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Irrigation zone valve cover. Large cover, probably 14" x 9". There's nothing to winterize here to my knowledge. Just sharing for your viewing pleasures.
Irrigation zone valves. One valve for each zone. I have two bundles of zone valves, one in my front yard, one in my back yard. There's nothing to winterize here to my knowledge. Just sharing for your viewing pleasures.
Here's the cover for the main on/off for the irrigation system. It's a small 6-9" cover just big enough to get one hand down in.
Here's the quarter turn on/off valve that shuts off the water to the entire system. Make sure you shut it completely off.
Here's a closeup of the backflow valve. To my knowledge the two small quarter turn valves are not used during winterization. I'm assuming they are present to facilitate maintenance on the valve itself. No idea what that would be, but you can see 4 outlet ports on the valve system.
The quick disconnects that are installed on my system. Simply unscrew the large collet on each end of the pipes to remove the entire valve easily.
The valve and associated piping removed from the quick-disconnects.
I just gently stuff some rags in the exposed pipes then put the fiberglass box cover back over them. The only thing I did NOT do was figure out how to drain out the entire system once I shut the water off and removed the backflow valve.
My neighbor said some places blow out the lines with air which seems reasonable. But I don't have a compressor, nor fittings to join up with the irrigation pipes but I assume it'd be easy to piece one together. I'm not sure what pressure you'd use to blow out the system but I'd assume anything under the water pressure that runs the system would be safe. I'd guess you'd hook up the air source, then cycle through each valve/zone for a few minutes to give it time to blow all the water out of the lines. But I'm just making a semi-educated guess. I take no responsibility if you break the seals in your zone valves trying my guess, or if you see sprinklers rocketing out of their sockets and into the air.
For the record, if it wasn't for happening upon this thread here I wouldn't have even KNOWN I had to do this.
So while I'm at is is there any other winterization needed in this area? I have tons of plastic water lines running through my crawlspace that are not insulated. My house is 9 years old so I'm assuming it's a non-issue.
Just my opinion, I would insulate all exposed pipes under the house. Believe it or not, it actually does get cold enough here from time to time to freeze pipes .
As for the irrigation system, many of the older systems had a main drain (one of those 6" round boxes with the green lid in the ground) at the lowest point in the yard. After turning off the water you would open the drain and the system would drain out.
The newer train of thought is that if the pipes are 12" deep they are below the frost line and will not freeze, so most contractors quit putting in the drains. The other problem with the drains was/is that if the original owner and the irrigation installer are gone, it's can be very difficult to locate the drain in the yard.
So, removing the backflow preventer is about all there is to do nowadays.
BTW, while I have heard of blowing out the lines with air I have never seen it done around here. Not to say you can't do it, I just haven't seen it.
This IS wonderful. Thanks so much for the advice, and especially the photos -- even if a few were for my viewing pleasure. We must've just gotten lucky last year as hubby didn't remove the valve. He did have sense enough to wrap it, and when the temps dipped into the teens briefly last year, put a light bulb out to help keep it warm-er -- a trick we used to have to do in the pump house of one of our homes on the coast, believe it or not. The photos helped us recognize, and identify, what we needed to do. Hubby is in the yard, 'winterizing the system' even as we type!
Someone told me you are supposed to turn 1/4 those outlet ports in picture above to drain pressure and water. When I do that water continues to spray of of the ports. How long should this last, or is something wrong. I'm afraid if those are spraying water, then if I undo unions I will have water coming out of pipes. I have shut off the water at the 1/4 turn valve underground just like your picture show.
Thanks for help.
1 - Turn the "1/4 turn" valve (called a Ball Valve) to the opposite position it is in when system is working. This is the main valve that controls water flow to the system that comes from your meter.
2 - At the back flow preventer, the brass part that is exposed and sitting connected by Union joints to the pipes that go into the ground, there should be 3-4 little screws (flat head usually) that can be turned 1/4 turn that will release all pressure from the system, turn these and water will evacuate the system along with pressure. The other "1/4 turn" valves on the top of the back flow preventer do NOT need to be turned, they are used for isolating leaks, or shutting the system down "meter side" or "irrigation side" for various reasons.
3 - Once pressure is released from system, remove the back flow preventer and cover the connection with burlap, plastic bags, rags or whatever.
4 - Some systems have low point drains that are used to remove ALL water from the remainder of the system in the ground. Not all installers do this. If yours has one you can drain the whole system. This is somewhat overkill for our area as the ground rarely freezes deep enough to impact properly installed systems (those buried deeper than 3-4")
IMO, just about any homeowner can handle this task at the end of each season. Reverse the steps to reconnect and fire it back up in the Spring. Handling it on your own will save you between $300-600+ per year.
Someone told me you are supposed to turn 1/4 those outlet ports in picture above to drain pressure and water. When I do that water continues to spray of of the ports. How long should this last, or is something wrong. I'm afraid if those are spraying water, then if I undo unions I will have water coming out of pipes. I have shut off the water at the 1/4 turn valve underground just like your picture show.
If you really shut off the water then a stream should come out of those outlets for just a few seconds.
IMO, just about any homeowner can handle this task at the end of each season. Reverse the steps to reconnect and fire it back up in the Spring. Handling it on your own will save you between $300-600+ per year.
In the Spring many if not most towns in the area require the backflow device to be inspected and a certificate filed with the town. Everyone I've used for the inspection installs it as part of the inspection.
So in those areas you can save yourself money by disassembling it in the winter, but you still have to have someone with the right license take care of it in the Spring.
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