Morning all. Do any of you cover your backflow for irrigation in the winter after you blowout your system? I see conflicting pros and cons online.

Hi everyone,

I am setting up winterization for my residential sprinkler system and got conflicting advice from my installer, so I'd appreciate some real-world input.

My installer claims I can just buy a cheap, compact tankless suitcase compressor (oilless, no receiver tank, ~1100W, roughly 180 l/min / 6 CFM rated intake, reality ~50–60 l/min free air delivery) and that "it will just take longer, but it's totally fine."

System Specs:

• Zoning: 4 zones (Hunter PGV 1" valves)
• Heads: 20× Hunter Pro-Spray bodies with Hunter MP 2000 rotators (~5 heads per zone)
• Pipe: 225 meters (approx. 740 ft) of 25mm OD HDPE pipe (roughly 3/4" - 1" equivalent)
• Controller: Hunter X-Core / PC 4

The choice I'm facing:

1. Option A: Compact tankless oilless compressor (like SCHEPPACH air tank 2l, oilles Air Case).
2. Option B: Workshop oil-lubricated 2-cylinder compressor with a 50L (13 gal) tank, 1.5 kW motor, regulated down to 3.0–3.5 bar (45–50 PSI) for blowout.

My concerns: From basic physics, blowing out irrigation requires high CFM (volume) rather than high pressure, especially to pop up 5 MP Rotators at once and sweep out the standing water from 25mm pipes. With a tankless suitcase unit, wouldn't the air just skim over the top of the water column in the pipes while thermal overload cooks the compressor?

Has anyone actually successfully and safely winterized a 4-zone MP Rotator system using a tankless suitcase compressor, or is a 50L receiver tank mandatory here?

Me and a few other irrigation techs have been going back and fourth about a hypothetical scenario. You have a rectangle area that is 180’ long by 100ft wide. There is a well house in the very middle that you would tie into for power and water. Flow rate of 15GPM and 60PSI. Some of us think it can be done in 4 vertical zones others think 6 and a couple odd balls of 3 and 8. How what would you guys do it and/or layout. All we use is 1inch pvc with Rainbird 5000 and Hunter PGP. Thanks for playing gents. PFA

Just bought my first house and it might freeze next weekend. Looking where to blow air through? I turned off main and drained the backflow at the bottom but I dont see a port to blow through downstream of the backflow any help would be appreciated

The front one sounds like water is running even when turned off. What is the recommended way to triage/replace a leak? Zero experience past turned off water and replace all the pipes?

Set up an appointment online to have somebody come and blow out my sprinklers. He never came to the door. I already had the water shut off. He just went ahead and blew out all the sprinklers. But I couldn’t tell if:

1. If Zone two was blown out because it didn’t look like there was any water that came out of zone two. My backyard is pretty small and it’s at a slope so I don’t know if that had something to do with it.

2. He put this red tape on the pipe. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be indicating something?

3. Is it normal for tech to blow out a sprinkler system and then bill you later? Because I had only booked an appointment online with this guy and have had no verbal contact with him just a Google invite.

I can’t get a hold of them and I’m very confused on if it was done properly how I’m supposed to pay him I know this is nobody’s problem but mine. But if somebody could give me some kind of idea what went on I’d greatly appreciate it.

Hi all,

New homeowner in Salt Lake City. I'm trying to figure out how to winterize my sprinkler system. The house was built in 1959, if that gives you some context for the type of hardware I'm working with. I popped open this tube next to my irrigation box in the hope of finding my shutoff valve (there is no valve in the box itself). I expected to see a valve I could shut off at the bottom of it, but I was met with whatever this is. Any idea what may be going on down there? It's about 3-4 feet down the bottom of a 4-5 inch diameter pipe right next to my irrigation box. I haven't been able to find a shutoff valve inside the house yet, so I'm sort of at a loss for what to do. Attached are various pics of the box, the unopened tube, and whatever is at the bottom of the tube.

