Don’t Drown
• The greatest waste of water comes from applying too much, too often—much of the water is never absorbed. Instead of watering for one long session, water a few times for shorter periods and take 15 minute breaks in-between each session. This will allow water to soak in, while minimizing runoff.
Watch the Clock
• Water Between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. when the sun is low, winds are calm and temperatures are cool. Mid-day watering tends to be less efficient because of water loss due to evaporation and windy conditions during the day. Watering in the evening isn’t a good idea either because leaves can remain wet overnight, which is an open invitation for fungus to grow. By watering in the morning, leaves have a chance to dry out during the day.
Do routine inspections
• Since lawns and gardens should be watered in the early morning hours, a problem may not be discovered until it is too late. Periodically check your sprinklers to make sure everything is working properly. A clogged head or a broken line can read havoc on your landscape and water bill.
Be rain smart
• Adjust your irrigation system as the seasons and weather change. Install a rain or weather sensor that automatically detects rain or moisture. These devices are inexpensive and enable you to take advantage of the water without having to pay for it.
Spring Start-up:
When we come out to start your sprinkler system, we check for leaks and check to see if sprinkler heads are rotating. We will take care of major adjustment problems, but minor corrections will not be done at the time of start-up. The heads have set spray patterns (determined at the time of installation) and do not change without somebody changing them. If you know of a particular head that needs to be adjusted, flag it, and if time permits, we will readjust.
In the helpful hints section you will find some quick suggestions that will make servicing you system much easier.
Sprinklerman offers Frost Protection for your Backflow
- The Backflow on the right is protected by the frost prevention cover and does help minimize the chance of costly frozen equipment.
Spring Start-Up
If you are electing to start-up your system yourself follow these steps. We are more than happy to do this for you but we understand that a number of our customers would rather take care of it themselves. If you get started with this and realize that its more that you really want to do, call the office and they will get you put into the schedule as soon as we can. DO NOT TRY TO START THE SYSTEM UNTIL TEMPERATURES ARE STEADILLY ABOVE THE FREEZING POINT AT NIGHT. FAILURE TO DO THIS WILL CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR SYSTEM.
- Seal the threads of the plug (using Teflon tape available from us or most hardware stores)
- Install plug into the tee on the bottom of your backflow
- Turn on the water to your system (usually in basement near the water meter and it usually has a drain valve nearby)
- Program controller, and run thru system checking each zone for proper functionality
Winterization
These are steps to take if you are not going to be home when we come by to winterize your irrigation system.
- Turn water off to sprinkler system (usually near water meter, see above picture)
- Do not turn water off to your whole house. You can check this by turning on a faucet in the house after you turn the water to the sprinklers off. If your faucet works, you turned the right valve off. If the faucet doesn’t turn on, turn the first valve back on, and turn the other valve off. If you cant quite get it figured out (some of these are kind of tricky) let us know and we will make sure the correct valve gets turned off.
- Leave the technician access to the controller (usually in the garage)
- If you can not do the previous steps, leave access to the garage, and house on the scheduled day, or plan on being home to let the service technician in.
For more help on system troubleshooting see the System Manual.
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