I'm driving myself bats. I've been super lucky as I haven't blown out my system for a few years now without damage. I think I'm pushing my luck as winters here can be well below zero for days or weeks at a time. Sadly, I've got old man brain and cant remember how I did it in the past.

I've got a well soley for irrigation use, so no backflow issues. I've fashioned a hookup to connect to my compressor and can isolate the well from the valves. I'm attempting to blow out the zones one by one with limited success. I've been futzing around for so long I can't remember the proper positions of the valve operations when I started a few hours ago.

What position should the solenoid valve and the bleeder valve be when blowing out a zone? And what position should they be returned to for normal summertime operation?

Water shutoff pictured here. There is the main ball valve for shutting it off and the drain spigot on the side there.

Today I had my sprinklers winterized. I had the shutoff valve in the off position and the drain spigot open. Underneath the drain spigot was a small paint tray which I keep there for whenever I open it up to capture whatever water might trickle out.

Normally I don't see any water in here after winterization, but today, shortly after the sprinkler company blew out my sprinklers, we saw that the paint tray under the spigot was filled with water. It also looked like some water may have splashed to other parts of the room. It almost looks like the spigot shot water out while they were winterizing, not a super crazy amount but nothing I've seen before, or at least I don't think so.

Is this normal or is there something I should get checked out here? And if the latter, is that a plumber job or a job for an irrigation pro?

Thanks!

I've got a wet patch in my backyard that's pooling some water. My main water meter shows about 1.5-2.5 gallons/hour flow even when everything's been shut off.

I suspect it's either a leaking irrigation valve or some sort of break in the main irrigation water line.

I'm no expert or even close to knowing how these things work.

I just want to know a little ahead before I call someone to come out to fix it.

If it's some sort of break in the main irrigation water line, I would be seeing more than just 1.5-2.5 gal/hr flow, right?

Does this mean it's more likely a leaking valve? I'm so confused.

Hi there, I have a 16mx10m garden in the UK and was planning on getting the sprinklers below. I was going to connect this via a hosepipe to a outdoor water tap.

a) do I need to worry about backflow and if so, what do I need to do?

b) Do i need to consider draining water in winter?

Thanks in advance

Items considering to purchase:

SLW2 – includes 25m of 20mm pipe, tap connector, 2 pop-up sprinklers with interchangeable nozzles, 2 swing joints, adjustable key for pop-up and compression fittings.

Hunter 2-Zone Bluetooth Tap Timer – BTT-201 connect to tap

Here we go again boys! Let's fix this up. I'll post after pics in a while lol

Hey everyone,

Ever since I had an irrigation system installed last month, I hear this violent banging noise for a few seconds when my irrigation system kicks on (only with my first zone). It sounds like it's banging a pipe in my garage near my water heater. Zones 2-4 run flawlessly without any loud banging. Has anyone experienced this and know a fix? I obviously want to fix it as it's both very irritating to listen to and stresses me out hoping my pipes don't burst. TIA!

UPDATE:

I may have solved the issue with a quick re-wire. I switch my zone 1 (5 heads) with zone 2 (low flow flower bed) in the wiring. Ran a quick test and no banging. Will observe the next couple days when the scheduled watering happens.

Hey Guys -

I'm curious to see if there's a way we can leverage our current irrigation system to help with a new astroturf area I'm putting in.

Our family lives on a .75 acre lot which was developed about 10 years ago and has a Rainbird irrigation system with 9 zones and works very well. We have 3 dogs and in trying to keep the back yard clean, have designated a ~10 square area beside the house for them to potty in. Right now that area is bare ground but will soon be putting in astroturf.

The area currently has 2 irrigation sprinklers which are part of a zone we have in the back plus an NDS 420C Pop-Up Drainage Emitter about a foot away. I'm capping the 2 sprinklers for now.

