Blowing out the sprinklers

[mattadams]

It's getting to where it looks like it's going to start freezing in the coming weeks. I've already turned off my sprinklers, turned off the water to the sprinklers and removed the fittings to let any water drain that could drain. Last year I didn't blow out my sprinklers and never really had any problems (though I suspect I might have a sprinkler head or two with slight leaks... but not sure if thats related or not). I've never blown out sprinklers before, any idea how to do it properly? I've got the compressor, nto sure if I need a certain connection or what, do I just hook it up to the breather fitting thing and let it fly or is there specific procedures to follow?

[shawns 64 F100]

I have never done that myself, but you can check this forum I am on out there are some good guys on here that would be willing to help, plus they are good for other home improvement ideas. my SN is " A Personal Touch" My logo/signature for my flooring business
Home Handyman (http://homehandyman.activeboard.com/index.spark?forumID=121887&p=1)

[Starkman]

I just did it myself. There is a small ball valve on the anti-siphon valve (the one that is on the wall out from the supply pipe) that is 1/4" NPT. You just hook up air to the lower one (the top one drains the supply pipe) and open the valve and run through the zones manually. I turn on a zone and walk out and watch until only air is coming out of the heads. I run through the zones twice and that seems to get all the water out. I regulate the pressure down to 60 psi and that didn't blow a head off. Also drain the water out of the feed to the anti-siphon into the house. There usally is a cap to unscrew inside at the shutoff valve and open the top ball valve on the anti-siphon valve. Just think about where water is trapped and try to drain all those places.

[foxfire]

be sure you put all out side valves at 45 deg. if thay are the ball type. If you leave them open all the way frost can crack the housing. At least thats how it works on my house

[mattadams]

yeah I've got all those set to 45 degrees. Starkman, do they sell an adapter to hook up your air to that thing? Of course reading about doing the process online scares the crap out of me because they talk about all the things that can go wrong, but I wouldn't think it would be TOO hard...

[Heath]

Glad someone started a thread on this, its something I need to do too... The guy that put my sprinklers in said he hasn't blown his out in 5 years and hasn't had any problems... I just need to figure out where these silly valve things are...

[mattadams]

ok so here's what I've got...
http://www.mattstruck.com/oddballs/sprinklers1.jpg

At the bottom of the piping (lower right hand corner of the assembly) is what I opened up to drain any water out that I could. I thought it might be something on one of these to hook up to, but I'm not really sure.
http://www.mattstruck.com/oddballs/sprinklers2.jpg

Of course my neighbor was having theirs blown out, and I was going to ask the guy if he could just point it out to me real quick, but left before I could get out there...

[Heath]

Wow... Mine looks nothing like that...

[bassdude]

Matt, what does that line going back into the house do? hard to tell from the pic but thats the supply coming out on the right with the little drain at the bottom. then on the left that looks like a tee with a line going down and the branch going back into the house. does that go to the front of the house for another zone?

[mattadams]

I am not for sure. I am pretty sure the one on the is the supply line - it goes into the basement where there is a main shutoff and another drain valve in the basement. It may also come out the other side for the front sprinklers, I haven't figured all that out yet. The one on the left I'm pretty sure goes to the zones in the back yard. On the opposite side of the house there is another copper pipe but its nothing more than pipe that comes out from the basement and then goes into the ground, which leads me to believe it is being supplied near the main shutoff but I am not really sure and haven't dug up the yard enough to figure it out... :)

[Starkman]

ok so here's what I've got...
http://www.mattstruck.com/oddballs/sprinklers1.jpg

At the bottom of the piping (lower right hand corner of the assembly) is what I opened up to drain any water out that I could. I thought it might be something on one of these to hook up to, but I'm not really sure.
http://www.mattstruck.com/oddballs/sprinklers2.jpg

Of course my neighbor was having theirs blown out, and I was going to ask the guy if he could just point it out to me real quick, but left before I could get out there...

OK, it looks like the fittings are the same as mine. It is a 1/4" NPT and the top fitting has a adaptor in it. If its like mine the top is the feed side and the bottom is to the valves and sprinklers. Those fittings are on ball valves like the other one there with handles but they open and close with a screwdriver.

First turn off the water inside your house.

Hook your air hose (1/4" NPT) to the bottom one. Open the ball valve on the side that goes to the sprinklers. With 60 psi of pressure in the hose run your controller manually through the zones watching the water come out of the sprinklers until just air comes out. If it does not come out open valves and you will know when its right because it will start moving.

Also it looks like there is a trickle cap at the bottom of the feed line. This is used to drain any water left in the feed from the inside.

I always close everything after for the freeze.

[Starkman]

Oh BTW, if you hook up to the wrong side air will just vent out the top of the anti-siphon.

[mattadams]

awesome, thanks dude! I'll give it a shot today!
Of course ultimately I want to replace the lawn with artificial lawn and get rid of the sprinklers entirely, but that's only when I can justify spending the money (the lawn dies, the sprinklers go caput and have to be replaced, etc.)

