How to Winterize Your Sprinkler System
Sprinkler Repair in Nashville, TN
What Happens if You Don’t Winterize
It may seem like an elementary science lesson. When water is present and temperatures drop below the freezing point, ice forms. When you forget to winterize your outdoor sprinkler system, however, that simple scientific principle can lead to costly damage when water expands into ice, breaking pipes and other key system components. Even mild winters include temperature drops that lead to cracked pipes, ruined valves, a destroyed backflow preventer, broken sprinkler heads, and split fittings. Frozen water and breaches in the system may even contaminate your water supply. To prevent this kind of havoc or restore your system if it has already occurred, contact Southern Irrigation in Nashville, Tennessee, for sprinkler repair.
Important Factors in Winterization
Although winterization is not an overly complex or time-consuming activity, there are important factors to consider and multiple tasks to cover to ensure your system’s health and integrity through the winter. Our professionals can take care of every item on the checklist to make sure critical details aren’t missed. The first step is to turn off the water. The system’s main shut-off is likely near the water meter. It must be located and turned completely off so that water continues to enter the system. Next, the system should be drained by opening hose bibs and low-point manual drains along the main supply line. Also turn off and unplug the system control. This can be done without changing the sprinklers’ programming so that it remains the same when the system is restarted in spring. In addition to draining the water, it’s best practice to blow out each zone with an air compressor. There’s an access port for this that’s usually located by the backflow meter. Using the compressor on a low setting, one zone is opened at a time to expel any remaining water. Trapped water should also be eliminated from the backflow device by turning the ball valves a bit and opening any drain valves in that area. Finally, all exposed pipe portions or components such as the backflow preventer must be wrapped to insulate them.
Opt for Professional Help
Clearly, it’s best to winterize your irrigation system before the cold season arrives. Most homeowners or business owners aren’t comfortable with this, nor do they have time for one more task in today’s busy schedule. If this describes you, let the team at Southern Irrigation help. We’ve been installing, maintaining, and repairing top-tier systems since 2005. Our services are actually much less expensive than fixing the damage caused by freezing. If the worst does happen because you missed winterizing, we’re here to support you through damage correction. Make winterization easy on yourself. Get Southern Irrigation for sprinkler repair.