We blow out our sprinklers every year and have never had this problem before. We blew out 7 of our 13 zones and then the heads stopped popping up and air is coming out of the PVB. We have a pretty big air compressor. Using 30-45 PSI, tried increasing it but did not change anything. Not sure what else to try.

Customer had 'some guy the neighborhood recommended' install a replacement PVB. She luckily had a master valve before it (even if that should've been an iso), so when it popped, it wasn't a constant leak, but all her run times were 30 minutes and she only called us after her lawn died, so it probably was why her water bill was so high. I used the same PVB for replacement after inspecting it for any issues, just replacing the PVC/legs (all the way down to ground for good measure), but that's not exactly the right glue for PVC lol. Please don't use CPVC glue on PVC, especially not on the backflow preventer!

A 3/4" PVC fitting has a socket depth of about 1".
And once it's primed and glued, the pipe will pretty much bottom out.
But when dry fitting, it won't come close to that, and if it does, it will be like trying to get two nested 5 gallon buckets separated.
Are the any hacks? Or just measure it?

TLDR: I think the fix is to just strip and rewire the colors to communication wire but am not sure on the combination.

Just last week, my automated sprinkler system stopped working on all zones after a heavy day of rain.

So far I know that:

• The actual electronic sprinkler system has power and does work (Orbit) and has retained all my setting start times, run times, and the schedule.
• All wires for all stations are connected properly into the terminal and are secure.
• All sprinkler stations work when turned on manually at the solenoid.
• Rain sensor was turned on when I first checked. The photo shows it in off and the system still doesn't respond (with shine or rain)
• The main sprinkler water valve works perfectly fine. (i.e. shuts off water when turned off, vice versa)

I looked at the wiring and while the system is old and has been with the house since 2010, the wires look frazzled but then again, I feel like they've always looked like that whenever I trim the trees just right next to it.

At least right now, I don't think this will need a complete rewiring but I also don't have a multimeter to measure it at the moment.

Looking at the wires again, I actually don't know which combination is which for each electrical nut.

When I first checked, all the caps were off but the bundles were still connected by the twist-ties.

I do know that the white communications wire should be connected to all stations, and since all stations don't work, would that mean just the white wire needs to be fixed?

I attached photos as best I could to show the situation I'm dealing with.

Thank you all in advance!

Aloha from Maui,

I have a tropical plant garden I'm putting some drip lines in and had a question about layout. The garden is about 30ft long and 6 ft in depth and butts up against a fence. I have a 1/2 supply line running against the fence at the back of the planter.

I'd like to have a valve to some parts of the garden as some parts need less water than others.

Should I run 1/4 off this supply line? Or should I place a T in the supply line every 10 feet with a short length of supply line which has the 1/4 lines connected to that? A valve would be at the beginning of each of these supply line spurs to control flow.

Is it possible for irrigation to cause such a large sinkhole? Soil is soft very deep, can push this rake in almost 3 feet. Inside is a cavern that I'm surprised has not collapsed. There is no leak when irrigation is off based on my water meter which detects even a minor leak. This sinkhole is located around 10 ft downhill from valve box. I'm scared to run irrigation lines to check in case it makes it even worse. What is the best course of action?

Hello,

Recently moved in to a place and I've been working to fix up the previously rarely used irrigation system. A large tree root under this spot broke the line at that T joint and also where it connects to the next pipe - Looks like when they installed they tried to just go up and over it but who knows how long ago that was, and it didn't hold up long term.

Best way to replace this connection? Any advice appreciated. Looks to me like that connection is broken at both joints you can see for the line going up. The line going out to the left looks OK. Thanks!

So I’ve been doing this work a long time. Every season when it’s time for blowouts, I have a plethora of Rainbird scrubber valve that just don’t wanna open under compressed air to blowout via the clock. I always have to go and manually open the valve. I’ve tried lower psi, higher psi, cracking the ball valve on the compressor etc. anyone have solutions? On large commercial properties it’s a chore to open up 40+ valves. These valves all work fine in operating season for irrigating. Some are newer some are older. Only seems to happen with the 1.5” and bigger ones.

I’ve got a well pump running on a 3 zone timer and distributor that waters my lawn and garden and want to add a separate line to water my trees at different times. Any ideas?

Edit: okay, maybe these aren't blowout valves... I ran each zone and no water came out of any of these while unkept. So now I'm baffled as to what these are.

I have individual zone blowouts around my house... The threaded capped pipe... But what is this pipe with a shut off valve and what looks to be a one-way valve at the top?

Hey folks, I'm looking for a quick sanity check before I start glueing PVC this weekend (never done this before 😅).

I have an existing 3 Irritrol anti siphon valves (3rd one has a drip filter/regulator on the outlet). The underground supply line terminates directly under the 3rd valve with a 90° elbow pointing up into the inlet riser.

