What is a sprinkler manifold?

A sprinkler or "valve" manifold is the heart of a sprinkler system. The water source (hose faucet, sprinkler main line, etc.) feeds into the manifold and then the valves in the manifold redirect water to different watering areas. Its reason for being is that most water sources have insufficient pressure and flow to water all areas at the same time, so the manifold allows watering to be divided into smaller areas or "zones". A simple way to visualize a sprinkler manifold is as a small letter "m" in which the water source connects into the top of the "m" and then a valve in each of the legs opens and closes to allow water to flow to each zone. Valves in a sprinkler manifold may be controlled either manually or automatically using a sprinkler timer or "controller" which is the brains of an automatic sprinkler system.