It's amazing what people will steal

PS. Maybe some thug was prowling around your property and you came home so he tripped on it while running away, breaking it off, and it went flying into the neighbor's yard? ;-)
The neighbor's back flow preventer was stolen too.
 
How much copper do those things contain, anyway? ;-) Seriously, what a weird thing to steal.

And a second on the barberries... I have a bush on the front lawn and it keeps everything except the birds away. I drove a thorn through a glove and into my fingertip a good 1/2" when cleaning up around the bush last fall. Those thorns are sharp, strong, and long!
 
And I think it has to be a certain distance above your sprinkler heads by code... <_<
I wonder why. Isn't the whole idea that this device prevents backflow no matter where they are located? Our water company just put them in for all of us that had sprinkler systems last year and they simply put them at the front of the meter.

In our area it is required by code to be at least 12 inches above ground level.
 
Wouldn't this thing freeze being above ground?
There is a whole business of winterizing backflow preventers around here. People charge $75 to $100 to shut off and purge the water out of the system with a compressor. Once purged, the valves on the backflow preventer are opened, and the body is usually loosened enough that any remaining water will not damage it. I winterize the system myself, and look what it got me.
 
Wouldn't this thing freeze being above ground?
There is a whole business of winterizing backflow preventers around here. People charge $75 to $100 to shut off and purge the water out of the system with a compressor. Once purged, the valves on the backflow preventer are opened, and the body is usually loosened enough that any remaining water will not damage it. I winterize the system myself, and look what it got me.

Reviving this thread, what compressor do you use, CORT? I'm also in TN. Newly installed irrigation system, last winterization came 'free' with install.

I watched him clear the lines. He told me a compressor with 130 psi is required (his was a giant compressor, on a trailor, pulled behind a truck).

I found plenty of compressor options that go above 130 psi, at Lowes and HD, but I ran into a roadblock with 'CFM'. What is the cubic feet per minute rating of your compressor?

FYI, irrigation company removed my backflow preventer, and put it in my garage for the winter.

Thanks, Cort.
 
Wouldn't this thing freeze being above ground?
There is a whole business of winterizing backflow preventers around here. People charge $75 to $100 to shut off and purge the water out of the system with a compressor. Once purged, the valves on the backflow preventer are opened, and the body is usually loosened enough that any remaining water will not damage it. I winterize the system myself, and look what it got me.

Reviving this thread, what compressor do you use, CORT? I'm also in TN. Newly installed irrigation system, last winterization came 'free' with install.

I watched him clear the lines. He told me a compressor with 130 psi is required (his was a giant compressor, on a trailor, pulled behind a truck).

I found plenty of compressor options that go above 130 psi, at Lowes and HD, but I ran into a roadblock with 'CFM'. What is the cubic feet per minute rating of your compressor?

FYI, irrigation company removed my backflow preventer, and put it in my garage for the winter.

Thanks, Cort.
Hi, Cort.

I'm in FL now, so I don't need to winterize. When I was in NY, I always blew out my system myself, and used a 1 HP Craftsman portable compressor that is usually used for tire inflation. It didn't have a tank and did 125 PSI. It took a lot longer than the big compressors, but it did the job. You just let each zone run until air is blowing out.

Here's one with a tank that should do the job: Craftsman compressor for $99

Kevin
 
Wouldn't this thing freeze being above ground?
There is a whole business of winterizing backflow preventers around here. People charge $75 to $100 to shut off and purge the water out of the system with a compressor. Once purged, the valves on the backflow preventer are opened, and the body is usually loosened enough that any remaining water will not damage it. I winterize the system myself, and look what it got me.

Reviving this thread, what compressor do you use, CORT? I'm also in TN. Newly installed irrigation system, last winterization came 'free' with install.

I watched him clear the lines. He told me a compressor with 130 psi is required (his was a giant compressor, on a trailor, pulled behind a truck).

I found plenty of compressor options that go above 130 psi, at Lowes and HD, but I ran into a roadblock with 'CFM'. What is the cubic feet per minute rating of your compressor?

FYI, irrigation company removed my backflow preventer, and put it in my garage for the winter.

Thanks, Cort.
Hi, Cort.

I'm in FL now, so I don't need to winterize. When I was in NY, I always blew out my system myself, and used a 1 HP Craftsman portable compressor that is usually used for tire inflation. It didn't have a tank and did 125 PSI. It took a lot longer than the big compressors, but it did the job. You just let each zone run until air is blowing out.

Here's one with a tank that should do the job: Craftsman compressor for $99

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. I was concerned that low CFM might be a significant issue, given the size of the installer's compressor, on a trailer. It was the same size used for commercial jackhammers.
 
Oops, didn't mean to address that to Cort.

When I've told sprinkler companies what I use, they all say it won't work. That's not true, and I did my house, my mother's, my neighbor's every year twenty years, all with the same compressor. Again, it takes a lot longer (about 20-30 minutes vs 5-10 minutes for the big compressors), but it saved $40 each time I did it. Gave the compressor to my neighbor last year when I move to Florida.

Kevin
 
Commercial compressor was 4-5 minutes/zone, at my house.

I'll splurge on a larger compressor, for 11 zones.

Landscapers want to charge me $100-120/winterization.

Oooooh, bigger toy. I'll get one for a jackhammer - maybe I'll need one some day (run a cable across a garage floor? :) )
 
I use a 4hp 13 gallon home depot special. I do each zone about 3 times each. I've been doing my own blowouts for about 10 years now without any problems freezing over.
 
The heck with using a compressor. I just use my leaf blower. You need volume to clear the lines, not pressure. Either disconnect the sprinkler head or pull the guts out (depending on the type of sprinkler in the particular zone), and insert the blower. You can see the spray that comes out from each head as the water in the line is cleared. It takes around 5-8 minutes per zone. I've been doing it this way for 5 years now, and haven't lost a pipe yet.
 
At the supply end of the irrigation system, there is a fitting for the compressor, which allows one to hook up the compressor and just run the irrigation system through all of the zones.

I guess I could get an adapter for a leaf blower, but I don't own a leaf blower. ;)
 
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