What exactly does winterizing your sprinkler systems mean? Clearly, winterizing your sprinkler systems in essence means that exactly like women and men and kids, who get prepared for the cool winter by ordering coats and additionally enjoying hot cocoa, the sprinkler system as well requires a bit of preparation towards the cold water as well. And we call the process of preparing your sprinkler parts such as the heads, the water lines as well as the fittings to resist the freezing conditions - winterization.
So why is winterization extremely important?
Clearly, it is important because without the right preparation, your system may get affected because of the temperatures reaching as low as zero degrees or fundamentally the freezing stage. And so here are some of the recommendations which will help you prepare your
sprinkler systems for that freezing environment.
1. Heat your property
You simply must shut down the water arriving for the supply coming to the water pipes that's not all. An additional thing that you will have to defend from freezing the main shut off valve. You'll be able to secure this device from freezing if you make certain that it's covered with some sort of padding. An example of this can be a foam padding tape matched with a plastic bag, you may also try visiting nearby stores to see if they have other technique of insulation.
There are numerous cases where you will no longer need a valve yet the insulator is still a significant thing to get within your toolbox as the pipes which are not buried underground should be secured and insulation needs to be stuck on to it. Self-sticking foam-insulating tape or perhaps foam insulating tubes also work.
2. Keep in charge
Do you possess an auto option in your system? If you have it and then it is necessary for you to de-activate you controller also known as the timer. And most of times, these controllers contain a “rain mode” in which the system will quickly switch off the signal to the valves. The program set (like if the time begins, valve run times) on the system won't change along with the clock on your sprinklers will still run, the only difference is the valves and the sprinkler heads is not going to turn on. You can also unplug the wire that is plugged into your systems to lower the possibility of damages in the system.
Another option and it is the simplest as well as the most apparent (in my view) is just to turn off the entire system for the winter time and just reprogram the configurations like time, date, operation time, etc in the spring.
3. Strain the water pipes
It is a very big possibility during winter. Your
sprinkler systems' pipes split. Hence, what's the reason? The water within the pipes freezes and stretches inside. And then the pipe causes it to break or crack. Right now there is a simple solution in this, all you've got to do is drain the pipe to get rid of any water inside.
You will find a number of tips on how to do this: the manual drain valve, the automatic drain valve and the compressed air blow-out procedures.
There are still things that will help you prepare for the winter season and if you're still puzzled by it, never think twice to get hold of a specialist.