Questions

1. If I were to replace the pop-up cover of the drain (red arrow) with a grate cover, would it be sufficient to nightly wash off the astroturf into it?
2. What would be the best way (if possible) to leverage the existing sprinklers (yellow arrows) to potentially wash off the astroturf nightly instead of using a hose? The two that are there now are Hunter Pro-Spray bodies with MP1000 heads with up to 40psi (according to AI). Just get more powerful sprayers I guess and ensure there's slope to drain it properly?
3. There are a couple of irrigation valve boxes (?) (blue arrows) in the area as well. I assume I just need to keep them accessible?

Note: Even though it would be awesome to find an automated solution, we are planning to take care of the "solids" ourselves.

Any ideas, thoughts, or concerns would be appreciated - Thanks!

Valve is leaking as shown in the picture below. Don’t know how to approach this, do I try taking it apart and replacing the parts that sit on top of the valve body, or replace the entire valve.

I'm thinking of switching all of my compression fittings as they inevitably fail to permaloc / twist lock couplings. In this case, one end of the tee is perfectly too short. Which asshole made that cut? Either way, any thoughts towards correcting before I just dig up a bunch of extra space and extend it with a coupler?

We bought a relatively large 2 story house a few years ago with an undocumented lawn irrigation system. The house was built in 1981, and the system may be that old. It has Rainbird plastic retracting sprinker heads. There are eight working zones that wrap around the house, with a lawn area on three sides and a narrow strip of garden beds on the north side.

I cannot find a main shut off valve for the irrigation system inside or outside the house. The house is on a slab, so there's no basement to search for a water line running from the house to the yard. The house water comes into the house up from the slab in the garage, with a shut off valve there. The water line then goes up into the finished ceiling, and all the ceilings in the lower level of the house are finished.

My (long shot) question to lawn irrigation experts is, where would an installer that long ago have put a shut off valve? In the lawn somewhere next to the house? Inside the house behind some panel? How could I find it?

I just bought my first house (yay!) and I want to cap off the sprinklers. There's literally no grass and tree roots everywhere so no point in having them. I tried capping them off at each sprinkler head but a few have been leaking (and making a swamp). The last sprinkler (furthest away) is for my drip system which I want to use. What would be the most logical way to cut the first two off from water but keep the 3rd active?

I'm an irrigation system novice. This system came with the house and has worked fine for the past few years, but towards the end of this season it started blowing out a pressure relief valve whenever the pump shuts off. Any idea why it would do this and how I can fix it. I'm pretty DIY capable.

Hi everyone! I'm a new homeowner and know very little about irrigation systems, so I'm hoping to get some advice on where to start.

Our house came with an irrigation system connected to a Rachio 3 controller in the basement. We haven't used it yet and aren't sure whether the previous owners maintained it or when it was last run. The prior owner was a spirited DIYer and Ive been correcting some of his attempts at fixes/renovations at other spots in the house.

I've attached a few pictures of the outdoor equipment. From what I can tell, there's some kind of backflow preventer or valve assembly, a vertical pipe going into the ground, and an underground box with wiring and what look like valve components.

A few questions for those more experienced with irrigation:

• Does anything in these pictures look unusual, damaged, or concerning?
• Can anyone help identify the equipment and explain what each part does? It seems like there are a lot of valves?
• Where would you recommend starting with an inspection before trying to run the system?
• Is there anything I should check or avoid doing before turning on the water or running the Rachio controller?
• Would it be reasonable for a beginner to test the system themselves, or would you recommend having an irrigation professional inspect it first?

I'm happy to take more pictures or provide additional details if that would help. I'd appreciate any advice on how to approach this safely and figure out what I have before trying to use it.

Thanks in advance!

Background: 14 year old home. Assuming the irrigation system is original. 8 zones controlled by a Hunter X-core. Have owned the home for almost 5 years with no problems with the system, except for replacing a soaker line a couple years back.

Problem: This summer the system started acting haywire. It will run twice or even three times a day even though I've double and triple checked the programming. I even cancelled/deleted the entire "A" channel programming and reprogrammed it in the B channel. Same problem.

