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!

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

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’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?

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.

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?

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!

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 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.

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.

Update: I am learning (learned) that there really isn't such a thing as a wide selection. So I'll see if I can make a standard rectangular 10" X 15" box work.

Thanks!

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I have a project which resulted in my needing to change the size of a valve box (in the ground). Is there a great source for a wide selection of valve boxes? Do they actually come in a reasonably wide variety of sized?

I only need a specific size, or as close as I can get to that size. That's the only reason I'm looking for a wide selection.

Specifically (ideally) it would have a bottom (valve level, underground) dimension of 9" deep and 19" wide. Needs to be 12" tall. Dimensions at top can be significantly narrower.

Online.

Big Box.

edit: In the event it is a question - the valves are simply manual shutoff valves, not control valves, so I don't need a ton of space.

Yes, I Googled "valve box", etc.. But that results in a sh..ton of links to Sooo many different places where some only have a narrow selection of sizes, some don't really even have them, etc..

So I figured I'd ask here while I was looking in case some irrigation person out there had a great place to go (online, or big box) where I could be reasonably confident that if that place didn't have a size close to what I want then such a size doesn't exist. Make sense?

edit: I guess I was naive to think there would be a multitude of valve box sizes such that I could find one "just right". From a valve box business perspective, that wouldn't make good business sense.