How to Raise, Lower, and/or Straighten Sprinkler Heads

Over time, yards & landscapes change, which results in sprinkler heads ending up too low, too low, or just crocked. These are tasks than can be preformed by most people in good shape and don't mind doing a little digging and yard work.

Depending on how your irrigation system was designed and built, your heads could be attached directly to the PVC pipe, or attached via a swing assembly or with flexible pipe, marlexes, and spiral barb fittings. If your system is older and build with the heads directly into the PVC pipe, I highly recommend adding a swing assembly to give you more flexibility on head placement and it also helps prevent PVC pipe breaks from simple bumps with mowers or tripping over sprinkler heads.

A swing assembly (called swing joints also) is made up of 1' of flexible pipe, with a 1/2" male threaded spiral barb on one end which attaches to the pipe, and either a 1/2" or 3/4" spiral barb and marlex on the other end where the sprinkler head attaches to.

If you heads are above ground and are not in a lawn area where they need to be underground, then you could easily raise or lower them by cutting and adding or reducing with the use of appropriate size, regular slip by slip couplings and pipe if adding. Just use the same size couplings and pipe whether it is 1/2", 3/4", or 1".

Heads installed with swing assembly's will need to be straightened every few years, depending on soil condition or landscape use. Heads directly into the PVC may stay straighter longer (if plumbed right), but they tend to get brittle over time, are an eyesore, and become a nascence. No matter what the landscape design, I highly recommend the use of underground, retractable heads. Just remember that your system will require routine maintenance just like your automobile.

Also, if you are making changes to your landscape you may find the need to raise, lower, or even move sprinkler heads. This can all be done with PVC pipe, PVC fittings, and PE (flexible pipe), spiral barb fittings, swing joints or swing assemblies. Thread the spiral barb fittings into the female threaded side or end of the pipe. The marlex end attaches the sprinkler head from the spiral barb on the other end and the sprinkler heads.

When moving heads, don't run funny pipe further than 15 feet or so. If you run it too far, you will loose pressure and the sprinkler head won't pop up. Well, good luck and have fun with your irrigation!

Scott
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

My System Stopped Working, Please Help.

I get emails everyday from people looking to repair their sprinkler systems. I love trying to help people learn and figure out how to fix their irrigation themselves. I wanted to share one with you today and my reply to it.

"Hi Scott,

My system stopped working altogether. My grass is dead and I checked the timers for the correct time,watering schedules for the different zones, etc..but none of the sprinklers are coming on! The timer appears to not connected to the junction box, but rather the wires are in a pvc pipe and the timers have batteries in them - the batteries are new and the digital display(s) are visibly working.I appear to have a have a pressurized system. I checked each head to ensure they were not clogged and also pulled each of them up and found several heads where it appears there is no water in the line(s)when I pulled on the extension(s)

Do the solenoids go bad - and if they do, If one goes bad does it stop the rest from working? I am an idiot when it comes to troubleshooting systems like this that I don't understand. I need help, but on a very limited budget!

Any suggestions?

Any help will be greatly appreciated - Maybe you could suggest troubleshooting steps ranging from the easiest to the most difficult.

Thanks much,
Steve
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Hello Steve,

The batteries in the digital timers do not operate the system, they only are a backup to keep the time and program. If you see a digital display, then you do have power getting to your timer.

If you do indeed have a pressurized system, first make sure that your there are not main shut-off valves off such as any ball-valves or backflow preventor turned off.

Next, locate any of the electric valves in the ground and try to activate them manually by turning the solenoid (top handle with two wires coming from the top) counter-clockwise about a quarter to half turn. You should hear water starting to move and then your sprinklers on that zone should come on. Turn the solenoid off after that to turn the sprinklers on that zone off.

If you did get water moving, then you need to make sure that your timer is sending approximately 24 volts to each zone.

Always start at your source(s) and work your way back. This goes for power & water. In this case your power source is the timer. Use a multi-meter and verify that the clock is sending proper voltage to each zone. Make sure your mult-meter is one the correct setting and place one lead onto the "com" or "common" terminal and place the other lead onto the "zone 1" or "station 1". Activate zone 1 on the timer and if you're reading anywhere from 22 to 30 volts AC then your timer is sending proper voltage on that zone.

Repeat this process for each individual zone. If the timer is not sending any voltage or too little on any zone, then there is a problem with your timer. If each terminal on the timer is good, and you can manually activate your zones, then you have a wiring problem. The wiring problem could be a cut wire somewhere, or just a loose common at one of the valves that is first in the wiring sequence.

To figure this out, locate the first valve in the wire path and disconnect the solenoid wires from the hot and common wire. Send 24 volts from your timer to that zone and test with the multi-meter. If you are getting proper voltage at those wires, then that zone should be working. If it isn't, then your probably have a bad solenoid at that valve. Observe closely for loose, nicked, or cut wires.

There is a chance that the wire is good and you have several bad solenoids, but that isn't likely unless you had something such as a lightning strike, in which case the wires are often affected too. Please write me back and let me know what you've found.

Thanks,

Scott Young

http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com