water will need some time to build up the pressure.

Why can you not have a return system ?
The waste of water will be extreme high if you running it for 15minutes every day without a water return tank!

I have 2 nozzles in my garden, all my system is under the ground, and there is only 2 holes in the grass where the water jumps out.
Then the water enter my little pond that is connected to the water tank with 2 pumps that send the water into the nozzle

So my system is in loop, as it should be everywhere !