Troubleshooting Lawn Sprinklers
Lawn sprinklers are convenient until they refuse to spray entirely or won't spray in the proper direction. Know the common issues faced by a sprinkler system so you can make quick repair plans.
Common Problems
There are two main issues that can affect your automatic sprinkler — poor water pressure and alignment issues. Water pressure loss can lead to a weak spray that doesn't cover as much lawn as it should. In the most extreme cases, there may be no flow at all from the sprinkler head, or such minimal flow that it is unable to pop up properly. Water pressure can affect just one sprinkler or several.
Alignment issues are those that affect the coverage of a sprinkler head. The sprinkler head may water only where it shouldn't, for example, spraying into the street or against a fence instead of over the lawn. Or, it may suffer from too much overlap with other nearby sprinklers, leading to overwatering in certain parts of the lawn. Often, the first sign of an alignment issue is dry spots where there should be moisture and wet spots where it should be dry.
Damage Causes
Water pressure issues may be caused by a leak somewhere in the waterline. When this is the case, any sprinkler heads downline from the leak will have a loss of pressure or fail to pop up and spray entirely. The problem is usually worse for those sprinkler heads furthest from the leak. Standing water in the lawn can also be a problem. Broken pressure regulators on the waterline are another common cause of pressure loss that, but this will affect the entire system.
Alignment issues can simply be the result of a misadjusted sprinkler head, such as one that was stepped on or bumped by a lawnmower. Broken sprinkler heads may also spray in the wrong direction, as may those that have debris like soil or dead grass stuck in the emitter.
Repair Solutions
A line leak will require locating the leak, digging up the damaged sprinkler line, and replacing it. Your irrigation service will use clues like boggy lawn areas and affected sprinkler heads to determine which line is leaking. Pressure regulators are placed on the line near their origin point, so these are much easier to replace.
A misadjusted sprinkler head can be readjusted. Most are equipped with an adjustment screw that makes this an easy and quick task. Damaged heads must be replaced, while clogged heads can be cleaned.
Contact a lawn irrigation service if you suspect issues with your system, like Giant Landscaping LLC.
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