Lawn Sprinkler Tips

Original Post: Thursday, February 11, 2010

This is funny, because just the other day I wrote my annual Spring Sprinkler System Tune Up article talking about getting ready for the Spring. Now we may possibly get snow here in North Florida, which is a very rare occurrence! I logged onto weather.com to check out the forecast and the first thing I see for my zip code is “Winter Storm Warning”.

I just about cracked up laughing because I’m sure that our dinky little Florida winter storm is nothing compared to what the unfortunate people in the northern part of the country have been dealing with the past week! I don’t think we’ll be bringing out the snow shovels here, actually I don’t think anybody in Florida even knows what a snow shovel is…LOL.

I doubt we’ll even see snow. I’ve lived here for 15 years and never once seen snow since I’ve been here. We may see sleet or most likely just cold rain, which is no fun either. In situations like this here, before the “snow” reaches the ground it turns back to rain or a slushy mix. Escabmia County, the county just west of Okaloosa County where I live has canceled school for tomorrow. The reason being is for the “safety of the children”.

I can somewhat understand because our school buses are not equipped to drive on icy roads, nor is anyone around hear experienced in driving in icy conditions, except for those who have lived in colder climates. I still find it funny because I’ve lived in places where it actually does snow and if people canceled school and work everyday there was icy conditions, nothing would ever get done in the Winter!

Within a week or two we’ll be enjoying 60 degree weather. I believe the forecast showed Sunday getting back up to the mid 50′s. One thing about living here that is kind of a pain is the wide fluctuation in temperatures from day to day or even within one day. Normally this time of year we may see lows of mid 30′s to low 40′s at night and then it can reach up to the mid 60′s by the afternoon. I’ll start off my day bundled up and layered clothing and quickly shed sweatshirts as the day progresses.

So my fellow Floridians, do not fear. This cold weather will pass quickly and there will be warm weather again soon. We’ll all be needing our irrigation systems again very soon. I’ll promise my blog readers and website visitors this; if it does actually snow and it sticks to the ground without melting first, I will take pictures and post it up on my blog! We’ll see

Scott
Florida Irrigation Tips

Originally Published: Sunday, February 07, 2010

Okay, I know that we are officially in the middle of Winter, but here in Florida our seasons are really as clearly defined. We may have a few more cold spells, but Spring time and warmer weather are right around the corner and it is time to start getting those irrigation systems in good running shape.

Don’t be like everyone else and wait until March or April to take care of your lawn sprinkler system issues! Get ahead of the crowd and get your maintenance issues fixed before the spring rush hits and you’ll enjoy quicker service and better prices. Not every irrigation contractor will tell you this, but we do tend to charge more once we get busy for a couple of different reasons. First of all the basics of supply and demand come into play.

Secondly, as it gets hotter outside, the actual labor or work becomes more difficult because of dealing with the high temperatures. In hot weather you have to take more breaks to help prevent heat exhaustion and this makes the jobs take longer. We still have to earn a living and if the job takes longer we have to charge more!

Even though we may be getting some cold nights of 35 to 40 degrees, it has been warming up to 50 to 60 degrees during the day which is very pleasant weather to work in. When you get wet, it does make it a little bit chilly but nothing that is unbearable.

You should have your landscape sprinklers checked out at the very least once per year. I recommend up to 4 times, once every three months in order to keep your system in top shape. A spring tune up normally includes a full system inspection of each zone, as well as the unclogging of spray nozzles and adjusting of heads and timer adjustment. While doing the inspection we can identify problems such as broken sprinkler heads, lack of proper coverage, nozzles that need to be replaced, and also timer & electric valve functions.

In an article I wrote 2 years ago, in 2008, I list some more details on tuning up your irrigation system. Check it out here: Spring Irrigation System Tune Up

Another thing we check for is for the presence of and correct operation of a rain sensor. It has been law in the State of Florida since 1991 for all automatic irrigation systems to be installed with rain sensors, but in certain areas this law has not been heavily enforced. I run into systems quite frequently that don’t even have a rain sensor at all!

Now if your system uses water from a well or lake you may not be worried about a rain sensor, but if your sprinkler use city water and you have to pay for it, you’d be crazy to not have one! It can save you tons of cash on your bill over the course of a year. Besides the monetary savings, you can help prevent over-watering of your lawn and landscape by having an operating rain sensor.

Actually the State of Florida just recently made it mandatory for irrigation contractors to check for rain sensors and make sure that they are properly working on every system that we do a hired maintenance job for. The law used to state that we have to install one on new sprinkler systems that we build, but not I must make sure to check for and test the sensor on each job that I do. This is something that I pretty much always did anyway to inform the customer, but I never forced the issue if the customer wasn’t concerned…but now I must do my part in helping conserve and manage our valuable water resources.

