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#1
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Can I maintain irrigation system myself?
I just bought a house with a pretty sophisticated looking irrigation
system (Toro). I have no previous experience with these. The previous owner purchased an annual maintenance service to start it up in the spring and winterize it in the fall. The guy came out today -- terrific fellow -- to purge the system. He told me it was $285 for the annual service. I am not sure I want to pay that, and I KNOW my wife will flip out when she hears, but I don't want to just let such a nice system go unused. I do have access to an air compressor for purging, but don't know trying to self-service all this myself is over my head. Anyone have any advice or know where I can get detailed instructions about how to do it myself? |
#2
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Can I maintain irrigation system myself?
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#4
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Can I maintain irrigation system myself?
great info from both posters. thank you.
so what up firing it up in the spring? any tricks to that, or do you just crank on the water? wrote: wrote: I just bought a house with a pretty sophisticated looking irrigation system (Toro). I have no previous experience with these. The previous owner purchased an annual maintenance service to start it up in the spring and winterize it in the fall. The guy came out today -- terrific fellow -- to purge the system. He told me it was $285 for the annual service. I am not sure I want to pay that, and I KNOW my wife will flip out when she hears, but I don't want to just let such a nice system go unused. I do have access to an air compressor for purging, but don't know trying to self-service all this myself is over my head. Anyone have any advice or know where I can get detailed instructions about how to do it myself? I had a system put in about 10 years ago and have done all the maintenance myself. At your rates, that would be about $2,800 saved. I use an old Sears compressor, 10gal maybe, 6.4cfm at 40psi to blow it out. I attached a gate valve and male air fitting to the water line. I let the compressor get up to about 80psi, then turn on the zone for about 3 mins. The pressure drops down to about 40 or so. I go through all the zones twice and make sure only some mist is still coming out. Other than that, I've spent maybe $100 for sprinkler heads, which are easy to replace. A lot depends on your repair skills. One other thing I would recommend, particularly if you are paying for water. Do a flow rate test on all the heads, using a 5 gal pail or similar to catch the water for a timed period. Then you will know the actual gal/min from each head, which can be different depending on the size of nozzle, which is frequently changable. Factor in the degrees of coverage. For example if one nozzle is putting out 1gal/min and doing 360, while another is putting out 1gal/min in 90deg, then the latter area is getting 4 times as much water, or an effective rate of 4gal/min. You can also factor in the throw distance if there is a significant variance, to figure out the relative rates for each head. You want them normalized. So, in the above example, the 90 deg area head should have a nozzle putting out 1/4 the rate of the 360 deg one. That way you will have even water distribution. If you don't you will be wasting a lot of water on some areas in order to give other areas the right amount. You can also do this measurement with tuna cans which will show the effects of overlap from multiple heads hitting a particular area. |
#5
Posted to misc.consumers.house
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Can I maintain irrigation system myself?
wrote: great info from both posters. thank you. so what up firing it up in the spring? any tricks to that, or do you just crank on the water? Just crank on the water. Then test each zone and make sure all the heads are working, adjust, as needed, check the programs that are set, etc. wrote: wrote: I just bought a house with a pretty sophisticated looking irrigation system (Toro). I have no previous experience with these. The previous owner purchased an annual maintenance service to start it up in the spring and winterize it in the fall. The guy came out today -- terrific fellow -- to purge the system. He told me it was $285 for the annual service. I am not sure I want to pay that, and I KNOW my wife will flip out when she hears, but I don't want to just let such a nice system go unused. I do have access to an air compressor for purging, but don't know trying to self-service all this myself is over my head. Anyone have any advice or know where I can get detailed instructions about how to do it myself? I had a system put in about 10 years ago and have done all the maintenance myself. At your rates, that would be about $2,800 saved. I use an old Sears compressor, 10gal maybe, 6.4cfm at 40psi to blow it out. I attached a gate valve and male air fitting to the water line. I let the compressor get up to about 80psi, then turn on the zone for about 3 mins. The pressure drops down to about 40 or so. I go through all the zones twice and make sure only some mist is still coming out. Other than that, I've spent maybe $100 for sprinkler heads, which are easy to replace. A lot depends on your repair skills. One other thing I would recommend, particularly if you are paying for water. Do a flow rate test on all the heads, using a 5 gal pail or similar to catch the water for a timed period. Then you will know the actual gal/min from each head, which can be different depending on the size of nozzle, which is frequently changable. Factor in the degrees of coverage. For example if one nozzle is putting out 1gal/min and doing 360, while another is putting out 1gal/min in 90deg, then the latter area is getting 4 times as much water, or an effective rate of 4gal/min. You can also factor in the throw distance if there is a significant variance, to figure out the relative rates for each head. You want them normalized. So, in the above example, the 90 deg area head should have a nozzle putting out 1/4 the rate of the 360 deg one. That way you will have even water distribution. If you don't you will be wasting a lot of water on some areas in order to give other areas the right amount. You can also do this measurement with tuna cans which will show the effects of overlap from multiple heads hitting a particular area. |
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