A broken or missing sprinkler head does not just leak — it becomes an open pipe, discharging far more water than a working head and at a much higher rate, for the entire time that zone runs. The second cost is hydraulic: an open head drops pressure across the whole zone, so every other head on it underperforms and the lawn suffers while the bill rises. This is one of the cheapest irrigation repairs and one of the most expensive to ignore.
Why a broken head is worse than it looks
A functioning sprinkler head restricts flow deliberately. The nozzle is a calibrated orifice that turns supply pressure into a measured spray pattern at a known application rate. That restriction is the whole point.
Break the head off at the riser, or snap the body below the nozzle, and the restriction is gone. What remains is an open pipe at zone pressure. It discharges at a much higher rate than the head ever did, straight down into the soil at one spot, for every minute of every cycle. A head that sprayed a measured pattern across a section of lawn is now dumping water into a hole.
This is why the visible symptom — a geyser, a bubbling patch, a soggy area that never dries — understates the problem. You are not looking at a drip. You are looking at the highest-flow point in the entire zone.
The knock-on effect on the rest of the zone
Irrigation zones are designed around a flow budget. The supply can deliver so many gallons per minute at a working pressure, and the zone is laid out with a head count that fits inside it, with overlapping coverage so no patch relies on a single head.
An open head consumes a disproportionate share of that budget. Pressure across the zone falls, and every remaining head operates below its design pressure. Rotors slow down or stop rotating. Spray heads produce a weak, short pattern instead of reaching their neighbour. The overlap that the design depended on disappears, and dry areas open up between heads.
So the homeowner experience is often the reverse of what you would expect: one head is wasting water heavily, and the lawn is getting drier. People respond by increasing run times, which multiplies the waste from the break without fixing the coverage.
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Diagnostic-first visits across North Georgia. Call 770.335.8595 or request service — you get an estimate before any work begins.
What to do about it today
- Stop the automatic program. Put the controller on the off or rain setting so the zone stops running on schedule. This costs nothing and stops the loss immediately.
- Decide whether to isolate the zone. A broken head on a lateral line only discharges while that zone is energised, so switching the controller off is usually enough. If water flows continuously even with the system off, the fault is upstream of the valves and the irrigation shutoff valve should be closed.
- Mark the head. A flag or a stone saves locating time later, particularly if the break is not visible when the system is off.
- Have the zone checked, not just the head. Heads snap for reasons — mower impact, a shifted riser, a head sitting too high, root movement, pressure too high for the head. Replacing the head without addressing why it broke means replacing it again.
What the repair costs
Irrigation Medics bills $125 for the first hour on site and $80 per hour after, with parts separate. As a general North Georgia market figure, sprinkler heads themselves commonly run roughly $12 to $35 each depending on type, with rotors at the higher end and small spray bodies at the lower end. Nozzles alone commonly run roughly $4 to $15. Because labour is billed by time, replacing several heads in one visit costs far less per head than calling about one — so it is worth walking the whole system and dealing with every marginal head at once. Those ranges are market estimates rather than quotes; see the cost guide.
Related answers
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Services that fix this
Sprinkler Head Repair
Geysering heads, heads that will not pop up, spray on the driveway and the dry patches they cause.
Read more →Sprinkler Repair
Heads, nozzles, coverage and zone faults — repaired and re-tuned so the whole lawn actually gets water.
Read more →Low Sprinkler Pressure
Heads that barely rise, spray falling short, one zone weaker than the rest — and what actually causes it.
Read more →Where we work
Irrigation Medics repairs irrigation systems across Hall County and the Lake Lanier communities, the Gwinnett corridor through Duluth, Suwanee and Buford, and North Fulton and Forsyth — Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell and Cumming. Same rates throughout. See the service area.