What to do with sprinkler system in these see-saw temperatures (Houston: house, safest)

[savvyRookie]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Houston and was wondering what your advice is about sprinkler systems in these see-saw temperatures. Should I leave it alone and just turn off my sprinkler controller? Or should I hire someone to completely shut down the sprinkler system and winterize it?

What do people typically do in Houston?

The problem of winterizing is that there might be some warm days in which I'll need to water my yard.

Your advice would be appreciated (of course the safest option is to winterize but I just want to get an idea of what people typically do with their sprinkler systems here).

Thanks

[ethanw]

Nothing. Unless you have like 1 or 2 solid nights and days of 30 don't touch it.

[texas7]

I forgot what my spouse did when we had a freeze a couple of years ago but ours was fine - however, our neighbors on both sides did nothing and some burst and both had major water leaks.

[jtothemak]

At least turn it off, not need to water in the winter anyways. I have not watered since September, we get enough rain fall threw the cooler months for your yard. If we hit freezing any runoff is going to turn into ice causing someone to slip and fall or a car to skid.

For your pipes make sure they are wrapped for anything above ground. Anything underground we don't get cold enough and stay cold long enough for anything to freeze.

[Chum731]

Originally Posted by jtothemak

At least turn it off, not need to water in the winter anyways. I have not watered since September, we get enough rain fall threw the cooler months for your yard. If we hit freezing any runoff is going to turn into ice causing someone to slip and fall or a car to skid.

For your pipes make sure they are wrapped for anything above ground. Anything underground we don't get cold enough and stay cold long enough for anything to freeze.

X2

Mine is off at the controller

There are plastic pieces inside the metal back flow preventer that will freeze and crack and you will have a nice waterfall shooting out of it. It shouldn't get cold enough in the next week but it will be close. Wrap an old towel and secure it with duck tape or a bungee cord.

Mine is off at the back flow preventer and drained. Google draining a sprinkler system and it is easy to see on YouTube.

[texas7]

That's what we did with ours - you just explained it much better than I could have. Our neighbors didn't and got the waterfall.

[Chum731]

Originally Posted by texas7

That's what we did with ours - you just explained it much better than I could have. Our neighbors didn't and got the waterfall.

It is a 50 dollar mistake for the back flow valve replacement kit plus the 200 gallons of water that you loose once it pops. Ask me how I know

[PedroMartinez]

I hooked a connector into my system so that I can connect up an air hose and blow all the water out of my system. Once it gets into a deep Houston winter, I blow out the water and wait till spring.

[ethanw]

Deep winter in Houston? Yet to see that :-)

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

I hooked a connector into my system so that I can connect up an air hose and blow all the water out of my system. Once it gets into a deep Houston winter, I blow out the water and wait till spring.

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by ethanw

Deep winter in Houston? Yet to see that :-)

Well, we did have single digit temps that one year back in the 1990's. It was below freezing for several days in a row, and we had one pipe in our house burst, right above our master bath.

I do like jtothemak and turn the sprinkler off in Oct and don't turn it back on until probably March or so. Our backflow preventer piping is insulated with foam pipe wrap and tape and I haven't touched it since it was installed about 12 years ago. Ours has a valve before the backflow that can be turned and then cycling the system drops the pressure so the above ground plumbing is not full of water.