If it has been a few years since you’ve done any maintenance to your landscape irrigation, then now is the time. My phone calls have started to pick up the past two weeks and I can tell that we’re about to move into to busy season before you know it. Even though new construction and new systems have been slow the last 1&1/2 years, the maintenance is always there.

Taking care of and maintaining your sprinklers is just like taking care of anything else you have to take of to keep running efficiently. Think about it like a car. You have to keep up with changing the oil & fluids, check your tire pressure, rotate & balance the tires, get an alignment, service your breaks, etc… If you neglect it, what’s going to happen to it? The longer it goes without being serviced, the more problems that can occur and can end up leading to bigger problems.

On the other hand if you keep up with it, it will perform better. Both a vehicle and sprinkler system provide value for many years to come after the initial purchase. I have another quick comparison between cars and irrigation systems that I’d like to make here: With a car, truck, SUV, or whatever you drive you end up paying something like $20,000 to $40,000. You drive the car for 5 or maybe 10 years and then end up getting another. During the life of the car you may spend thousands of dollars maintaining it. A car does provide you much value and in turn is worth the money spent.

A sprinkler system may cost you $2,500 to $5,000 upfront. It may not get you places like a car, but it provides value by keeping your lawn & landscape green and healthy which helps the property value of your home. It also provides enjoyment and the satisfaction of having a beautiful yard. for Most sprinkler systems can last 20 to 30 years or even longer before needing to be replaced. You will end up spending thousands of dollars over the years maintaining it, but it keeps providing value over & over again. Most people wouldn’t think twice about buying a new car after 6 or 7 years, but complain about having to purchase a new lawn pump, timer, or electric valves after the same amount of time. Just something to think about…

The reason I make this analogy is to help explain to people the importance of keeping up with your sprinkler system. Also to help people realize the actual value that the system is providing them with. Most of you reading this probably already realize this or you wouldn’t be here reading this, but it’s just something that I had to get off my chest!

Okay, I’m done rambling for tonight. I’m looking forward to a great week and ready to go fix some sprinkler systems! If you live in my service area, give me a call! Get your Spring tune-up done today. The main areas I provide service in are Niceville, Valparaiso, Bluewater Bay, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Crestview, Santa Rosa Beach, and Navarre. Contact me now, my number is listed below.

Scott Young
850-729-7110
Advanced Irrigation Systems

Another common question that comes up from my customers is, “When should I start watering my lawn?” The answer depends on a few different things. First of all your climate and local weather conditions have the biggest part to play in deciding when you should begin normal watering after the winter or off-season. The next factor would be the type of landscape such as what type of grass and/or shrubs you have.

Where we live in Florida we don’t really experience that long or harsh of a winter. The grass does go dormant and turn brown, but it still has a living root system underneath, which many people fail to realize. In our climate I advise people that should never really stop watering, only cut-back the amount of time and frequency that they do water their lawn.

Of course if their are freezing conditions, you obviously don’t want to water. But I would say that in this type of climate that a person should water their lawn and landscape at least once per week during the winter months.

If you do turn your system off for a few months, I would recommend turning it back on whenever the weather warms up slightly. You don’t need to set it back to automatic watering if you don’t want to, but can choose to water once or twice per week on the warmer days. For example, just recently in the Fort Walton, Niceville, Navarre, Destin, Crestview area we experienced several nights of hard freezes. This was about a week and two weeks ago, but today it is 65 degrees and I feel like having a bar-b-q!

Our weather tends to fluctuate like this during the winter. The lows have only been in the 50′s, but next week the lows will dip down into the mid 30′s and low 40′s and night. However there will still be some 60 degree days that feel great and a nice condition to water your landscape.

Watering at least once weekly during the off-season has other advantages than keeping your lawn and shrubs root systems healthy. It also keeps the many working parts of your irrigation system moving. Just like a car, if your system sits too long certain problems are bound to occur. This is especially true on sprinkler systems tied to well water. The iron and other debris tends to cake or gunk up the longer it sits and dries out. This causes problems such as stuck check valves and foot valves, heads getting stuck down or stuck up, nozzles clogging up, and other problems.

If you live in a more northern or colder climate than your irrigation system was most likely designed to be drained and/or blown out in the off-season so you obviously can’t water until your system is primed back up again. In the south and warmer climates we do not build sprinkler systems to be completely drained out. Many pumps can be drained, but I would recommend insulating them rather than draining them so that you can activate your sprinklers at least once per week.

Scott
Do It Yourself Sprinklers
Florida Irrigation Company

We are a little bit spoiled here in Florida as we aren’t use too used to cold weather. While we do experience the cold a little every winter, it’s usually not too harsh. We may see some 40 – 50 degree days, with lows in the 30′s, but normally we don’t experience too many hard-freezes. Well this week is a different story down here.

