Your lawn sprinkler system brings many years of service and saves you hours of labor. It waters your lawn conveniently and efficiently and frees up time to spend on more enjoyable pasttimes. It also reduces the work you have to do everyday, reserving your energy for more important tasks. Lawn Sprinkler repair bills can result from improper lawn sprinkler maintenance. You spent precious dollars on your lawn sprinkler system when it was first installed. You made, and are willing to make all the necessary steps to ensure that it will work for a long time. That said, it is very important to perform lawn sprinkler winterization before the cold season comes along.
Cold Michigan winters freezes every drop of water that is outside. Even water underground, and inside the pipes of your lawn sprinkler system. As water freezes inside the pipes, it expands and cracks the pipes, rendering the system useless as spring and summer arrive. Aside from the pipes, other equipment such as the expensive backflow device, shut off valves will also be damaged by frozen water. Activating damaged valves can create other problems as well. Do not wait for this to happen to you. Perform the proper lawn sprinkler winterization, before it is too late.
Lawn sprinkler winterization is performed by removing all the water out of the system before the freezing temperatures hit. There are three alternative methods for lawn sprinkler winterization; manual drain, automatic drain, and the sprinkler blow out. Remember to shut off the irrigation water supply first before continuing with any of the steps.
The manual drain method uses the manual drain valves. It is as simple as draining the mainline is drained, the boiler drain and all other manual valves to drain all the water between the shut off valve and backflow device from the system. Manual drain is the minimum required and does not fully protect you.
The automatic drain method uses the automatic valves located at the low points of the piping (if installed). These valves automatically drain water when the pressure inside the pipes is less than 10 PSI. Shutting off the irrigation water supply and then activating a station relieves the system pressure. This activates the automatic valve and drains out the mainline. Like the manual drain method, the boiler drain valve still needs to be done manually.
After any of the two methods is done pull up the sprinkler heads to drain the water out to the bottom of the sprinkler head's body.
The blow out method utilizes an air compressor to force air into the pipes and push the water out of the sprinklers. After all the water in the mainline is drained, drain the water in between the shut off valve and backflow device. Then go over all the stations in the system again to make sure there is no water left in any of the pipes. If needed, you can contact a licensed contractor to perform this method, however there are a few things to be careful of with some fly by night contractors.
With a large air compressor it is important to have a pressure regulator hooked up to the unit. This is due to the fact that the air compressor can put out 125 psi pressure. Qualified contractors will only pump 60 psi air into the system. This is roughly equal to normal water pressure. Bad companies will turn on all the valves and blow the very high pressure through the system. They do this to make their visit quick. If a contractor comes to you house for lawn sprinkler winterization and only stays 5-10 minutes then they likely used this method. Using the high pressure method for lawn sprinkler winterization damages the system and wears out the components. In the springtime, the home owner is left with lawn sprinkler repair bills because the damage done during the lawn sprinkler winterization is usually not repaired by the original company that caused the problem.
A professional lawn sprinkler winterization company will likely do one zone at a time with 60 psi regulators on the air compressors. This method takes on average of about 20 minutes to perform properly, and it will cost almost twice as much. However it saves costly lawn sprinkler repair bills in the future.
The final step in lawn sprinkler winterization is to clean the sprinkler heads and store them in a dry place after you complete the lawn sprinkler winterization steps. When the winter season has gone, you will want to run water through your system for a few minutes to flush out all the dirt and debris collected over time, as well as drive away any rodents or snakes that may be living in the pipes, since the sprinkler heads were removed. Taking care of the system by performing professional lawn sprinkler winterization can avoid lawn sprinkler repair bills when the cold Michigan winter takes hold. Take care of the system and it will take care of your lawn for you.