I need to add 1 valve right now and want to add 2 extra for more future zones (so adding a rail for 3 solenoids total).

I'm considering two options:

1. Cut the horizontal supply line underground right before the bottom 90° elbow, add a coupling + bridge pipe. Then run a new horizontal manifold of tees at the same depth everything sits flat on the trench bed.
2. Since the 3rd valve has a union on the riser, cut the vertical pipe a couple inches above that bottom elbow, put a tee there, and run the new manifold horizontally across from that higher point (around 4-6" deep).

Option 2 feels like way less diging and headache to line up, but I'm worried having 3 new valves hanging off a tee on that vertical pipe creates too much leverage/strain on the bottom joint over time.

I attached photos with current state and drawing for options 1 and 2.

A few questions:

• Has anyone run an expansion like option 2 long term without cracking?
• Should I just dig out the deeper trench, and keep the whole manifold rail flat on the ground?
  
• Also, can I use a tee at the end of the line (tee4 on the photos) and cap it or should I use 90° elbow?

Appreciate any advice!

Is there a 1/4-inch punch-in Tee? I need a T-fitting with a single long barb on the bottom that punches directly into a 1/2-inch main line. The top needs two standard 1/4-inch barbs so I can connect both ends of my drip ring directly to the main line without using a jumper tube.

I have 20 emerald greens recently planted.

I prefer one main line and 1/4 rings branching off rather than 2 parallel main lines with emitters.

To make things simple I will have the 1/2 main line close to trunks then connect to a T and that T to the 1/4 ring.

I have a surface pump that supplies well water to my sprinkler system. I’m looking for suggestions on the size of air compressor to use and DIY tips for winterizing both the pump and sprinkler system. The setup has four zones, with about six or seven sprinklers per zone. While there’s plenty of information about blowing out systems in other ways, I can’t find complete guidance specifically for a pump-based sprinkler system.

cracked t-fitting where circled

Is there any way we can add some filters and/or a rule to prevent the massive influx of winterization help requests? It's already started and every fall/winter the sub is absolutely flooded with pictures of valve boxes and other random bullshit from homeowners asking for help winterizing their irrigation. I think it's annoying as hell but I'm not sure how the other professionals feel. Anyone have anything to add?

I have an old sprinkler system that’s probably around 40 years old. It doesn’t have anywhere to hook up a compressor to winterize. I have a valve in the basement that feeds it which I have turned off. That valve has a bleed port.

Why does it have nowhere to hookup a compressor? Does it train in a different way? How would o go about adding a hookup?

TIA!

Hi, I bought a house about 2 years ago and it came with a shallow irrigation well in the backyard. I replaced the head that was crack and the piping coming up from the well. Pump is an old Sears self priming model, it starts and I think sounds like it's running correctly, but I can't seem to get it to pump correctly. I've filled the tank, I can hear the impeller spinning, when I open the hose bib partially air is coming out. Does anyone have any experience getting older wells going? Am I missing something?

Photo in the comments because I accidentally posted without it.

Two zone drip system. These boxes are about 18-20” deep. I turned off the water at the separate shut off, removed the solenoids. Can’t find any drain end caps. I’m not seeing another way to blow out the system other than attaching my compressor to the test cocks, but I’ve read it’s not recommended to do that ( and the quick connect in the picture is below the backflow, which seems to not be the right place for it). Am I missing something? Should I hook up to the test cock? Get a new quick connect connector and put it on the test cock after the backflow?

I just moved into my girlfriend’s house and it’s my first time encountering a set up like this. Can anyone give any advice on how to hook up an air compressor to this backflow set up? Attached are pictures of the backflow, along with the sprinkler system components underground. Turned off the upper faucet that feeds water to the system from the house, but past that I’m not sure how to proceed with winterizing. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Recently I had to repair a cut in a section of poly pipe. I dug far enough to have room to maneuver the pipe to get the couplers on and enough room for the repaired poly to fit into the coupler, I got it done but it required much more digging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bbIRBOhOEM

I'm in the USA and not sure what the equivalent item would be for poly pipe.

This makes sense for PVC, https://www.homedepot.com/p/ProLine-1-in-PVC-Irrigation-Compression-Slide-Repair-Coupling-160-505HC/100175547, but what similar product can I use for poly pipe?

Thanks.

Getting ready to winterize my sprinkler system and was curious what size compressors DIY users? I have a 5HP 20 gallon Coleman Powermate (tank working pressure at 135PSI) and a 6gal (can’t find the HP on it) Bostitch (150PSI) pancake compressor at my disposal. Which is better to use to blow out the system or is there a better compressor I should look into getting for this?

And before someone says to pay someone or the rate they get, in my area they aren’t cheap and I’d like to do it myself. lol.