OT: How to disable pop-up sprinklers

Folks,

California has a drought and while we are already >30% water savings we are looking into curbing some more. How can pop-up sprinklers be completely disabled? It's the vintage Rain-Jet brand.

Digging them out would be a major chore in this case. Also, capping them in the ground would not allow us to easily restore them and, if we'd ever sell the house, the new owners would never find back the location.

Another one that we still use leaks at the bottom of the pop-up stem. I guess a seal has worn and I'll have to dig up that one. Hurumph.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg
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Isn't there a cut off valve for the whole sprinkler system? Failing that can't you disconnect the pipe inside the house and cap it? That should be easy enough to do and to reverse.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

It would take only 15 to 30 minutes to dip up around the sprinkler. Replace it with a threaded nibble with cap. You want the cap to be slightly above ground, but not hit by mower. But if you have no water there, grass won't grow around it anyway.

I am sure you can pay someone $10 to $20 to replace each.

Reply to
edward.ming.lee

Turn the water off?

They're simple to replace. The whole system is easy to work on. I had a couple of the main lines cut when they installed our gas line from one side of the house to the other. They said they'd pay to have it fixed but it only took a couple of hours to dig it up and install a patch. They also got a couple of heads. It took, maybe, a half hour to replace them. My system was new (house was

Reply to
krw

Surely there's a control valve (28V typical), and a clock???

On my very cheapy system I can program the times for every "zone" and can disable them, if need be. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Reply to
Jim Thompson

Of course the real question is why does Californica always having a drought and Arizona doesn't ?>:-}

[So politicians can raise the price of water :-] ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

And you don't have a shut off valve ? Come on..

Jamie

Reply to
Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.

Do you want to disable some of your sprinklers and leave others working, or shut off all of them?

If you just want to disable some, I'm not sure how you can without capping off each sprinkler, as has been posted. Maybe put a brick or something on top of the sprinklers, but they'll still leak some water in that condition.

If you want to disable them all, there should be a shutoff valve just for the sprinklers. When a sprinkler system is added to a house that didn't have one originally, it's usually pretty obvious where they tapped into the original plumbing, so you can follow that pipe to the valve. If the sprinklers are original to the house then this might be harder to do.

Sometimes there are valves in boxes in the lawn... if you haven't opened the box in a while, it can get dirt on the lid and overgrown with grass. Walk around the lawn with a stick and test for places that don't give as much as the rest of the lawn when poked. Or, design that ground-penetrating radar you've always wanted. :)

There also should be a timer somewhere that you can shut off, which will work fine, unless you're concerned that the solenoid valves are leaking when off. For older systems the timer is often in a metal box, maybe 4" wide by 8" tall by 3" deep or so, with a hinged cover... it may or may not have the sprinkler company logo on the cover. It might live near your breaker box, near the main water shutoff for the house, or somewhere else.

Matt Roberds

Reply to
mroberds

I only want to shut off a few individual sprinklers, not the whole circuit.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Some will need jackhammer work.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

That would disable the whole circuit. Can't do that.

If you can get to it. Someone poured concrete after the fact, happened under a previous owner. I have a Bosch Bulldiog that has hammer-only mode plus a matching SDS chisel but it sure ain't "simple".

Reply to
Joerg

I cannot want to disable the whole circuit.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

At first, only shut off one sprinkler and repair another so it won't leak past the stem that pops out.

Yep, then they'll leak :-(

[...]
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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

They're watering the concrete? That sounds useful.

Reply to
krw

Zone the system. The hardware is easy to work on. Trenching an entire system is work, though.

The irrigation system in our last house (don't have one here, but I'm considering it) had three zones. One for the front yard, one for the back, and one for the landscaping around the house.

That makes no sense. Why wouldn't they just take it out rather than making that mess. At least the heads on the ones we had were replaceable without digging them up. They don't last forever so you're going to have to do it eventually anyway.

Reply to
krw

It already has 10 zones. This zone can't be split without major jackhammering.

They probably had a grass area next to the basketball court which was then graveled. You know how that goes, contractor pours concrete, some oozes out, what the heck, it's covered with sumpthin, nobody sees it.

Reply to
Joerg

So ... it's done. Well, for now at least. Replaced a leaky pop-up and then figured out how to get the insert out of the other old Rain-Jet that needed to be disabled. Hacked the pop-up out of this insert, placed large rubber washer below, plus metal washer, another metal washer on the outside, screw and nut, screwed the whole insert back into the sprinkler body. That was probably the redneck way but it's shut off.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

You're like the newb who keeps changing the spec on his term project. Sheesh! If you can't do anything else, just buck it up and use the water or pull the head out of the sprinkler and fill it with concrete. You're going to have to dig it up to replace it anyway.

So it'll never be needed? Just pull the head out of the body (you should be able to figure out how) and fill it with hydraulic cement. Wait 24 hours before using the system. Don't worry about replacing it down the road. You don't need to water concrete.

Reply to
krw

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