WINTERIZING SYSTEMS

Winterizing Your Lawn Sprinkler System and Irrigation System Closing

To minimize the risk of freeze damage to your irrigation system, you’ll need to "winterize" your irrigation system. Every year, before a consecutive 24 hour period of below freezing air temperatures, the ritual of irrigation "blow out" becomes the priority for all irrigation systems that are in regions of the country where the frost level extends below the depth of the installed piping.

Even if you have drained some water out of the system, the remaining water can freeze, expand and crack the PVC piping (rigid, white pipe), usually from fitting to fitting. Polyethylene pipe (flexible, black pipe) is used in many freezing climates. Although polyethylene pipe is more flexible and can expand under pressure, water left inside could freeze and rupture the pipe walls. Freezing water in the backflow assembly will damage the internal components and could possibly crack the brass body.

Irrigation systems in areas where "Winterization" is mandatory are installed using one of three types of water removal in mind: manual drain, auto drain, or blowout. If you don’t know your system type, it would be best to use the blowout method.

We will use compressed air to remove water from your sprinkler system, leave ball valves at 45 degrees, and exterior drains open as added precaution.