Swing Joint Assemblies

A swing joint assembly is a flexible connection that links the buried lateral pipe to a sprinkler head while letting you set that head to exactly the right height and angle. Because the joint flexes rather than holding the head rigidly in place, it makes precise installation simple and leaves room for easy adjustment later, after the surrounding soil has settled or the grade has changed. Just as importantly, that same flexibility lets the assembly absorb the shock of mowers, foot traffic, and vehicles passing overhead. Instead of transmitting an impact straight into the lateral pipe, the swing joint gives and recovers, protecting the lateral and the downstream fittings from cracking and pull-out.

Each assembly arrives fully pre-assembled and ready to install straight from the case, with no loose parts to source or glue in the field. It combines a length of heavy-duty LDPE flexible tubing — the funny pipe, or swing pipe, that gives the joint its bend — with Celcon M90 funny-pipe fittings and a Marlex HDPE street ell at the outlet. The Celcon acetal fittings grip the tubing for a secure, leak-free seal, while the Marlex street ells supply the rigid, threaded transition the assembly needs at the head. Together these components route water through sharp angles without disrupting flow, so you can reach hard-to-position sprinklers without fighting a stack of rigid nipples and elbows.

Assemblies are offered with 6” or 12” of tubing in ½” and ¾” inlet and outlet sizes and their combinations — ½”×½”, ½”×¾”, and ¾”×¾” — to match common lateral and head threads. Standard models use a single Marlex street ell, while the “X3” models are built with three street ells for additional articulation where a head sits well off the lateral or needs to swing through a wider arc. Throughout the line the materials are chosen for long, dependable service underground rather than for the lowest possible cost, so the same heavy-duty tubing, fittings, and ells stand up to years of buried use.

These assemblies are dimensionally compatible with Rain Bird SA-series swing joints, including the SA5, SA65, and SA125050, so they drop into the same installations and use the same standard ½” and ¾” pipe threads; see our notes on Rain Bird compatibility for the specific cross-references. If you would rather assemble your own to a custom length, you can build one from bulk swing pipe and individual fittings using our guide to building a swing joint.