I live in Niceville, Florida which is located in the Northwest part of Florida. We are near Fort Walton Beach, Destin, and Navarre. I provide irrigation service to all of these areas and this week I have seen an increase in what I call my “freeze-calls”. When the temperature dips down into the mid to high twenties for the course of the night, this hard-freeze can cause many irrigation system problems.

I know that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit but it normally takes a couple night in a row of hard freezes to start effecting the system. The things most likely to break on your irrigation system when it freezes are: Exposed pipes, back-flow prevention devices (PVB, DCVA), and certain types of pumps or their metal pump housings.

The best thing to do for exposed pipes and backflow prevention valves that stick out of the ground is to wrap them with foil insulation tape. You can also get foam wraps and tape them on. For above ground pumps, you can drain them or you can wrap them with some type of insulation as well. If you choose to insulate, just make sure you are only wrapping the metal housing and not the pump motor! The pump motor has to have ventilation and could catch fire if you activate it and have it wrapped up. Another option to help protect your pump is to build a small enclosure around it or ‘pump house’. This will protect it from the weather and help your pump last longer.

Some type of pumps are more prone to freeze than others. Horizontal, centrifugal pumps or shallow well pumps normally have a very thin cast iron housing which tends to split at the seams when they freeze crack. The jet pumps have a lot thicker metal housing Back-flow’s either break at the freeze plug, or somewhere on the brass itself.

If you are from up north and wondering why we don’t drain our entire systems here in Florida it is because many people still use their systems in the winter. If you have winter-rye grass you still need to water a few times a week. Even if your grass is dormant, it is good to water it once per week for a couple reasons. First of all, you are still giving water to the root system, which is good for your lawn, and second it helps keep your system and parts from ‘gunking-up’. Systems hooked up to wells with high iron content tend to have a lot of problems after sitting several months without running.

So, as much as I hate this cold, I must go out and fix pipes, pumps, and back-flow’s for my customers so that they keep their irrigation system in proper shape. Plus, if a mainline pipe busts, it’s got to be fixed quick! Let’s not whine too much about this cold weather here because before you know it spring will be here and then we’ll be complaining that it’s too hot! Have a happy winter for now!

Scott
Irrigation System Freeze

In certain areas today, many residential irrigation systems are hooked up to a city water supply which is metered and the water has to be paid for. If you are lucky enough to have a well and pump then you don’t have to worry about this. The downside to having a well and pump are the maintenance costs associated with it, but normally the cost of maintaining a well and pump will still be lower than the cost of running a sprinkler system on city water.

Some people have no choice but to go to city water because the area they live in will not allow wells drilled below a certain depth or there is just no good strata layer to be able to get the water from. Systems that are connected to city water need a back-flow prevention device to protect our potable water from being contaminated with dirt and containment such as fertilizers applied to the lawn that can creep back in the system when the pop-up heads retract.

So, how much does running an irrigation system on city water cost? Well it really depends on several different things. First of all, how large is your yard? How large is the system? How many heads, what’s their flow rate? Also, how often do you run the sprinklers? How does your city or county charge you for the water used? Is there a separate meter for the system?

All the above factors will determine how much it’s going to cost you. For example, in our city and county they no longer have separate meters for irrigation systems. The older houses that do are grand-fathered in. Those systems connected to city water that are on the same meter as the house will get charged for sewer fees on top of water fees (except houses with septic tanks). The yards that have a separate meter will get charged for water consumption, but not sewer. Getting charged extra for sewer really doesn’t seem fair when you are applying it to the lawn, not flushing it down the toilet, but that is how it works in some places. What makes it even worse here is that sewer is charged at 110% of the water usage!

So, sorry to answer a question with a bunch of questions, but all of those things are important in determining the cost. Just to give you an average, I would say that having a lawn sprinkler system hooked up to city water can cost you about an extra $120 per month during the summer. Like I said, that is just an average or ball-park based on an average sized yard and system. Your price could vary up or down obviously.

Those are the prices some must pay in order to maintain a healthy lawn and beautiful landscape. You can save money in the Fall & Winter by cutting down the cycle run-time on your system. In many areas you can completely shut it off in certain months because of freezing conditions. In warmer climates it is good to run the sprinklers at least once per week because even though the grass and shrubs may go dormant, they still have a root system that needs water. If your system is on a well and pump, another benefit of running your sprinklers at least once per week would be to keep the parts moving and working. With systems connected to wells with a lot of debris, especially iron, the insides of the pump, pipes, and heads tend to dry out and cake up with ‘crud’ which can cause multiple problems when you turn the sprinklers back on in the Spring.

