The Best Sprinkler | Reviews by Wirecutter
Top pick
With good range, adjustability, and a track record of durability, the metal-bottom Melnor XT42500M is a more reliable and easy-to-use oscillating sprinkler than its competitors.
If you want a sprinkler with plenty of efficient features that will last long enough for you to make good use of them, we think it’s worth spending $40 or so for the Melnor XT45200M, sometimes called the Melnor 65154AMZ. Melnor stands out among sprinkler manufacturers for being an established, popular, easy-to-find brand that customers can actually contact if they have problems, even years later. In several years of seasonal testing of our picks from Melnor, we haven’t had any such issues yet.
Melnor makes more than a dozen different oscillating sprinklers, but of the four we tested, the XT45200M was the most impressive in every category. Like our runner-up, the XT45200M came with clearly marked controls for water flow, left and right width, and arc length. These plastic tabs are easy to switch and move even when the sprinkler is active, and the sprinkler can deliver a long rectangular spray range of up to 4,500 square feet. In our tests, its wave of water suffered from much less wind drift than those of any of the other Melnor models. Although the main body of the XT45200M is plastic, its rust-proof aluminum sled gives it a bit more weight, stability, and durability, particularly in comparison with our all-plastic runner-up. This design also means the XT45200M is more likely to hold up after bad weather and other everyday abuses (the Green Thumb 4200MGT also boasts a metal base but has clunkier controls). The XT45200M has brass sprinkler nozzles as well, and a built-in metal sieve to filter out anything from the tap that could cause a clog.
In our tests, the spray from the XT45200M covered an approximate range of 8 square feet to 4,500 square feet, thanks in part to the built-in Zoom controls for water flow. While many other sprinklers come in a variety of sizes to cover different areas, the XT45200M comes in only one size—but it covers the second-largest area of the models in our test group, beaten only by its all-plastic cousin. We found the XT45200M to be highly adjustable within that range, too. It consistently soaked the 3 feet or so directly in front of it, even at the highest settings, unlike several other models we tested that somehow managed to miss the ground right in front of them. The Twin Touch tabs provide independent controls for the left and right width—each one controls half the sprinkler nozzles, which you can either point straight ahead or angle to cover up to 18 feet on either side. Although the controls don’t offer much sensitivity within that range, calibrating the coverage area with a combination of the Twin Touch, Zoom, and arc-length controls is easy enough. You can easily move these various switches while the sprinkler is in motion and still stay dry, too. Even the occasional wind-drift problem—which is almost unavoidable with any oscillating sprinkler—can be tempered within reason if you adjust the strength of the water output with the Zoom dial and then balance the arc length accordingly so you don’t accidentally water the sidewalk. The similar Zoom controls on the plastic Melnor XT45200 and the Green Thumb model weren’t quite as sensitive.
Like the other Melnor models we tested, the XT45200M comes with a free-spinning nozzle connector that allows you to screw a hose in or out without having to turn and twist the hose or the sprinkler itself, a nice feature that’s also found on several other brands’ models, including those from Gilmour and Orbit. This design simplifies the setup and breakdown process enough that it could incentivize you to take better care of your sprinkler, which will help your sprinkler last longer.
The Melnor XT45200M consistently maintains an overall rating of four out of five stars among Amazon and Home Depot customers. In the event of a defect, Melnor covers the XT45200M with a limited lifetime warranty.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Every hose-end oscillating sprinkler is bound to fail eventually without proper care and maintenance. Given that context, the XT45200M still has a pretty good reputation, although it would be nice if Melnor sold another model with more metal parts. A metal crossbar or oscillating gear, for example, could drastically improve the XT45200M’s durability and longevity.
The XT45200M doesn’t let you shut the water flow all the way off at the sprinkler (although you can still reduce the height of the spray). In this regard, we preferred the controls on the Gilmour Heavy Duty to those of the XT45200M, as the Gilmour model allows you to shut the water off completely from the sprinkler itself rather than forcing you to go back to the spigot.
Last, oscillating sprinklers in general are prone to malfunction. The gears that move the sprinkler bar back and forth usually rely on a combination of gravity and the water going through the mechanism, and every model runs the risk of getting stuck at some point (usually at the top) in the oscillation cycle. Based on reviews from long-term owners, however, we think this problem happens less often on the XT45200M than it does on other, cheaper models.
