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Harbor freight sells cheap air compressors. Get one and do it yourself.
Nevermind, I rescind this statement. Out of curiosity, I just checked Harbor freight website and air compressors are like double the price from when I bought mine a few years back.
And I am using a pancake compressor. The downside to larger compressors is that it takes a bit longer (usually I do 3 rounds per zone, having the compressor re-pressurize between rounds):
exm, I too have a little pancake compressor. However, I bought an 11 gallon expansion tank that I hook up to my little pancake to increase the capacity when blowing out my sprinklers.
The best use of my air compressor is changing golf club grips- makes it super easy and cheap to do.
Nevermind, I rescind this statement. Out of curiosity, I just checked Harbor freight website and air compressors are like double the price from when I bought mine a few years back.
Thanks Joe Biden.
Wow $70 for 3 gallon 1/3hp I’ve had mine from HF (central pneumatic) for 6-7 years it was $20 with a super coupon!
You need a decent compressor to blow out the lines properly, not one of those Mickey Mouse models.
Yeah I agree. My brother in law has the same setup and we tried blowing out his sprinklers with a 21 gallon harbor freight compressor. That took several hours to do as you had to keep refilling the tank after each zone. A few zones required multiple refills in order to get all the water out. You're going to need a 29 gallon tank at least to tackle 5 zones.
Yeah I agree. My brother in law has the same setup and we tried blowing out his sprinklers with a 21 gallon harbor freight compressor. That took several hours to do as you had to keep refilling the tank after each zone. A few zones required multiple refills in order to get all the water out. You're going to need a 29 gallon tank at least to tackle 5 zones.
If the pressure isn’t enough to raise the heads up, then you’re taking a gamble. There should be enough pressure to raise the heads at a minimum 3/4 of the way up, @3 minute’s per zone. And the heads, whatever, if you lose a few over the winter so what, they’re normally a cheap and easy fix…but…if you don’t evacuate enough water out of the main manifold/valves, that can be a horror show to repair. And valves, followed by any fittings, are far more prone to breakage from ice than the heads or pipe.
Yeah yeah I know some people use a pancake nailer compressor every year with “no problems”, blah blah blah.
You got lucky.
Looks like a separate curb stop just for sprinklers.
Screw the cap off, put the key in and turn it off.
Open the spigot next to it. There should be no water coming out.
Then just go inside and make sure you actually didn’t shut off the house water.
If that all checks out, you can begin blowing out the system.
Hook your air to that spigot.
You can blow the zones manually with the bleeder screws in the valves, or you can run a shortened cycle with the clock, 3 minutes per zone should do it.
I follow your direction and successfully blow out the water from all 5 zones.
I didn't have the key, but I got lucky since the water district guy drove by and he let me borrow the key to shut it off （ I‘m going to order one from here https://www.newconcepttools.com/prod...hole-on-handle)
the whole reason I decided to do it my self, because every year I paid $100 to have them blow it out, but every year in spring, I ended up paying another 200 to 300 to fix the broken head and pipes. I'm done with it I'll do it my self this year and let see how it goes.
for those who also wonder why your sprinkler pipe cracks every year after you winterize your sprinkler.
that's because those pipes are rated for maximum of 40PSI. if your sprinkler guy pump up to the maximum PSI in hundreds you going to have your pipe crack every year! I bet they do this on purpose to make blow out faster and free repair money every year when they return! make sure you pay attention their PSI meter ask him to keep it down below 50PSI!
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