Greg’s Irrigation, Inc. in Leominster, MA knows all about the dangers inherent in not properly winterizing your irrigation system.
Let’s take a look at what is commonly called a sprinkler blowout. We consider the blowout to be the most efficient way to winterize a sprinkler system. But keep in mind that blowing out a sprinkler system can be dangerous, so leave it to the professionals, and contact Greg’s Irrigation to have us do it for you.
One thing to keep in mind when doing a sprinkler blowout is that a portable household air compressor will not have the power to blow out a sprinkler system. There are some people who attempt to do a blowout themselves by filling a compressor and releasing all the air at once to make up for the lack of volume. However, the trick is to have lower “air pressure,” known as PSI, and higher “air volume,” known as CFM. This process evenly ejects water and vapor from the system. Only a professional will have the relevant experience, and proper equipment to keep the psi and cfm regulated at the proper levels. If you run high pressure air through the system for too long, heat builds, and this could cause major damage.
When you call Greg’s Irrigation, Inc. to come out and do a sprinkler blowout, we send an expert who follows the following steps:
- Our expert prepares the lines by turning off the irrigation system to ensure no more water can flow into the lines.
- Next, our expert connects the air compressor to the blowout port. The best practice is to begin the process with the zone furthest away from the compressor hookup.
- The third step we take is to go ahead, and blow out the sprinklers, making sure all the valves are open in the zone being worked on because a closed line can burst the pipe.
- Once water does not appear to be exiting the sprinklers, we turn off the air.
- Finally, we drain the backflow preventer by opening the remaining test cocks and ball valves, allowing any remaining water to drain.
Moving into the fall, this is the perfect time to get in touch with Greg’s Irrigation, Inc. to do a sprinkler blowout. It’s incredibly important to protect your sprinkler system before the first hard freeze. You don’t want to let water inside your pipes freeze and risk damage to your entire system. Use our highly trained professionals who are ready to come out and winterize your sprinkler system. They are ready to go out of their way to make sure you don’t have to worry about your pipes splitting or your system needing repairs in the spring.
