How do I know if have an underground sprinkler leak, how do I stop it?
Question:We have a new house with an underground sprinkler system. I have replaced 2 or 3 of the sprinkler heads, they are the rotor type, oscillation Toro heads. One in particular continues to give me trouble and I noticed that when I dug it up, and removed the soil around it, and removed the head, that water bubbles out of the pipe even when the system is off. What is causing this? How can I stop it? I don't know the lay out of the system underground. Is there a valve that needs to be replaced? Any bored plumbers out there? Thanks.
Answers:
these systems are broken up into "zones". Just outside of your house there should be a bunch of valves called "solenoids" . Likely one of these has a leak in it and needs to be rebuilt or replaced. Another consideration is that once the system has turned off the reamining water in the head shouls actually drain out of holes that are built into the sprinkler hear to prevent freezing. If some water remains in the sprinkler head when the system turns off this is normal. If water activly flows when the system is off then its more likely an issue with the bad valve.
Plumbers and sprinkler fitters are two different trades. You are probably getting water from that one sprinkler head if it is the lowest point in the system. You should have an isolation valve for the sprinkler system in the basement near where your water service comes into the house. If you have an underground leak, the ground will be very soggy in the vicinity of the leak.
It's often very normal for water to bubble out of the sprinkler pipe when you remove the sprinkler head. If the main pipe which is feeding that sprinkler head is in any way lower in depth than where it connects to the other sprinkler heads, it will automatically push the water leftover from the last sprinkling out of the opened pipe head when you remove the sprinkler. It's the same way that an unscrewed hose may not leak until you lift one end up, and then all the stored water gushes out of the lower end.
One way to tell if you have a leak is to dig up the dirt where you think the leak is (usually right before a sprinkler that has lousys pressure) and see if the soil is noticably wet there. It will be much wetter (even muddy or drippy) than the soil anywhere else a few feet up or down the line - if you find a moist underground ares, then you turn on the sprinklers and see if water puddles up. If you do have a leak, it will only leak when the sprinklers are turned on because the water is only pressurized when the sprinklers are on. If the pressure of the water coming out of the sprinklers seems good, then you probably dont have a leak - a serious leak will cause the pressure to drop and your sprinklers after the leak location will just dribble or have a noticeably reduced spray.
First do yourself a favor and replace those Toro heads with something decent when they fail. Hunter PGP heads are one of my favorite.
It could be the wiper seal has failed on the head and it is leaking just below the ground. Toro heads are good at leaking.
If the head is in a low area you will still have some water coming out of the pipe for a while as it drains from the higher areas.
To be sure you don't have a leak in the solenoid you can shut off the main valve and see if any water is still leaking from the head.
If your system is connected to a pump then you don't have to worry about that.
i repair sprinkler systems on a daily basis, its my job.
its normal for them to bubble and make noise after they run. but if its all the time thing, than you need to replace the valve that controls that section of sprinkler heads. do this test.. the DRIP test, go to your water meter and your cut off valve for the irrigation should be there too...turn off the irrigation at the cut off valve, wait an entire full ten minutes, while at the same time watching your water meter's drip indicator ( the thing that spins when water is running), turn back on the irrigation.
if your meter even flinched a little bit when you did this, then you have a leak. this test tells you if your sprinkler system is staying pressurized. if you have no leaks, then your water meter should have moved at all after the ten minutes of being shut off.
if it spun, and the heads are leaking constantly, change the valve or valves, controlling the leaking heads.
hope this helps
also, toro is no good. get hunter or rainbird heads and valves
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