I'm thinking about replacing the controller to see if that will resolve the issue. But I wanted to post here and get some feedback before I pull the trigger on a new controller.

Not a lot of experience with irrigation systems, so if what I've provided isn't clear, hit me with some questions, please. Thanks in advance for the help!

It was quitting time Friday, and I had just finished setting the last of 8 systems in an HOA after overseeding. I turned around and noticed new fence posts that weren't there 2 days ago when we audited the system. As soon as I saw them, I just knew that I'd be digging a hole. Sure enough, they got the 2" main and 13 strand wire on both sides of the back yard. Now we're trenching instead of digging, because this post is in an old tree stump that we can't get through.

Noticed standing water and wet soil around one of the 32SA rotary heads. Pulled the head up and didn’t notice anything that looked like a leak. Dropped it back down and you can see water coming up through the distance adjustment dial. I put the rainbird pull up tool in the adjustment slot and it looks to have stopped.

Assuming there’s a seal under the dial that may be bad? Can the dial be swapped or do I need a new head? Any advice is appreciated.

I called out someone as I had a continuous leak from one of my backyard sprinkler heads and noticed my water meter was moving very slightly. I communicated this, and the contractor repaired the zone valve connected to that sprinkler. I noticed the leak was still present and also noticed another sprinkler was leaking so he came back out and he located and replaced the master valve, which solved both leaks. I am wondering if he should have known to check the master valve for a leak first or if there was no way of knowing which valve was at fault? He has charged me for labour and parts for both valve reolacements, but I am wondering if I should have asked for a discount since the first zone valve he replaced wasn't faulty. I don't know a lot about reticulation, and the money has already been paid, so this post is more for peace of mind.

Important note for context: he had to locate the valves. I didn't know the location of any of them since the previous owner installed the system.

Hi,

We previously had a manually operated sprinkler system, but after almost 15 years of use, it was becoming harder to turn each station, so we upgraded to an automated system.

We got a Hunter X-Core, and the gent who installed it set the default program (A) to start at a time where I would have to turn off the Run midway through so I could reverse across the lawn in the morning.

So we set up program C for a more convenient time. 4 stations, 15 mins each. However, we noticed that after it finishes station 4, it starts cycling back through the previous stations. I didn't notice until I heard the water on the window of the room I was in. But there are definitely only 4 stations on that program.

We can't see anything in the programming guide that explains why it would do this - and to be frank it just seems odd; it has 4 stations, it makes sense for it to end after the last.

Anyone know why it's doing this? Is it just a thing the X-Core does? A thing that program C does?

Seems awfully wasteful if you set it to Run when you aren't home and it does 2+ full cycles.

I have a irrigation line that cut at the end of it. It's 1/4 tubing. I ordered 1/4 end plug but its literally not fitting for the life of me.

Anyone have suggestions??

I’m at my whits end with this project. I got a 3 valve Orbit manifold from Home Depot. Out of the box one valve gets stuck open. After finding out everyone hates Orbit, I replace it with a Hunter valve which seems to operate correctly in terms of opening and closing with the solenoid/controller. I don’t have any of the outflow pipes hooked up yet so that I can test everything and am seeing the Hunter valve let a small trickle of water through when the other valves downstream from it turn off. Is that normal or is the Hunter fucked too? Idk if it’s relevant but I swapped the solenoids to DC solenoids and my controller is a DC controller. Are they somehow not strong enough to hold the valve fully closed? Should I even care about this?

Hi Everyone,

I just recently had a lot of bushes removed from the side of our house.

I know it looks horrible right now (needs pressure washing then paint, and the foundation needs to be built up). However, right now I am concerned about these tall sprinkler heads that I no longer need.

How do I get rid of them, or at least minimize their appearance?

Can I unscrew the ling top part and then put a "cap" on what is left at the bottom?

Can they be unscrewed, and is there a place at the very bottom that can be "capped" off?

I would greatly appreciate any comments, advice, feedback (good or bad), sharing of personal experiences (good or bad), and opinions, as well as any "hacks" or "workarounds" for this situation.