/r/Irrigation
This is a place for professionals and non-professionals alike to discuss irrigation. Ask a question, ask for help, show off your work (no advertising), or show us what some idiot did. Just keep it cordial. Check out the user and post flair, and think about adding it to your post.
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The Irrigation Reddit
Irrigation - the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants against frost, suppressing weed growth in grain fields and preventing soil consolidation. In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dryland farming.
Irrigation systems are also used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation is often studied together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area.
Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5000 years, and was the basis of the economy and society of numerous societies, ranging from Asia to Arizona.
Wikipedia: Irrigation
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/r/Irrigation
New home. Getting ready to blowout sprinklers and this setup is different than what I've seen. It looks like it has a check valve? But no BFP. I put the air compressor hookup on the hose bib but it's up stream from what I'm assuming is a check valve. There's a 1/4 turn valve in the basement tp isolate the supply to the irrigation system. No other valves etc. There is a solenoid manifold in a valve box which has zone solenoids. So I just hookup to the house bib and blow out from there???
Couple trucks I’ve worked out of h
Any reason why a line can’t be run through a culvert? Driveway is 30’ long, sits on a bed of limestone, extremely difficult to dig much less channel through it. I’d run a 2-3” sleeve through the culvert and then run the 1” main through the sleeve. Any issues with that?
I replaced it because there was this noise and a leak. But now it's continuing. Only happens when valve closes and sprinklers shut off. Anyone know what it is? Thanks!
My sprinklers are leaking water. Right now they only go off once a week but the sprinkler heads are always wet (sometimes a small pool of water around them) and many times, water is dripping from the actual solenoids. I asked my gardener and he said the solenoids that were installed are low quality and I need to replace them if I want to stop the leak (these were installed one year ago). Are they actually cheap quality? I have these same ones in backyard and front yard and sprinkler heads are leaking in both.
What gear do you consider essential for prepping irrigation systems for winter? I'm looking for reliable ways to protect hoses, drip lines, and other equipment from freezing.
I have 5 zones. Two of them work at the controller. The solenoids test fine at the valve box but at the controller there’s nothing. Just reads OL.
Is it bad wiring and would need to be replaced? Has anyone tried connecting a new wire to already installed irrigation? I can still open it manually but I’d like to have it controller easier and work like normal.
I've blown out my sprinklers over the last several years with no problems. In years past, I hook up my compressor to the system and everything is on hold until I start activating zones. This year, I hook up the compressor and air starts coming out at least a few of the zones despite no zones being on. My compressor is inadequate to blow out multiple zones at once. Not sure what is going on.
When I run the zones with water there is no leakage, only the zone that's on allows water to pass. But with air compressor I'm getting air flow in multiple zones with all zones off. I'm hoping this is a common/simple issue. Thanks in advance for any tips.
Trying to go straight from my 3/4" Poly pipe to a 3/4" male garden hose so I can screw a GH hose directly to it. All I can find is a 3/4" barb X 3/4" MNPT. I can use that but then have to buy a 3/4" FNPT X 3/4" MGHT to get it to work. Brass or S/S preferred as the stell barbs rust fairly quickly. This is for a pump pulling from a pump and not associated with potable at all.
I am in the middle of a large remodel in which most of the house has been torn down and replaced with a new house and connected to what was left, basically a breezeway apt and a garage. I don't have a lawn. What I do have is a bunch of flower beds I don't want to have to water by hand every day. I will have to have two places to exit the house and then serve 4-7 flower bed locations on either end of the house. I have done irrigation installs in the past at my parents' house, but that was thirty years ago. What is the advice or best resources to consult, or questions to ask? I have basic locations worked out but I don't know about draining or blowout in the fall as I live near Lake Michigan and we freeze.
Hi All,
Any ideas where this new sprinkler head isn’t working? I accidentally took the brass assembly off and water started shooting out.
So that would conclude no water issue. Something must be wrong with the new sprinkler head?
Thank you in advance.
I had some work done in our sprinkler system (new pump, new pump relay). The old Orbit Pump relay was malfunctioning and was replaced with a new Hunter one. The Orbit BHyve timer I have had for a couple of years was not touched.
Ever since, scheduled programs quit after 15-30 seconds. If I look in the calendar in the B-Hyve app, it shows the first zone of the program running for 15 seconds, and it never really gets to the other zones in the program. If I run the same program manually or if I I run a zone manually, everything works fine.
I have tried changing the program to avoid specific zones thinking that it might be a zone-specific valve causing the problem, but it doesn’t make any difference.
Any ideas about what could be causing this? I guess my next step is to reset the BHyve and reconfigure it to see if the problem goes away.
Partially installed valve manifold for my 1 acre orchard and garden.
Hi, I noticed the bonnet/internal valve on my backflow valve has a very small crack in it which is misting water out the top of the valve. I'm going to blow the system out tomorrow to shut it down for the winter and have ordered a new bonnet repair kit. Should I replace the bonnet before I blow the system out and shut it down for the winter or just blow it out now and replace in spring when I start it back up?
Sink is brand new few days old since installed and I notice a rainbow mark like effect it was no there before any know a reason for this and can It be removed
Thanks
Hi all, is a way to extend the useful life of Hunter Pro Spray body wiper seals? I find that, even after just a few months to a year, there is a lot of blow-by (between seal and riser) whilst risers rise.
Issue seems to be that seals are drying out, rather than damage from dirt. Is there a product I can spray on them to re-soften, or to slow down deterioration future? (I don't know the material of them, my guess would be EPDM)
It was no issue until council began having water pressure issues recently. Now, pressure lost due to blow-by, sometimes causes sprinklers to not rise.
Any ideas on how to keep wiper seals soft and prevent drying/shrinking?
Have there been any useful new irrigation products released over the last few years apart from smart controllers?
Any new tools that that you've found to be really useful?
New-ish homeowner with little knowledge of irrigation systems and have been fighting tooth and nail with this system for years. When the house was purchased, we were told the system was broken, but I narrowed it down to the rain sensor being old, but having it face downward did the trick. Fast forward to Florida's most recent hurricane, the sensor was torn off the house and the system no longer works.
I've searched online and have found that this particular system can be a bit of a pain and from what I can tell from the wiring, the sensor was not wired in (tried the system with each wire undone).
I am wondering if it would save me some headaches if I just went and upgraded, but any advice would be appreciated.
Some work, some don’t. Should I pull it all out and start fresh? Or work with the steel pipes I have
My Toro 250 irrigation valve won’t completely shut off. When the controller goes to another zone, a little bit of water keeps coming out. This persists even if I turn off the controller completely. The valve is pretty new — a year or so—. I took the top off, flushed it, checked for debris and tears, it all looked ok. Put it back together and it still dribbled with the controller off when I turned the water back on. It cycles full on, but when it cycles off it still dribbles. Thoughts?
Looking to blow out my sprinklers, but the pictured test cocks do not attach to my 1/4 inch compressor parts. I purchased a 1/8 inch FPT to 1/4 inch MPT step-up piece but appears to be too small to screw onto the test cock. Any advice for what part I need to create an effective connection?
Thanks!
…clog his emitter line, at the top of the steep slope
Do I connect my compressor to the top or bottom one? Does it matter?
Pipe on right is sorted from house. Pipe on left goes to sprinklers.