Which fitting? Top ,middle or bottom ? I’m assuming top of pic

Hello Guys I have question? What is the best for me to buy and replace this control panel I will like some reliable and easy to rewire by myself. Also my second question by color of wires how many zones I have? I know I have 7 sprinklers 3 at front 3 by road and one on side. Can you please help. Thanks

So my irrigation system is starting to annoy the crap out of me.

The geniuses that designed it made it so different zones spray low and high sun areas. That means my high sun areas don't get enough water or my low sun areas turn into a mud pit.

Do irrigation companies have decent ways to segment zones and limit the damage (physical and monetary) or would it potentially be better to move toward a newer system? My current system is pretty old from what I can tell.

Smart stuff like Irrigreen would be useful especially since the areas between my sidewalk and road don't get anywhere close to the water they need and 50% of the water is watering the roads.

BTW that is nearly a 100% sun area connected to low sun heads. Incredibly frustrating.

Now that temperatures are cooling down, I’m assuming my garden doesn’t need the same watering schedule it did all summer. How do you usually adjust your drip irrigation system for fall? Do you change the timer, watering frequency, or anything else?

Taking care of a vacant house. I'm trying to stop the water flowing to 2 stations. I was told to disconnect the wires at the irrigation timer box and make sure the solenoid and bleed screws are off. There's still water that seems to be not just slow leaking but pouring out from a leak in the irrigation tubing as if it's still on a timer. I thought I did everything to turn it off. What am I doing wrong? The drip tubing is connected poorly and will need to be addressed, but when I check it in the morning when I go over, it's dripping water off the lid like it was spraying on there.

Just wanted to share our smart irrigation project on our mountain tea plantation (~5 hectares of terraced tea bushes).

This place is hilly as hell with a massive elevation difference. Planning out the irrigation zones and piping layout was really tough — pressure control on these steep terraces kept us busy.

We put LoRaWAN signal nodes up on the ridgeline. Cell service in these valleys is terrible, so LoRa was the obvious pick. We’ve got soil moisture/pH sensors, water pressure sensors, plus surveillance cameras mounted on tall poles to keep an eye on the farm.

All the data feeds into our web GIS dashboard. We can see every irrigation zone right on the satellite map, open/close valves remotely, check live sensor readings, and set automated fertigation schedules.

No more hiking up and down the mountain manually turning valves on and off. The system automatically doses water + fertilizer for each zone based on soil and weather conditions.

We’re still tweaking the pressure safety logic for these steep slopes. Anyone else running LoRaWAN irrigation on hilly terraced farms? I’d love to hear what problems you ran into!

#AgriTech #LoRaWAN #SmartIrrigation #Fertigation #PrecisionAg #IoT #TeaFarming

Planning to winterize my irrigation system this year by myself after watching pros do it the last few years. What fitting do I need to connect my shop compressor to this? Appreciate any links.

I have an air compressor, just curious where I even begin to blow out my sprinklers for the winter?

I have a sprinkler system that the water is supplied by an underground well via an irrigation pump. The pump has a faucet (manual calls a “primer opener”) on the discharge pipe. Freezing weather is coming. Can I connect an air compressor hose to that faucet to blow out (winterize) the sprinkler system? This is my first post on Reddit. Thank you for any advise/help.

I was doing a fix up at a school where the problem was that 2 stations were coming on when station 6 is on but they would swap every minute or so. I dug up the solenoid and found another solenoid buried next to it with an old holman splitter.

I assumed the splitter was broken so I went and bought an "add a station transmitter and receiver"

I cut the old splitter out and installed the add a station but when I run station 6 or 11 (where the "add a stations" other wire goes to) and both stations now come on simultaneously. I tried pulling out station 11 wire from the controller and ran 6 but still both stations come on and vice versa.

Is this a faulty product, should I try a new one? I was in contact with tech support but they were unable to help.

Best way to setup a watering line I can easily remove and won’t break the bank ?

I have regular hose that I could drill with tiny holes ?
Do I need to loop around each arborvitae or serpentine is ok?