Is the cost of using city water worth it for you? Well, that depends on how badly you want to have and maintain a good lawn and nice landscape. If you can get a well in your area, then I would recommend doing so, especially if you have a large yard. Well water has more nutrients and not all that chlorine like city water. However you may have no choice but to use city water and if that’s the case then just consider it one of the maintenance costs associated with maintaining a beautiful home.

Scott Young
Irrigation Systems

The latest in my video series that I’m releasing on this blog below, is about how to adjust a Hydrotech 2120 irrigation, lawn sprinkler pump controller or timer (same thing). This is the most common type of controllers that go together in conjunction with the index valve type of irrigation system setup like shown in my previous blog post.

The Hydrotech 2120 has a built-in pump start relay which relays 220 volts to the landscape irrigation pump when the timer tells it to. You program the timer and tell it when you want the pump to run. In the video I show how to program and set the cycle run times. This type of timer is not used for an electric valve system.

Other Hydrotech models such as the 2110, 2114 and 1100 series controllers all work the same way, they just vary in their voltage input and output, which is determined by the voltage output of your power source and the voltage requirement of your sprinkler pump.

Most sprinkler pumps (around 90% in my area of Florida) run on approximately 220 volts (seeing a 215v – 240v range is common). The other 10% run on approx. 110 volts – 120volts. The only fairly unique model in this set of controllers is the 2114, which takes in 220v and only relays 24 volts to control typical sprinkler system electric valve

Scott
Irrigation Systems

I dug up another video for a very common repair task that you may run into. Not all automatic irrigation systems use electric valves to separate zones. Some systems use a part called an “index valve.” This video shows how to replace the stem and disc in a common type of index valve.

In very first part of this clip I show you a typical stem and disc. Then we cut to my old business partner Sean describing and showing the entire process of replacing the stem and disc. It really is very simple and the material cost about $20. However, when you call a professional irrigation company they have to charge you for the service to help cover their business overhead and make profit. So, if you choose to do this repair yourself, you should save some good money.

An index valve is a fairly simple mechanical part that allows sprinkler operation to send water to one certain zone or section at a time, while blocking off the flow of water to the other zones. This type of system setup is different from electric valves in a couple different ways.

First of all they contain no electrical components, unlike an electric valve which has a 24 volt solenoid. The stop and start of the flow of water is what causes the stem and disc to switch between the different zones. On an irrigation system like this the pump is normally activated by a pump start relay contained inside the controller or timer. Some simpler setups may just have a switch to turn the lawn pump on and off.

Scott
Irrigation Systems

In this short video clip I show two example of how to replace a nozzle on a typical spray head. Sprays or spray heads are the type of sprinklers that pop up and stay stationary or don’t move.

I am in the first example, which shows a lot closer view of the process because my old partner Sean was recording the video and did a great job. The second example shows a farther away view with a different angle for you to see and Sean is in this video.

So that’s not so hard, is it? Replacing a nozzle on an irrigation head is fairly simple, but can be tedious and time consuming if you have to do it to 50 heads! Part of routine system maintenance includes replacing the screens and nozzles because they get clogged over time, especially for irrigation systems on well water or other water sources which contain a lot of debris.

Sean was a great irrigation partner, but has since left the company to move on to new and better things after 7 years of working with us. We wish him the best of luck. Also I need to give a shout out to Sean’s friend, Louie who is responsible for doing the editing of these video clips, Thank You Louie!

Scott
Irrigation Systems

In this video below, I explain how to use a pvc fitting known as a slip fix, or quick fix (same thing) to repair a broke pvc pipe. Some people also call these “expansion fittings.” I feel that these fittings are better than compression couplings (for pipes under 3″) and you do use pvc glue and a coupling in addition to the slip fix pvc .

When I first discovered these types of fittings I though I had died and gone to heaven! No more digging up 3 feet on each side of the break and trying to bend or bow the pipe to make it fit into the pvc coupling! The old way without a slip fix was a lot harder and often times you would end up breaking the pipe in a separate place while trying to fix the original break…aghhh!

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This type of fitting has a telescoping end which allows you to cut out a section of the pvc, then fit the slip fix between the two ends of pipe, then expand it out to make the connection. These are especially great when you are working in a tight area around multiple pipes or tree roots which give you very little room to work with.

I’m sure this will help many of you who are trying to repair a broke sprinkler pipe on your own. Good luck!

Scott
Irrigation Systems

Today I wanted to share with you a short video clip that shows how to replace a sprinkler head. Actually it is a rotor sprinkler head to be specific, the type of irrigation head that pops up and rotates to cover large areas of grass.

I hope you like this video, even though I’ve been writing articles about lawn sprinklers and irrigation repair info on this site for over five years, but haven’t really published many videos. I realize that many people would rather see, than just read, which I clearly understand so I hope to start sharing more videos as I can do them, in addition to all of my “how to” sprinkler articles.

As always, happy watering!

Scott
Irrigation Systems