I've been in irrigation for over 35 years, most of it here in Southwest Florida. I hold a state certified irrigation contractor license and still spend a good part of my week in the field on residential and commercial systems, pump stations, wells and controllers.

I joined to learn from you all and to help where I can. If you have a valve that won't shut off, a zone that won't come on, low pressure or a controller acting up, ask away and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction.

I have one zone with no access to AC, looking for battery powered anti siphon valve. Seeing Dig, but they seem crappy. Any ideas for products? Could I add a battery powered solenoid to a Hunter AS valve?

This is next to a valve box. What is it?

Hello there! Looking for advice on this repair. I am not a pro and I am trying to DIY this repair at my home.

The pipe wears broken pretty cleanly so I decided to do a slip fix. I used primer and cement and installed the slip fix right over the old pipe. The part i don't understand.... the adaptor where you screw in the new riser/spray head spins around and doesn't tighten? It just spins freely. I screwed in the riser and spray head and it leaks in that area. Is something wrong with then slip fix part? Hope not as it is cemented in. I don't know if I needed to apply cement or caulk around the bottom of the adaptor so it doesn't leak? It seems weird that it doesn't tighten.

Goodafternoon, y’all. I recently bought a house and I’m trying to locate my irrigation isolation valve. There’s a valve box that has a 1/2’’ coupling on a pipe. Anyone know what it’s for? If I don’t have an isolation valve can I use the back flow preventer to shut off the system for winter?

Pump is keeping shutting on and off the pressure trigger is set as low as possible any idea how to get pump cycling less without need of big pressure tank

Hope someone can help thanks

I had my irrigation system winterized 5 days ago. They said to watch for any leaks at the drain at the bottom (where I circled). It’s not consistently dripping, but is definitely wet the touch. Is this an issue? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

What is causing this leak?

Its very small. I shut off the spigot that i use to manually turn on the water for my drip line. I noticed this because one dripper would run non stop, slowly not nonstop. No matter how many days i didnt run water to my plants. Could it be the spigot itself that needs replacing?

Dug up my valve box today to get things ready for the season and I swear to god... the guy who owned this house before me used actual silver duct tape and zip ties to patch a main pvc manifold. who does that??

Been covered in mud since 8am trying to reverse engineer this absolute spaghetti monster of a setup. I even found a random red wire that just goes straight into the dirt. no solenoid. just dirt.

Saw a truck for black sheep landscape doing a fresh install a few houses down and ngl I am this close to walking over there and begging them to just rip my entire system out and start over. I don't even care what it costs at this point. I hate pvc glue and my lower back is completely destroyed.

Here’s what one session of watering with Philadelphia city water did to these saplings! What in the water is causing this damage? Metallic film, rapid browning, rapid drying/dehydration… And what to do to fix it? Is there a recommended hose filter, or something else we can do? Thank you

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

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.

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?

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

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.