As spring arrives, it’s important for homeowners to get their lawn sprinkler systems ready for the season. Proper sprinkler system maintenance helps your yard stay healthy while saving water and preventing expensive repairs.

Getting Your Lawn Ready: Spring Sprinkler System Startup Tips

We’ll cover key tasks like checking for winter damage, looking for leaks, and setting up your controller. By following these steps, you can make sure your irrigation system works well, keeping your lawn green and vibrant throughout the spring and summer. Let’s explore how to prepare your sprinkler system for the new season!

When to Turn the Water Back On?

The question always lies when to turn the water back on for my lawn sprinkler system. It’s actually a really good question because if you turn the water on too soon on the inside providing you have a shut off located on the water main of your lawn sprinkler system, It will damage not only the water main that goes out of your home down into the ground and into the green valve box located in the lawn flushed to the ground, It will also damage the manifold in the lawn sprinkler valve box where the control valves are located.

Why Sprinkler System Maintenance Matters

When you turn your lawn sprinkler on water fills the valve box manifold and the valves. It not only fills the manifold and the valves, but it does pressurize it to the desired pressure required to operate your lawn sprinkler. If it is too cold approximately -1 to -5 degrees Celsius when you turn it on the water will sit in the water main and the manifold as well as the control valves.

It will not take long for the water main, manifold and control valves to freeze because of the pressure, it will crack and all you will need is a hairline crock and damage will start to occur. If this happens you will notice pooling in the area wherever the cracks are once it thaws out.

Sprinkler System Maintenance Prevents Damage

Damage is very significant if this happens it is vital to ensure that you do not turn on your lawn sprinkler water main too early. The problem here is once it is turned on and freezes, it will crack the parts. But you will not notice it until it starts to thaw out. Once it thaws out you may not be home and then the water will start seeping out the cracks and when you get home it might be a significant amount of water in your yard.

Water main cracks are the most serious thing that could happen to your lawn sprinkler system because the water is always constantly on and pressurized. If by chance you get a large crack in the main water system, you will have a significant amount of water being wasted and it could perhaps flow back into your house from it pooling on the ground and create serious damage to your basement.

It is always recommended to contact your local lawn sprinkler contractor to advise when a good time is to start up your lawn sprinkler. It always depends on the year and the temperatures to know exactly when to turn on your lawn sprinkler, it is a very vital part of a contractor’s knowledge. Once all the snow melts and ice go away it doesn’t mean that the ground is thawed out, usually depending on the winter the ground freezes quite significantly, it could even freeze up to two feet below the surface.

It may seem warm out, but the ground is still frozen and if you add water to your water main supply for your lawn sprinkler system you are putting it at a significant risk. I always encourage people to identify the task that they are about to perform, then determine the hazards related to that task, and then implement corrective and preventative actions to prevent the hazard from occurring.

How to Check for Winter Damage?

Checking for winter damage on your lawn sprinkler system before the season starts can save you from broken pipes, flooded valve boxes, and wasted water. Since you likely winterized Your lawn sprinkler in the fall you likely do not have any damage at all underground.

Spring Maintenance Step 1:

Walk the property first before turning water on, look for visible damage from frost snowplows or animals. Check for broken or tilted sprinkler heads, missing heads or caps, check risers, exposed pipes, the valve boxes pushed up from frost. If anything is obviously broken, leave that zone off until repaired. Always contact your local lawn sprinkler provider for repairs and maintenance.

Spring Maintenance Step 2:

Inspect the backflow preventer. If your system has a backflow common in Canada, look for cracks in the brass body, broken test ports, missing caps, and water strains from freezing. If a backflow freezes over the winter, it will usually leak immediately when pressurized.

Spring Maintenance Step 3:

Slowly turn on the main water supply to your lawn sprinkler system, do not open quickly, always remember to locate the main irrigation shutoff, turn it about 1/4 open let pipes slowly fill for 30 to 60 seconds then open it fully. Why: fast pressurizing can cause water hammer, causing bursts, and cracked fittings.

Spring Maintenance Step 4:

Check the valve manifold. Open each valve box and look for water pooling, cracked solenoids, split fittings, and loose wires. A cracked valve body will usually spray water immediately.

Spring Maintenance Step 5:

Run each zone manually. Turn on one zone at a time. Watch for, heads not popping up, water bubbling in the grass, and continuous leaking after shutting the zone off. These usually mean broken lateral lines, cracked swing joints and frozen head bodies

Spring Maintenance Step 6:

Looking for underground leak’s signs include mud or water bubbling, one area of grass flooding, a zone that never builds pressure. If you see water bubbling out of the ground shut that zone off.

Spring Maintenance Step 7:

Check coverage and rotation of sprinkler heads. Even if nothing’s broke winter frost can move the heads make sure the heads rotate properly and spray patterns are correct as well check that the heads are not buried under soil or turf.

Spring Maintenance Step 8:

Inspect the controller. Make sure you have the correct date and time and ensure seasonal watery times are set and activate each zone properly.

Here is a tip, run the system for 10 to 15 minutes per zone the first time. Some small cracks only start leaking once pipes warm up and expand. Always remember to check sprinkler heads, broken swing joints, splits in poly fittings, always remember to check your back flow prevention device and keep an eye on the animal rodents that could possibly chew on wires in your valve box.

Checking Zones and Sprinkler Heads

You always want to check your sprinkler heads not only for cracks or leaks but how they’re working and if they were spraying the distance they normally do. Sprinkler heads depend on if you are using city water or well water, you could even be using lake water. Sometimes the heads get clogged. This is most common on lake system sprinklers.

If you’re using a lake system sprinkler the intake of the water needs to have proper filter system installed and always check to make sure the intake is not sitting on the ground of the lake or pond these intake valves always need to be propped up with a proper stand. Not only does the heads get clogged with dirt but the dirt goes through the valve, and it actually clogs the valve as well resulting in a valve won’t shut off properly.

You will notice sometimes if it doesn’t shut off properly it will seep out the heads constantly when the zone is off this is a valve issue not a head issue. Sometimes the valve gets so clogged that it opens fully and the zone constantly runs usually burning out the pump that pushes the water through your sprinkler system. Always consult a lawn sprinkler professional prior to any challenges that may occur.

Controller Programming for Spring

Depending on the control that you have on your long sprinkler system you could perhaps have a standard timer controller. These controllers are very good timers; they are basic timers for the not so intimidated person of the digital world, they do the job very well and they are a little bit cheaper than a Wi-Fi timer. A Wi-Fi timer in the new world is becoming very popular.

These timers control not only zoning times, but they also communicate with local weather networks and to provide options for areas that are shaded, sloped and also provide soil types. When you add all the proper data in the controller the controller will know exactly how much water to water your property accordingly. The Wi-Fi timers are a little more expensive than the standard timers but don’t be afraid of the new technology it has come a long way.