[Red]

just got done blowing out 6 systems today. love working as a landscaper. :rolleyes: the way we do it is when we install the back flow valve, we install a 1/2 inch threaded tee in the supply line after the BFV. i have an adaptor that accepts the air fitting, hook the compressor up and work the clock manually. lol i probably didnt help much, just wanted to throw my :twocents: worth in.

[mattadams]

Well either way, I must've done something wrong, hopefully I didn't mess up anything too bad... I hooked up the air to the bottom line as suggested... opened the ball valve and turned the sprinlers on... but all that happened was I heard air coming out of the part that looks like a bell? No air was coming out of the sprinklers themselves. Originally their was air coming out of the draining thing so I put the thing back on there to keep air from coming out there. I was only at 60 psi so hopefully didn't hurt anything...
I also tried removing teh tap thing from the top port and plugging into that just to see if it made any difference, but it didn't.

[bassdude]

it shouldn't have hurt anything Matt.
i have the same vacuum breaker as you and i did what Red said. i cut a tee in after the vacuum breaker and put a shrader on it. i'm a plumber though so it's not a big deal.
you've got the most important part drained, heads are cheap.

[Starkman]

When you put air to the top fitting was the valve open down stream? If the ball valve was not open the air can't get to the sprinklers.

[mattadams]

I played around with opening and closing the valves... of course if I close the valve where the air comes in, nothing happens because it never goes past the inlet thing... but the other ones were open.

[Starkman]

When you have air on the one that does nothing did you run the controller through the zones? Remember the controller opens electric valves that go to each zone. If that valve is not opening then no air will move.

[mattadams]

yeah I had the controller going through the zones like normal. One thing I did think about last night was that the drainage cap in the basement was off, so what might've happened was air was just going out there and not building up enough pressure to get the water out. Does that sound realistic at all?

[84broncoII]

the air will take the path of least resistance

[RayLCC]

Ok, first off, I know nothing about sprinklers, so this may end up not being an issue.
I did, however, live in a trailer with a semi-exposed water inlet.

What they did for the trailers was wrap "heat tape" (basically tape with a flexible heating element in it.) around the exposed pipe to prevent it from freezing and breaking. Some trailers that had a length of pipe exposed would build a small wooden box, usually insulated, to cover the pipes and protect them from freezing.
It may not be needed with sprinklers, but it might be a good idea to make a cover and wrap at least the main pipe in heat tape.

[mattadams]

Well now I've gone and done it, LOL. Closed off the drain down int he basement... hooked up the air again, same thing, a lot of air out of the part that looks like a bell (which, after doing some research looks like a pressure vacuum breaker?) and I thought "hmm that bolt looks kind of loose, maybe I'll just tighten that up"... give it about 1/4 spin and it popped off, so now I'll probably have to replace the whole thing... which, naturally looks like it's about the most expensive part of the whole sprinkler system.

[Red]

you dont have to replace the whole thing. if i'm reading this right all you did was dammage the bonnet, the large plastic piece unthe the "bell". you can get it at lowes or home depot. just tell the guys there what kind of BFV you have and they should be able to point you in the right direction

[mattadams]

Yeah wish I'd realized that before I got started on all this! LOL. I decided to take off the part, go into the store... found one like it... also saw the repair kit, but it seemed like it wasn't that much cheaper than the whole thing, and without knowing what else might be wrong probably easier just to get a new part... but then realized I coudln't install it myself without cutting and torching the pipes, which I don't have the knowledge to do, so ended up having to call someone to come and install it. Of course, if I hadn't uninstalled the stupid thing in the first place and just did the repair kit, could've saved a lot of money... oh well, live and learn I guess. now I have a new pressure valve regulater thingy, and the sprinklers are properly winterized... works like a champ!
My wallet feels much lighter now... :)

[Heath]

But most importantly, did you have them teach you how so you know what you're doing next year?

[mattadams]

Well following starkman's advice, I was doing it exactly the same way the sprinkler guy was... of course he had a bigger compressor... :) but otherwise he did exactly what I was doing... but with the part actually working like it was supposed to... :)

[Heath]

Good hell, how big was his compressor? I mean yours isn't huge, but it isn't small either...

[mattadams]

He had one of them tow-behind compressors...

[Heath]

Holy crap... How much power does it take to blow out the lines... I was thinking I could just usemy little 5 gallon campbell hausfeld... Guess I'll have to buy some more hose and use the big boy...

[Starkman]

I knew I should have put my lawyers fine print in front of my original post. I hope you aren't coming after me for the damages. :o ;)

I wander if that valve was bad?

Pics???

[mattadams]

Stark, I'm pretty sure the seal on the valve was bad. I probably could've done the repair kit had I taken my time and researched it more thouroughly before taking the part off, such is life :).
Regarding the compressor, from what I was reading most places recommend you use a very high-capacity, low-pressure compressor, because the amount of air it can put out is more important than the pressure at which it goes out... Anyways, I think my compressor would've done fine, but he was there, so figured I'd have him just do it to make sure it was done right.

[mattadams]

Here's the picture of the new part... oooh... ahhh... enjoy the sparkleness of the new bronze, not to mention the new copper tubing to the left of the unit! :)
http://www.mattstruck.com/oddballs/sprinklers3.jpg

[Starkman]

Nice!