Lawn Sprinkler Tips

The fall season is upon us and soon enough we will need to winterize our irrigation systems. Living in Florida makes it fairly easy to winterize a system. Here in North Florida we do end up getting a few mild freezes during the winter months.

Here in the south we don’t need to drain our PVC lines like they do up north. Our pipes are in the ground below the frost line. Any above ground pipes need to be insulated with insulation tape, foam, or any other kind of acceptable method. Pumps, backflow preventors, index valves should also be covered.

For those of you not lucky enough to live in Florida or any other warm, tropical climate; you will have to drain, or blow out your pipes. This can be done using a small air compressor, or air tank and blowing the water out of the lines on each individual zone. Make sure to shut off your water source to the system and get all the water out of the lines by removing one of the heads on a particular zone and using a quick-connect fitting to attach the compressor. Apply the air until the heads pop up and all the water is relieved.

Those with above ground pumps will need to drain the pump by removing the drain plug which is usually located on the bottom of the pump housing. For my customers here in Florida who still have to water because of rye grass, I recommend that they cover their pump housings with a couple thick blankets. BE SURE TO NOT COVER THE MOTOR. The pump motor gets hot and needs ventilation! You can cover the housing of the pump without covering the motor. If you are not sure which part to cover, then leave it alone and call a professional.

Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

Irrigation is a necessity when it comes to maintaining a beautiful landscape. Building your own lawn sprinkler system can be an intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be with the right information.

There is plenty of free sprinkler information online. Most of this information is accurate and good information that will help you further your knowledge of this subject. While there is plenty of free information on many topics, you still may not find exactly what you are looking for.

I also provide plenty of free information and tips about lawn sprinkler systems, but I do charge a fee for my ebook. I feel that the system I have developed and explained in my book is worth the small price I ask for in return.

If you are looking for a detailed, step-by-step process to designing and installing your own automatic lawn sprinkler system then you have came to the right site. I am an irrigation professional and have installed hundreds of systems and serviced over 2,000 homes for repairs and additions.

If you are wanting to learn about installing automatic lawn sprinkler systems, then I highly recommend buying my ebook. I Guarantee that it will work for you (see guarantee on my site.)

Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

We’ve been playing with the new water saving device and noticed a couple of things.

We normally flush our lines prior to nozzle installation. We already have the spray head installed and flush through the orange flush cap at the top of the head. This flow is too great and the water saver shuts down before the line can be completely flushed.

Some contractors don’t flush through the flush cap, but flush out the swing joint prior to head installation.

We’ll just have to change the way we do things to accommodate the new device and so will others. I know people don’t like change, but O well. If the benefits to the customer are worth it, contractors should learn to deal with it.

The lines will need to be completely flushed before water saver and spray or rotor head installation.

I know that you’ve already produced many units, but I’d like to make a suggestion for an updated design. The water saver device would work a lot better for us if the input side was female threaded and the output side was male threaded.

Here’s why: My initial plan of installing the product directly into the threaded tee or 90 before the swing joint won’t work because I need to flush the lines out without the device installed. This won’t be an issue with those who don’t use swing joints because they can flush straight out the threaded fitting, up into the air.

Our threaded fitting point sideways in the ditch and you have to flush them out through the swing joint otherwise water would flood the ditch and mud would enter the system. We are planning to install the device after the swing joint and directly before the head.

In order to use the current version of your product properly with swing joints, we are forced to use two extra fittings per head, not including the device itself. Right now we’ll have to use a 1/2″ threaded coupling to connect the input side of the device to the swing joint, and then have to use a small 1/2″ closed nipple (riser) to connect the output side of it to the sprinkler head.

If this new product could have a “reverse” version” we would not have to use these two extra parts per head! The cost and time of two extra parts per head (average of 30 -50 heads per system) will really add up. This will probably be a major issue with contractors who use swing joints. Every system I’ve seen in Florida with systems that are 15 years old or newer have swing joints unless done by a homeowner.

I really think the current version of this product will do well, and if there is anyway to have a different version, it would be accommodating many modern contractors who use the same methods that I do.

I will continue to give more info…

Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

A Quote from my site: How To Install Your Own Automatic Lawn Sprinkler System: “As a lawn sprinkler service professional for over 8 years, I have seen many people waste hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on unnecessary installation fees. The very same job could have been done by them with the same quality for a fraction of the price.”

Just to clarify; My site is for designing & installing new automatic irrigation systems, not for troubleshooting existing systems. However, some people have found it helpful for troubleshooting because of learning and understanding how an automatic system actually works.

Scott

We did get to play with the water saving device a little yesterday. We did have some debris clog up around the ball when flushing out the system. Normally we flush through the swing joints before putting on the heads and I installed the device in my threaded tee or 90 before the swing joint so it can lay in the ditch.

I then cleaned out the device and then tested and it worked perfectly! As soon as the head is removed the flow of water stopped! I think that we will just need to flush out the system somehow prior to device installation. The thing is that my swing joints usually aim the water out of the ditch (my threaded fittings are installed with the threaded part sideways, not vertical because of the use of swing joints.)

I think on city & reclaim water there shouldn’t be any problems. I could see some issues with certain kinds of well water that has a lot of debris. Also, the well water here has a lot of iron content and will eventually corrode the spring, but I’d say it should last at least 5 years. I install foot-valves on deep wells with jet pumps that have a similar type spring. This foot valve sits in the water near the bottom of the well and the springs do tend to break down, but many last 5 to even 10 years and some longer.

We will post for more info soon…

Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

I am very excited about a new water saving device that we are currently testing for an inventor. I’m not allowed to comment too much on the device, but I can tell you what it does.

This device shuts off the flow of water to a particular sprinkler head when it breaks! Have you ever been driving down the street and seen a gusher or stream of water shooting up in the air. This is most likely due to a broken sprinkler head on the lawn irrigation system.

Several states and cities have fines up to $2,000 for people wasting water with broken sprinkler heads on their property. Not only do you waste water when you have a broken sprinkler head, but most of the time that one broke head will cause enough of a pressure loss so that the entire zone will not function properly.

This new device would allow the rest of the zone to run a peak performance, while temporarily shutting the water off to a sprinkler head until it can be repaired.

My thoughts on this device are this: Freaking Brilliant. There are numerous benefits to the customer and society as a whole to use this new device. There are a few negatives such as the cost of systems will be slightly driven up due to more materials and a little more labor time, but I believe that the positive factors will outweigh the negative ones.

We will proceed on with the many plans we have in store for this water saving device and continue to work with the inventor as he aims to perfect this product before releasing to the public.

Just like rain sensors became mandatory on all new lawn sprinkler systems in Florida in 1991, I believe that once the public and government learns of the benefits of this new device, they will too become mandatory.

Scott Young
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com