I have sprinklers at a rental house, and many times, the sprinkler assembly (IDK if that's the right name; its the thing you buy that has the hollow cylinder, the pop up part, the spring, the filter, and the directable nozzle) has broken off where it connects to the underground piping system. The underground system is, interestingly enough, built from a bunch of those black "pipes" that you use for your irrigation. It was put in before I bought it, so I don't know why someone chose that?!?

Anyhoo. To reattach them, and I suppose because I needed something taller than the 4" sprinkler assembly, I had previously gone the route on the right in this picture (it's black; it might have also been what I "found" the first time I had to fix them). Its the type where you have the 1/2" female end screw on to the connection underground to give you the extra height you need, cut it down to size if needed, and then you screw on the sprinkler assembly to that. Its a softer plastic, that you can trim down with garden pruners. Looking for a replacement, I came upon the left side, two-part "solution" (it's a dark gray). The plastic on the dark gray pieces is harder than the plastic of the black part. Which is the better one to be using?

I would think the gray because it's harder, and thus less likely to break. On the other hand, if the gray its the stronger link in the chain, and if something needs to break (say someone steps on the sprinkler or whatever), then the break might instead happen down under ground, meaning a more involved dig-out effort to repair.

Thoughts?