This photo shows an example of a bad design. Pop up sprinkler heads like this are often found in the turf areas and they should be placed on flexible tubing. The way this sprinkler is set up is prone to breaking. If it gets kicked, stepped on, driven on, or anything, the force will transmit directly to the PVC piping, which will crack- that’s probably exactly what happened the sprinkler shown in this picture… and it will probably happen again. And even worse, just the act of digging up this sprinkler to fix it, exposes the main line to more possible damage from the shovel.

A better design would be for a T off the main line connecting a 2 foot section of flex piping (running parallel to the surface of the ground). At the end of the flex piping a threaded/slip 90 fitting would connect the sprinkler to the flex piping. That way anytime the sprinkler gets accidentally bumped, it will not cause any damages. If the sprinkle ever needs to be dug up, the chance of accidentally striking a pipe with a shovel is greatly reduced.